partition walls: how plumb should they be?

[Stephen]

Hello,

How anal do I need to be when making a partition wall and using a spirit level?

I stripped some plasterboard off an existing wall, but notice that when I put a spirit level against the studs, the bubble is within the centre but touching the line on one side. (I have turned the level around to check it is not the level).

I tried to google what the lines on the spirit level mean, and I can't find a definite answer, but one that sounded right is that you should slope gutters with the bubble touching one line to give the correct fall. I think it said this was 2% but for a 2.4m high wall, that would mean the bottom would be almost 5cm out from the top!

I don't think I noticed the wall being that angled before but may be the plaster hid some of it? I am hoping to tile the wall, so I am concerned any deviation from true might be more apparent when the wall is covered in tiles.

Does the bubble have to be absolutely dead centre or am I trying to hard. What are the accepted tolerances?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Murmansk]

I presume you have the spirit level position vertically and are using one o f the vials that are position at right angles to the surface.

If you hold one end against the wall and move the other end of the level aw ay from the wall to the position where the bubble is perfectly central, the n look at how far the level is from the wall. If it's a tiny distance then fair enough, if it's a finger's width of something you know you've got a pr oblem!

Imagine the wedge-shaped gap between level and wall and how its bigger end would grow wider if you were to have a level that was six feet long.

[John Rumm]

Not massively. If it looks right, then it is right ;-)

If I am building a stud wall from scratch, then I avoid driving the nails holding the foot or head plate in place fully home until after its fully built (but not clad). That way you can pull the nails out enough, and tap the base or head of the wall over a bit with a large hammer should you need to.

The wall itself will not show a problem, but a corner may. The trick with tiles is to position them such that you don't get narrow strips of tile running into a corner - since those will show any error in the plumb of the wall far more than half or fuller tiles.

[ss]

I think sometimes we are too clinical. I remodelled a shower room a few months back and came on here for advice as the walls were all over the place, it was driving me insane. The advice given was `if it looks right then it is ok` so I followed advice and although if I use a spirit some walls are out of plumb it actually looks ok.

Its a balancing act if some of your walls were out of plumb before and you never noticed then dont fret about it. I take the view nowadays that I made an improvement, it may not be perfect but it is better than what it was.

[Brian Gaff]

Blimey, the walls in this house are all over the place and yes it can notice if tiles or lined pattererned wallpaper are used, but one gets used to it. Brian

[Stephen]

Sorry for the delay. I was busy at work and the DIY was postponed until the weekend.

I think that if I followed your advice, I would be finished in half the time! I suppose I need to be pragmatic, rather than perfectionist.

I was hoping to buy an 8' piece of timber, hold it plumb, and measure the gap to tell you.

I went to Wickes but I'm not sure their wood was any straighter than the wall!

I think that with the timber touching the wall at the bottom, the top is about a quarter of an inch away at the top. I could not measure exactly as I did not have enough hands and had misplaced my plastic packers.

Switching units, over the height of the wall that's 12/2400*100=0.5% Put that way, it doesn't sound too extreme. I will follow John's advice and try not to get small bits of tile near the edge to accentuate this.

Thanks again, Stephen.