France in Focus

I have always known that plasterboard has 2 sides, no revelation there, one for plastering and the reverse for decorating, albeit the decorating side will take a coat of thistle. Being as I am looking forward to boarding out a 7 x 5 metre room, walls and ceiling, I wondered if there was an alternative, normally I would put the tapered edge out and fill and sand down the joints and screw holes, so what is the result of putting square edge plasterboard and painting, emulsioning afterwards. Is there a way of filling the joints so they disappear or is it a case of lining paper, before painting. Just can't see the point in all that work in filling and sanding several times with the tapered edge out.

Isn't the tapered edge to take some tape that seals the gaps between the boards that is then skimmed rather than just to be skimmed so if a board shifts a tiny bit any crack doesn't extend between the boards as the tape is there?

@ Hughnique, my brother managed to do an excellent job using Fermacell for his walls see their installation instructions. Ceilings, always difficult: if you don't mind using deepl as your aid to translation there are two concise articles written by my friend in cyberspace, Christian. About a faux plafond and between les poutres.

I've been 'you tubing' cos we have to remove two rows of tiles (not the ceramic type same as the ones in the video below) from around the plasterboard wall in the kitchen ready for when my kitchen man arrives with my replacement worktops and I feel 'tiles of the unexpected' coming on There are lots of videos on YT which have been quite interesting - this one in particular - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have

Fermacell continued, translation from information sheet #1009:

<< Fermacell is a board material made of gypsum and paper fibres. The Fermacell plasterboard is used for, among other things, non-supporting partition walls. The seams between the panels are glued with Fermacell joint adhesive. This is why the glue is dabbed off with a putty knife after curing (approx. 24 hours). Then the seams and screw holes are finished and levelled out with Fermacell jointing plaster. For the finishing of this panel material, a good filling paint system should be used, which does not affect the absorption of the adhesive. A good filling paint system must be applied to finish this panel material, which removes the absorbency of the substrate and masks the joints smoothed out with jointing gypsum. >>

My advice is to learn how to tape and fill so carefully with a wide blade that there is little or no need for sanding. I can't plaster to save my life so have learned how to do the jointing so all it needs is a couple of coats of emulsion to finish.

Hotrodder wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 4:33 pm My advice is to learn how to tape and fill so carefully with a wide blade that there is little or no need for sanding. I can't plaster to save my life so have learned how to do the jointing so all it needs is a couple of coats of emulsion to finish.

I have been using Placojoint GDX enduit, and have possibly used similar products from other suppliers, but have found that shrinkage on hardening means that a second, and sometimes a third filling is necessary to get the filled joint level with the placo surface. It is however, very easy to sand.

BTW, for butt joints I now use 5 cm wide self-adhesive mesh tape, which I found in Mr Bricolage. It saves filling the gap first, as the enduit goes through it easily, and it doesn't slip out of place or wrinkle. I still use the paper tape for return joints.

Incidentally, WRT my post above, does anyone know of an enduit with less shrinkage, which is still easy to sand - or am I using too much water in the mix?

@ Nomoss, there is an enduit joint sans bande here in France. So far I never gave it a try, but have seen several artisans using it. There are also special Knauf products available, not everywhere. The closer you get to the German border, the wider the product range.

10 years ago, we had half our upstairs ceiling re-placed as part of an insulation project.
We decorated 2 rooms, painted the ceilings no problem. Then I was ill and no work happened for 7 years.
Well we’re finally back on the case, decided to decorate a room. Painted the ceiling.
Next morning, one line across the ceiling about 15cm wide, the paint had peeled off! It appears to be where the board has been jointed but there are other joints in the room which are fine.
(Please note my OH is hyper meticulous and won’t countenance a visible flaw in the ceiling)
Out came the pva and we had another go. Nope. Did it again.
Paint has been scraped off the bad zone and we are now trying a skim with very fine french polyfilla which will then be sanded, pva’d and painted again. There is no guarantee of success.
This buggeration factor has added a week to the project.
We may have to either apply a textured paint or paper the ceiling either of which are PIA’s
Our learning from this is the rest of the ceilings will be pva’d first!