Hi there ,hope someone can give me some advice on do's and don't's. I am currently ripping down all my plaster and lath ceilings and intend to replace with plasterboard using drywall screws to fix. Can anyone recommend the thickness and type of board I should be using and whether I need to support the long edges with extra noggins. TIA Steve
1/2"
Heh! "whether I need to support the long edges with extra noggins".
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
9mm is fine unless the ceiling needs to provide some fire protection for the rooms above. Foil-backed adds a little thermal insulation (but not enough to be useful by itself). It also provides a vapour barrier, but it's very rare that anywhere near enough moisture will go through plasterboard ceilings to cause problems on the other side. Large thick sheets are heavy to handle.
You should ask your plasterer what he prefers. On unsupported edges perpendicular to joists, one way is to leave a gap between boards of around half the thickness of the board. When plastering, plaster is forced right through to ooze out the back, and when set, this very effectively bonds the board edges together.
Probably a bit late but you could have saved a lot of mess by fixing starpping to the joists through the exiisting ceiling and fixing the p/board to them with screws. Thats what was done several years ago in my kitchen and it was just tape joined and painted and it looks fine .
Stuart
I was about to write in about this and then read Stuart's mail which said exactly what I was going to say - which then again says why in the hell am I writing this (?!!) except that one of the problems the OP will in all likelihood run into is that the plasterboard ceiling will be distinctly uneven as the old ceiling joists will not have been all that accurately machined or laid and the lath and plaster will have taken out those irregularities due to the plaster's thickness.
That is the advantage of re-strapping as a level base can be made. I would suggest to the OP that he my have to pad out some of the joists to get a reasonably level surface to put the plasterboard on.
Rob
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