4-LOM wrote:

ell, get teh stove in, light it, and nail a small piece of batten to the
hottest part of teh wall, and see if it chars. Then nail a bit of
plasterboard ovet the top and see what that does. If its obvious that
ist getting too hot, use multiboard. If necessary use sapcer strips
betwen the main board and the batten to increase insulation.


If it definitely IS too hot and I have to use multiboard, how should I
fix it? If I use metal screws or nails, won't these conduct the heat
right into the battens?

Also, what to do about joints? Where it meets the normal plasterboard
will necessarily be at a safe distance but there will almost certainly
be a corner join between 2 multiboards which is not at a safe
distance, so presumably joint tape is out. And if I don't seal it
somehow that could be an easy way for heat to get through and melt the
DPM. Aaarrghh! it's all so complicated...

Or am I just being paranoid?


I think you are being too fussy.

The point of using masterboard etc. is to add a little more fire barrier
and insulation. If the wall is getting that hot, then nothing short of
cast iron will be good enough anyway.

All you are really concerned about is not having e.g. bare painted wood
near the fire. That will bubble smoke and char. Stivking sud behind
plasterboar will take a fair bit of heat, up to the point where the
board starts to crumble. The wood should be fine up to thatpoint.

Masterboard etc is not so much something that does any better than
plasterboard in normal terms, but simething that, in the event of a
serious fire, or total overheatuing of your fire, will protect the wood
longer, becaus it maintains physical inegrity at higher temps aywy.

But by the time you get that hot, any painted plasterwork is going to be
seriously blackened.

To summarise. If it gets that hot round teh stove, a paint fih is not
going to survive, in all probability: Use a metal plate screwed down or
smething.

If it doesn't get that hot, plasterboard will outlast the paint its
covered with, but mulitibard will outlast that in a fire.