Can we plasterboard onto housebrick?

Question

We need to replaster a small wall in a bedroom - 2m x 1m. The old plaster has crumbled away, leaving housebrick showing.

Can we plasterboard straight on to the brick, and can we wallpaper straight onto the plasterboard, or do we need to plaster the board too?

Answer 1

yes you can plasterboard onto brick...leave approx 15 mm gap for moisture to be drawn up...you fix it to battening

If you leave the cover on plaster board and prime it then wallpaper onto that

Answer 2

The best way is to have it replastered. It may seem an extravagance but if you own the house it is worth it -particularly when you come to sell it. Surveyors are often supicious (rightly) of such things. You also lose a little bit off the size of the room with the boards. My living room was done like this where a chimney breast was removed, and it is a nusance whwn it cam to putting up shelves etc.

That said if you go for the boards, they should be mechanically fixed by the way as well as dabs to comply with Building Regs (depending where you are). If your external walls are solid rather than cavity you need to be ensure that any cavity created by boarding can breathe, and use moisture resist grade. I would still have them skimmed rather than taped joints as that is usually noticeable in the finished job.

Answer 3

Just get the brick wall re plastered as that is the correct way and the job will be far better. If you put up plaster board then you will need to skim plaster that anyway. Wall paper might stick to it OK but it will never ever come off.

Answer 4

It might help to know that you can buy plaster board with finished surface - so previous advice 'dot-and-dab' would work and you would not need to 'skim'. You should seal the board with dilute 'pva' or 'size' before papering

Answer 5

You can put plaster board on a brick wall using the Dot and Dab method. Basically gluing the board with a purpose made adhesive..

P.V.A the wall first to help adhesion.

I would personally then have it plastered although you can paper on top of the board.

Answer 6

When you dot and dab the board on (plenty advice above what to do), don't forget to bang it on with a level to plumb and flatten the board up & down, left & right and diagonaly.

If you used a 2.4x1.2 board, the wall would be boarded in one piece so you could just paper it as you won't have any joins.

Answer 7

I'd get this plastered by a professional, it would be very difficult to make a satisfactory repair in the manner you suggest. It would be possible to use plasterboard to do the whole wall, but it needs to be skimmed with top thistle coat before papering, otherwise if you later removed the wallpaper, the paper cover of the board would come off too...

Seek some advice from a plasterer or builder, you may be able to apply a base coat yourself using a suitable product from B&Q, but top coating is for a professional!

Answer 8

Yes, dot and dab method as described above, but it's still a plasterers job to be done properly.

You need to seal it before wallpapering as in the future if you tear the wallpaper off half the plasterboad paper will come off with it.

I wouldn't render instead of plasterboard because it takes so long to dry out, but I would skim the plasterboard after rather than just seal it.

Answer 9

Yes you can. We had a problem with blown plaster, and when we took off the walpaper the plaster came off with the wallpaper.We were left with bare bricks in our lounge.

You just buy sheets of plasterboard, dot and dab the special bonding compound which is very strong, and push the boards into place. Not messy at all and much easier than plastering by hand.