Renovating a plasterboard wall

[dwtowner]

Hi all,

I am helping to set up a pre-school. We have found a room in which to site the pre-school, but it needs some redecoration work before it is suitable. I have put a photo of it up here:

of the work is fairly simple - painting, curtains, and so on - but in some places the plasterboard on the lower part of wall (below the brown wooden rail in the photo) has been broken through. This has been patched up in some of the damaged places (just to the right of the door in the photo you can see a lighter patch where it has been repaired), but I want to try to make a better job of the repair, and to make the other bits of plasterboard more resilient to the possible damage that the pre-school's occupants may inflict upon it!

My initial thought is to fix 6mm plyboard sections in place over the top of the plasterboard. This would hide the damaged plasterboard, and also give a more resilient finish. Would that work? Does anyone have any other ideas? I want to keep the cost down as much as I can.

thanks,

dan.

[NOSPAMnet]

It doesn't look bad ...assuming that it is plasterboard then I'd just be inclined to tidy it up by fixing ( if necessary) those parts already repaired ,sanding down and either painting directly on to the PB or putting lining paper up on the lower section and painting that with emulsion and painting the top section as well..it's hard to tell how good or bad the paint is on the top part . Unless the kids are total monsters then they are hardly likely to do any damage unless you allow them to .Plasterboard needs a pretty hard kicking etc before it will split.

What was the room used for before ?..I'm guessing you have checked out the "Elf 'n Safety issues

[Bob Mannix]

For a pre-school, I would be tempted to fit some form of easy-wipe melamine panels up to the dado rail. For a pre-school/nursery, there will be various H&S issues (eg the exposed tubes will probably need diffusers over them, there will have to be two exits for fire escape, other fire measures, access to sufficient toilets/washbasins suitable for toddlers - all before a licence can be granted. I would contact your local authority. It may be an unpalatable fact, but it's often better not to start up than to start up and be shut down!

[meow2222]

pre-schoolers are unlikely to break through PB, repair should be enough. Or put posters over the holes.

NT