More DIY on the bungalow...

[Tim Watts]

Lots of photos of plasterboarding with the help of a mate - the carpentry is his.

This is the 70s dormer conversion of a 50's bungalow. The flat roof is not very flat, so after adding 50mm celotex under the rafters in addition to the 50 that's between, I decided to hang new 2x2" battens crossways to the rafters.

I chose 3x6' PB sheets for ease of handling and set the battens at 450mm centres.

Battens are held to rafters using 6mmx150/180mm SPAX screws (depending on how much gap is left). Flame packers used on every 2nd/3rd screw to prevent batten from lifting. The gap between batten and celotex varies from 0-40mm!!

That worked well as the plasterboard is now nice and flat, albeit different heights on the two ceilings, but that's not noticeable with the big beam running down the middle.

The resulting void will be extremely handy for lighting cables adn despite the fact we have trimmed 4" off the ceiling height, it is still plenty high enough.

Side walls will get the batten treatment with 3x2" wood well fixed to the structure top and bottom. One is 6x2" so I can bolt a TV to it.

Likewise this void holds conduit running to the ceiling and leaves space for a 35mm backbox in front to demark a cable zone.

Just off to put a few sheets on single handed now :)

[Tim Watts]

And have just done a couple, I am *really* glad I chose 6x3' sheets and not 8x4.

Very much more manageable - no disadvantage for me, though if you were doing a full wall, 8ft would have some merits.

Something like 15% more expensive, but utterly worth it :)

[RJH]

With you there! I did manage a couple of 8x4 with the use of some purpose built props. But that was not a pleasant experience.

I did notice that the plasterers used lots of small pieces to do some ceilings - quite surprised by that.