Replacing all internal plasterboard: 288m2 walls + 50m2 ceiling

EagerBeaverton

Wondering about the cost of getting the entire plasterboard redone in a standard four-bed housing estate house in north Leinster region. I understand figures will be ball park. It's something we'd be considering in ~3 months so to be honest I don't feel like wasting trades people's time asking for exact quotes just yet. Really just trying to see if it's in the region of possibility financially.

> Two story, four bed house.
> Walls are approximately 288m2
> Ceiling is approximately 50m2

By approximately I mean that's the max as I haven't subtracted the space taken up by windows and doors.

Water John

Desperate rough guide I have found for various works, is the cost of materials by 2.
How are you going to finish the board? Plastering is mostly labour.

EagerBeaverton

Water John wrote: »

How are you going to finish the board? Plastering is mostly labour.

It's a house we plan to move out of but then rent out so while we want it in good nick we're not thinking of it as our permanent house going forward so we'd really just be thinking of painting over the plasterboard.

We'd more than likely tear down all the existing plasterboard ourselves, so it would be labour + materials needed to put up new plasterboard.

It's semi-d so we'd likely go with additional insulated plasterboard on the side the other house is so probably better to say:

> 43m2 added sound insulated plasterboard for walls
> 245m2 standard plasterboard for walls
> 50m2 standard plasterboard for ceilings

All the walls are 2.45m (8ft) in height

D13exile

Sound insulated plasterboard? Or did you mean insulated plasterboard? The latter comes in different thicknesses depending on how much insulation you want, e.g. a slab of 12.5mm plasterboard with 20, 40, 50mm insulation etc on the back. You'd want to use this on exposed external walls and on the bedroom ceilings. Depending on the thickness of the board you use, expect to pay from €38+Vat for a 2.4m x 1.2 metre sheet. Ordinary 12.5mm plasterbaord is very cheap, say €6 for a similar sized sheet.

Its quite easy to do this work yourself btw. I did my own attic last year and after getting quotes of around €17,000 from builders, doing it myself cost just €2,500 in materials.

EagerBeaverton

D13exile wrote: »

Sound insulated plasterboard? Or did you mean insulated plasterboard? The latter comes in different thicknesses depending on how much insulation you want, e.g. a slab of 12.5mm plasterboard with 20, 40, 50mm insulation etc on the back. You'd want to use this on exposed external walls and on the bedroom ceilings. Depending on the thickness of the board you use, expect to pay from €38+Vat for a 2.4m x 1.2 metre sheet. Ordinary 12.5mm plasterbaord is very cheap, say €6 for a similar sized sheet.

Its quite easy to do this work yourself btw. I did my own attic last year and after getting quotes of around €17,000 from builders, doing it myself cost just €2,500 in materials.

I'd come across some plasterboard that was designed to reduce sound coming through (Gyproc SoundBloc) so was thinking that would be good along the side of the house attached to the neighbours - reduce the sound of their TV maybe!

The sticking point for me doing it myself was trying to get the taping done properly - I wasn't sure I'd do that too well and I know it's an important part of the job.

I've put up a stud wall in the past with plasterboard but didn't have to do the finishing touches so wasn't so sure I'd tackle a whole house too well by myself...

easypazz

EagerBeaverton wrote: »

Wondering about the cost of getting the entire plasterboard redone in a standard four-bed housing estate house in north Leinster region. I understand figures will be ball park. It's something we'd be considering in ~3 months so to be honest I don't feel like wasting trades people's time asking for exact quotes just yet. Really just trying to see if it's in the region of possibility financially.

> Two story, four bed house.
> Walls are approximately 288m2
> Ceiling is approximately 50m2

By approximately I mean that's the max as I haven't subtracted the space taken up by windows and doors.

Why are you doing this, sounds like an enormous amount of work?

All skirting, architrave etc. would need to be replaced. Often comes out split and when it goes back it wouldn't fit the same, so you will need new stuff.

All sockets, light switches etc. will need to be removed, and refitted differently.

All material disposed of.

All the floors would be destroyed and need to be redone.

All fitted units, wardrobes, sanitry ware etc. might need to be ripped.

Everything in the house will need to be removed and stored, a big job in itself.

Paint over the plasterboard? If you ever go to sell it then this will be a major negative.

I'd take a stab and say to do it properly, plastered, painted, finished right €40K.

lemonkey

Ball park figure for you based on a real 4 bed house (298m2) with current Munster Rates. Excl. outside plastering.

€8,364.00 Incl VAT just for labour. (Slabbing, skimming, traditional plaster).
€2,500.00 Incl VAT approx. (complete guess based on the area. I have yet to work it out).
€4,000.00 Incl VAT for painting. (Ceilings & walls).

Based on all ceilings, all internal walls (stud walls plastered boarded) and internal block walls are traditional plaster.

Excludes:

Ripping off existing plasterboard/finishes.
Alterations to 2nd fix carpentry (Skirtings, Architraves).
Alterations to Sanitary Ware
Alterations to Mechanical (Radiators, pipes..etc)
Alterations to Electrical (Sockets, switches, lights..etc).
Air tightness membrane
Dry Lining
Insulation between studs.
Fire Rating
Protecting floors (very hard to achieve if you wanted them protected).

If you have internal block walls you shouldn't have to plasterboard them. If your house was like my example, you could take about €3,000+ off the above prices (for traditional plaster, materials and painting).

D13exile

EagerBeaverton wrote: »

I'd come across some plasterboard that was designed to reduce sound coming through (Gyproc SoundBloc) so was thinking that would be good along the side of the house attached to the neighbours - reduce the sound of their TV maybe!

The sticking point for me doing it myself was trying to get the taping done properly - I wasn't sure I'd do that too well and I know it's an important part of the job.

I've put up a stud wall in the past with plasterboard but didn't have to do the finishing touches so wasn't so sure I'd tackle a whole house too well by myself...

With regard to soundproofing, this is almost impossible to get right. While you may block off the walls, sound travels through the cavities like the ceiling that you can't insulate without ripping up the floorboards.

I've a garage conversion on the side of my three bed semi that was done on the cheap before I bought the house. This room is always 4-5 degrees colder than the rest of the house. I made an access hatch to get into the roof space above this room to lay several layers of Knauf insulation (which helped), but it still is a cold room. My next project is to strip this room back to the bare walls, taking off the plasterboard (just dabbed onto the cavity blocks with no insulation between the plasterboard and the external blockwork), taking up the floorboards and insulating between the joists as it is a suspended floor over a void (again done on the cheap instead of pouring concrete with a dpc), then putting insulated plasterboard on the walls and the ceiling. I'll plaster it then and relay the laminate floor. Should take a week.

With regard to taping joints, this is easy to do (you tube is your friend). There's a ready made mix you can use and I used paper tape instead of mesh. The trick is to have a selection of taping knives (they're like flexible wall paper scrapers). Use the slimmest to lay the first bed of mix along the join. Run your tape down this mix and use the taping knife to squeeze the excess out and to bed the tape in. Then get a wider knife and lay another layer of mix over the tape. When it's dried, lightly sand and using a larger again knife, lay another layer of mix over the join and let dry and then sand. Some people then go and decorate over this but I plastered over the lot and my seams are invisible.

None of the seams I taped in my attic have reappeared unlike some of the plasterboard downstairs that have evident cracks along the joins that I'll have to tape and plaster over when I'm redecorating. .

Water John

The big advantage of taping and skimming the joints is that one can paint the wall/ceiling once it dries, in 24/48 hours.

D13exile

Water John wrote: »

The big advantage of taping and skimming the joints is that one can paint the wall/ceiling once it dries, in 24/48 hours.

Very true and much faster than plastering and waiting for it to dry. However it is far less forgiving if done wrong and your seams will always be visible. Depends on how picky you are about your finish or whether you can turn a blind eye to visible taped joints/different paint finish over the taped joints etc. I'd go nuts looking at them tbh (my OCD kicks in when I see something that needs to be fixed!). Thats why I ended up plastering my entire attic and the walls leading up to it. Took a while, messy and very tiring but it is a good clean job now, smooth walls and invisible joints.

EagerBeaverton

Cheers for the info all.

Few bits related to the odd suggestion and query.

House is 40+ years old and the platerboard is showing it in places - some areas are warped from previous tenants keeping a clothes horse in the area and drying clothes, other areas there are cracks between the boards.

The ceiling is the one area I definitely want to get done as it's stipple and it looks god awful to me - I don't understand how that was ever something that was desired.

I don't believe I'd do a good job of plastering over plasterboard so don't think I'd manage the DIY aspect beyond putting up the plasterboard itself.

Was thinking of just redoing the whole thing if the price was right but it's probably a bit over budget so might look to get it fixed up in the worst areas.