In the garage conversion, having covered the ceiling with 4 and a bit sheets of 2400x1200x9.5, I decided to attempt to fill the joints in.
I used the paper tape and jointing compound (fill in seam with jointing compound - wet tape - cover joint with tape, then go over top again with jointing compound.) The day after I'd done it, though, the edges of the paper tape peeled away from the plasterboard, and rendered the jointing work useless. Any ideas what went wrong?
Cheers
JW
Guessing : still damp under tape? Tape adhesive didn't set before more wet stuff was put on top? Unequal drying. Vapour pushing its way out. Yep, lots of guesses. Short answer, I don't know.
Can't you get the woven tape over there? It is like old fashioned gauze bandages - wide-spaced weave - but stiff. The plaster squishes down through the holes in the weave. Once it's put there it never seems to go no-place, no-how. And strong, talk about strong, Trev!
A L P
There is no adhesive on the tape - and the instructions don't indicate waiting between the layers - so I filled, taped then went over again within ten minutes.
You can get it - it's called scrim tape I think. But if I use that, can I get away without plastering the walls/ceiling. I was rather hoping to simply dryline and join.
Cheers
JW
You may not need to tape the joints at all. You would if there was a floor over but you haven't so the ceiling joists should move.
Our "Gibraltar Board" - plaster board with heavy paper on both sides, which I suppose is the same as what you are talking about? - is made with each side having an indentation about an inch wide specially for taping and plastering at the joints. That is why people often "waste" board rather than have all those difficult cut edge to cut edge joins to contend with where there is no spare depth to put the jointing compound and tape and make a flat finish.
As for whether you can use scrim tape and not have to plaster the whole walls/ceiling, that depends a lot on how good your plastering is where you level up the screw/nails and the joins. This is the hard, slow, frustrating part of the job. Go crazy and hire a tradesman, that's my advice. It's not worth the wear and tear on yourself! You can have a nervous breakdown with far less stress and mess just from the normal frustrations of life in 2009 :-)
A L P
I'm more confused now...I thought that the taping/jointing was purely to make the ceiling 'all one piece'?
What is the significance of the joists moving?
Thanks
John
if someone is walking over a joisted floor it will of course move, so even if you have a perfectly flat skimmed plaster finish over the ceiling plasterboard, and even if the joints are tightly butting together I think you will find that sooner or later cracks will appear at the sheet joins. To get around this self adhesive scrim tape is stuck down along all the joins before plastering. As the tape is open weave the plaster will pass through and key to the plasterboard, the weave of the tape will be set into the hardened plaster and it will lock the skim across the joins so that cracks can't develop.
As your ceiling is purely that, and if you don't for example use it for heavy storage then the joists shouldn't move and scrim tape might not be needed. I only say that as it might make life easier for you as you are doing it yourself. The best solution though is to get a pro in as they will probably just tape it anyway and you will get a perfect finish to admire when the room is all finished.
Thanks - I'm beginning to come round to that idea - once the walls are on would be best I guess. Any guestimate of what a 2.5m * 4.9m room would cost to plaster the walls and ceilings?
JW
I think you are right - thanks.
JW
Well allow for a day's work + materials. The plaster you can get from Wickes and will minimal cost, that leaves 7 hrs @ whatever hourly rate- (=A325-=A30 at a guess), best just to get dialing!
Thanks - that gives me a good idea of what to expect.
JW
Two days unless there are deep gaps to fill, which there probably won't be unless the walls were a bit crooked to start with, then there's some building up and there is a limit to how deep a fill can be put in in one go. But supposing it's just joins and nails/screws, fill and smooth; leave to dry, sand - and if you want to paper that's that. If you want to paint there will probably be a skim coat to get the kind of evenness that won't show up in a subtle but unmissable difference in texture after painting.
I prefer to paper with lining paper and then paint on that. It gives a nice easy surface to work with and another thing, it's strong and it takes the assorted knocks and scratches of everyday life, furniture-moving and so on, whereas it's a horrible fact of life that the one place the sharp corner of a DVD player touches the wall when you're moving things around will be on a piece of plaster fill - and you'll get a scratch gouged into the wall :-( and then when you fill it and sand it back ever so carefully, and find the remains of the paint to touch it up.... ...the difference in surface will shriek at you for ever more :-(((
For papering I think lining paper is worth the bother too. When you come to take the wallpaper off there is no danger that bits of the plaster will come off with it. Yes, it's a bit more trouble, a bit more time, not a lot of expense because lining paper is cheap as chips, but it saves work in the long run. Not a consideration if you're planning to move before this paper/paint gets shabby or old-fashioned.
A L P
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