Boarding a new build at Aldwick Bay
Our six bedroom new build at Aldwick Bay, just west of Bognor Regis town centre, shows how dry lining fits into a whole-house job. The loft was tacked with plasterboard, and so were the first floor partitions and ceilings, fixed to the timber framing ready for plaster. The ground floor and the first floor external block walls were solid plastered instead, and then every wall and ceiling in the house was given a two-coat skim. You can see the finished rooms on our projects page. The split is typical of a modern house: boards where speed and a light structure suit, solid plaster where walls need to take heavy fixings. Read more about the solid side on float and set plastering in Bognor Regis.
Loft rooms and upward extensions
In the inter-war and post-war suburbs that spread west and north-west of the old town and up towards North Bersted, converting the loft is often the most practical way to gain a bedroom. A loft room needs more than boards on rafters. The slope and the walls are insulated, typically with Celotex-type rigid boards between and under the rafters, and the floor between the new room and the storey below needs the right fire separation. Pro Finish tacks and skims the room, fits insulation as the boards go up, and uses fire rated boards where the layout calls for them. Getting insulation in at boarding stage is far easier than adding it later.
Converting older houses into flats
Bognor began as a resort, and the county's historic survey of the town records nineteenth-century terraced lodging houses near the seafront, such as Park Terrace. When a large older house like that is divided into flats, two questions come up every time: how do you stop noise between flats, and how do you separate them for fire? Sound proofing combines denser boards, insulation in the voids and careful sealing of every gap and penetration. Fire proofing relies on fire rated boards and correct detailing at junctions. For landlords and builders, we can line and board the new layout and finish it ready to decorate.
Levelling ceilings and lining cold walls
Metal frame (MF) ceilings are useful in older Bognor houses where the original ceiling has sagged or where joists are out of level. A suspended steel grid is fixed below the old ceiling, levelled, and boarded, leaving a void for cables, pipes and insulation. Metal stud partitions do a similar job for walls: straight, light and quick to put up when you are reconfiguring a floor.
Solid-walled houses can feel cold, and lining the inside face of the external walls helps. Insulated plasterboard can be bonded to masonry with dot and dab, or fixed to battens, then skimmed. If the outside of the house is changing anyway, external insulation is worth comparing; see external wall insulation in Bognor Regis. Rock wool and EPS are other options depending on the wall.
What to sort before the boarders arrive
- Decide where sockets, switches, lights and radiators will go: everything is easier before the boards go up.
- Check whether the work needs Building Regulations approval. Loft conversions and flat conversions normally do, and building control will want to see insulation and fire separation before they are covered.
- Make sure any damp in an external wall has been dealt with before it is lined over.
More on the service itself is on our plasterboarding and dry lining page, and the full list of what we offer locally is on the Bognor Regis page. Call 07824 165672 for free, no-obligation advice.
