Plasterboard everywhere in new builds

pieroabcd

Hi,
today I've seen a house that has plasterboard literally everywhere. The sound of the finger knock was unmistakable.
This house is a 2 floors, 10 years old mid terrace house. I expected to find bricks at least at the the sides, bordering  the neighbouring houses, but no. The agent told me that  there is a layer of bricks between the houses, but frankly I didn't believe her because I don't see the reason to create a triple layer plasterboard-bricks-plasterboard where you could use only bricks.... or I'm wrong and missing something?

I've also seen a much older house not far from there and it's literally all made of bricks, even though smaller.
I know that the drill here is location, location, location, but .. .really? Why trading quality for location? Is there some good reason that I'm missing why I should prefer a seemingly flimsy house over a solid one just to be 5 minutes closer to the station? I don't understand the reasoning.

societys_child

There will be bricks or sound insulation blocks between the houses.

The plasterboard will be normally fixed to the wall using "dab and dot" with plasterboard adhesive.

FaceHead

What the agent says seems plausible - that there is brickwork between the houses, with 2" timber battons on each side, packed with sound insulation and then plasterboard over the top. You knock it and here the 2" void. 

The sound insulation you're getting there is a good thing, and much better than old fashioned wet plaster on the brickwork. It may even be mandatory for new builds. It also mades wiring and rewiring much easier. 

tinytiddles

Our house is like this, definitely traditionally built but lots of plasterboard internally even on the external walls. Bottom line is that it saves time (and therefore money) to whack up plasterboard rather than skimming the walls with wet plaster that takes an age to dry. Also prevents some of the settlement / drying out cracking that happens which can only be a good thing for the owner.

Norman_Castle

pieroabcd said:

Hi,
today I've seen a house that has plasterboard literally everywhere. The sound of the finger knock was unmistakable.
This house is a 2 floors, 10 years old mid terrace house. I expected to find bricks at least at the the sides, bordering  the neighbouring houses, but no. The agent told me that  there is a layer of bricks between the houses, but frankly I didn't believe her because I don't see the reason to create a triple layer plasterboard-bricks-plasterboard where you could use only bricks.... or I'm wrong and missing something?

A friend had a 1970s mid terraced house. Either side was plasterboard-bricks-plasterboard . Front and rear walls were a mix of full width wood frames with either windows, doors or tiles. There was never any neighbour noise and the neighbours never complained about her regular mini parties.