On 14/08/2019 23:14, Ben wrote:
Hi all first post 👍🏻 Be nice!

Greetings!

Bought our house 4 years ago, its liveable but theres lots I want to do,
but with 2 kids 2 & 4 its hard to find the time.

Ripped out the bathroom around 2 years ago, really happy with how that
turned
out!
Next project is where I need some advice, Im starting on the living
room in
4 weeks, currently 6.0m long 3.6m wide.

The plan is create a living room approx 3.6 x 3.6, a study approx 2.4 x 2.4
the rest of the space will be a mid landing.

I started ripping plasterboard off to get a head start on the stud
walls, the
2 external walls were fine no issues, 1 external wall was fine, my first
issue
and questions are around the second internal wall which connects to our
neighbour, there are 2 boards deep, im assuming fireboard and plasterboard.

As I plan to re wire as I go and I also need to move a rad my questions
a

1. If I rip down all board, do I need to replace both? Or can I just
replace
fireboard? As I will be skimming Im assuming I could skim on top of
either.

Building regs will typically specify dual layers for extra fire
protection between dwellings. You also need to consider noise
insulation. Replacing both layers would be very sensible IMHO.

Have a look at approved document B:

https://assets.publishing.service.go...ouses_2019.pdf

2 if I need to replace both are they staggered to improve strength?

Yes - and flatness.

My second set of questions are around the stud walls, when the plasterboard
came off Ive found that where I need to set the stud wall Im not in line
with any of the existing uprights and there are no noggins in the wall,
there
are also pipes running where I plan on putting one of the walls, my
questions
a

1 will the new stud walls be strong enough with the base timber bolted
to the
concrete floor below and the top timber bolted to the ceiling joists, with
uprights at 400mm centres? I want to avoid putting noggins in the wall if
possible as it means I will have to unnecessarily re route some pipework to
get noggins in.

Fixed top and bottom only is not uncommon - many modern houses seem to
have stud walls inserted wherever without much attention to how they fix
to existing structures.

You can double up the studs at the adjoining end to add some extra
stiffness.

However I would be tempted to stick some more substantial noggings into
the ceiling and adjoining wall to create proper fixing points. They
don't need to be full stud depth though, so you should be able to dodge
the pipes with a nogging in front of or behind etc. You can always add
extra packing pieces to make fixing easier.

Alternatively you could add some stiff bits of Bat strap or similar to
allow the end stud of the new wall to be fixed to the two nearest studs
in the perpendicular wall. That's thin enough it can be lost in the
thickness of the PB.



--
Cheers,

John.

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