Today my goal was to start hanging the new layer of plasterboard over the old walls. The reason for this (as you can tell from the pictures!) is that the existing walls are old, nasty and horribly wonky. Not only are they wonky, but they are covered in white wallpaper...apparently in the 1970's, there was a fad here in London to "paper" walls rather than paint them. It makes no sense to me, but I've heard from friends who tried to peel it off (when doing their own DIY renovations) that it was a miserable and difficult thing to do. Having had our share of drama on this project, I thought it best to avoid that...
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| The existing, old walls |
In speaking with builders and our building control officer, I had learned about a technique called dry-lining.This technique hangs new sheets of plasterboard onto old uneven walls using dabs of plaster adhesive. When done properly, these dabs hold the new boards far enough off the old walls that you can create a straight, flat surface without being hassled by the old surface...a perfect solution!
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| Looking down the wall |
In researching how to do this, it became apparent that one of the most critical aspects would be to locate the line of the new surface and make sure it will be straight and level. This may sound easy, but it's not - particularly in an old building where nothing is straight. You basically have to find the point on the old wall that sticks out the furthest, and then set a string line from that.
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| Holding a straight edge to one of the old walls - the light coming through shows how uneven it is |
In doing this, one of the first things that became apparent was how wavy the old walls were...in all directions. Not only did the surface bow along the vertical, but it also moved in and out along its length.
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| Checking the vertical level of the wall (you can see the wall bowing away here) |
I soon realized that the string line was actually too accurate! Because of an imperceptible shift in the old wall, it turned out we would lose almost 3 inches to achieve a perfectly straight surface. It may not sound like much, but in a small space...everything counts! So I ended up taking off my "architect hat", putting on my "builder hat" and "cheating" a bit by adding my own shift to the line so as to retain those precious inches. The shift was hidden along the edge of a window so it would be imperceptible to even the sharpest eye.
Because all of this took so long to work I ended up not hanging any boards today, but at least with the string line set, I can start first thing tomorrow.
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| Setting the string line - the new plaster boards will stop at that line. |
