Plasterboard thickness for ceilings

[James W]

I have plasterboarded my ceiling with the 4 or 5 mm stuff. It is screwed onto battons I had attached to the existing ceiling. It is fine in most places, however at its worst parts you can push it in and it bends in. Will I need to redo the whole thing with the thicker plasterboard? Or will the skim coat a plasterer will apply be OK? The ceiling is fairly high and in a bedroom so I dont expect many people to be pushing and prodding it.

Thanks in advance

James

[David]

Standard is 9 mm for ceilings

D

[Terry]

Learn something all the time! Didn't even know one could get 4-5 mm plasterboard (roughly quarter inch?). Thirty years ago, here, the most commonly used (residentially) was three eighths (9mm). Now half inch (12mm) is standard for just about everything, cos of 'fire rating'! Ceilings usually strapped every 12 inches but occasionally every 16 inches. Rather than take down the existing could James just put up another layer of 4-5 mm (or perhaps better, 9mm.) or would it sag? I gues it would need about 5 to 8 sheets to do typical room ceiling? What would that cost? Terry.

[BigWallop]

Wow !!! 4 or 5 mm thick ? You've been duped. That's not plaster board, it's thick wall paper. The most common today is 12 mm thick, and for a ceiling to be fire retardant if it has a dwelling above, it needs two layers of the stuff.

Why did you put battens across the joists ? The plaster board would have been easier fixed to the joists themselves with noggins (dwangs) put in between the joists at the ends of board.

Sorry to say but, to me it sounds as though it is all wrong and needs doing again properly.

[BigWallop]

This might help a bit:

[BigWallop]

I knew I had it somewhere:

shows an older method of fixing with wide head nails, but today you can get drylining screws and a drill bit attachment that does the job in half the time. Hire one.

is also advisable to have someone hold the other end of the board while you make the fixings or make a brace from a long enough length of timber with a wide cross member on the top to jam under the board at one end while you do the fixing at the other.

I said in my first reply. If there is a dwelling above you, then you need to fix two layers of 9 mm board to make it fire retardant enough for them to be able to escape from danger when they've just woken up out of a sleep.

good luck with it, and I you don't have to much hassle with it.

[jonathan]

I did my first ceiling at a friends house, he's called Warren and just about knows how to bang a nail so I get a LOT of pratice at his house before I do mine. After strugling to nail up the plasterboard I sent him off to Wickes to buy some dry lining screws and it went up in no time at all. What I really want is one of these

but I don't think SWMBO will give budgetry approval so I just hire one and have a few days fun instead.

Cheers Jonathan

[chris French]

Yep, bit less in fact.

Though I didn't know PB that thin was available either, I've never ever seen it.

Or do you mean something else James?

12 mm is pretty common now, though so is 9.5 mm as well.

To answer James, no if it moves then plastering won't help. I would say that at the very least you need to overboard with 9.5mm board.

[William Joones]

I plasterboarded our bedroom ceiling at the weekend. I used 12mm as the gaps between the battons I used was about 18inch on average and I didnt want any sagging.

The chap at Travis Perkins said 9mm would be fine in 12inch centre battons.

As for your problem - you could unscrew the plasterboard you have put up (assuming you havent filled the joints yet) and put some more battons up. Then reattach the plasterboard. That would reduce the chnace of sagging and would be cheaper than new plasterboard.

Will

[BigWallop]

That's not to bad a price for someone who'd use it everyday, but it's just outside my price range for the occasional bit of lining work. Wonder if its handy for fixing back boxes, brackets and light fittings (?)

[jerrybuilt]

Sounds like a recipe for disaster (collapsing ceilings, anyway). The big trouble with screwing PB onto ceilings is that in a lot of cases the operator over-tightens the screw, so the head pops through the outer layer. I generally find a better job is done by anyone 1/2 competent using nails, and quicker!

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[James W]

I have just measured up again and it is 9mm!! Stop laughing at me, it was late and I was tired :-)

So, will this be OK to skim plaster?

[chris French]

Yeah, but they were probably 'pros'.... :-)

I've screwed up plasterboard on three ceiling's in this house I won't say that no screws were screwed in to far, but it would certainly only be the odd one. My ceilings are fine.

I find it quite easy with a cordless driver, once it's set on appropriate torque setting to set the screws just right.

There are easy ways of buggering up most jobs, just because some people are to incompetent/ or ignorant to do a job properly does not mean there is anything wrong with a particular technique.

I find screwing easier and just as quick, In fact doing the job single handily it's much easier as I can screw in with one hand

[BigWallop]

Not if there is that much movement in it. Any movement of even a few millimetres is enough to crack the skim coat.

[James W]

Thanks for your tips guys,

I think I am going to pull down the boarding and add extra battons where needed.

James