Services / Studwork & dry lining

Studwork and dry lining

New walls framed, boarded and taped ready for paint. Most of my week is this, and it is the part of a build that decides how everything after it looks.

Get a quote for this 07399 201558

Metal or timber frame · level 4 taped finish
Insulated, acoustic and moisture board · Cheddar and half an hour round it

Loft framed and boarded out under the rafters

A stud wall is quick to put up and slow to put right. If the frame is out, the boards follow it, and no amount of filler at the taping stage hides a wall that leans.

So the work goes in three stages and each one gets signed off before the next starts. Below is what happens at each, and the spec I work to unless your job asks for something different.

Three stages

Frame · Board · Tape

Timber studwork framed under the rafters

01Frame

Track fixed to floor and ceiling off a laser line, then studs at 400 or 600 centres depending on what is going on the wall. Metal for most partitions, timber where something heavy is being hung or the wall is carrying a door.

Noggins go in wherever a radiator, TV bracket, cistern or grab rail is planned, and I photograph the frame before boarding so you know where they are in five years.

Studs at 400 or 600 centres · plumb to 2mm over 2.4m
Noggins marked and photographed · metal or C16 timber

02Board

Insulation first if the room needs to be warm or quiet, and mineral wool between bedrooms is the cheapest improvement most houses can have. Then 12.5mm board, joints staggered and kept clear of the corners of openings, because that is where cracks start.

Moisture board in bathrooms, acoustic board where sound matters, fireline where the drawings or the building inspector call for it.

12.5mm as standard · joints staggered and off openings
Moisture, acoustic or fireline · screws set, not overdriven

NEEDED — a finished wall with a light held flat against it.
One photograph of a taped finish would carry this whole section.

03Tape and joint

Joints taped, filled and sanded in three passes, each wider than the last, so the finish flattens out instead of sitting proud in a band down the wall. Internal corners taped, external corners beaded.

Before I call it finished I hold a light flat against the wall and look along it, because that is how the decorator will find it and how you will see it once the sun comes round.

Three passes, sanded · level 4 finish as standard
Beaded external corners · checked in raking light

How it gets priced

Every job is quoted on what I find in the room. Height, access, what the wall has to carry and the state of what is already there all change the work, so nothing is priced off a photograph or a price list.

Every wall measured, listed and priced as its own line
Board type and insulation named, so you can see what you are paying for
Labour, materials and waste removal split out, not one lump sum
Fixed once you have it, unless you change the job

Asked most often

How long does one wall take?

Usually two days for a single partition: frame and board on the first, tape and first fill on the second, then back once it has dried to sand and finish.

Do you plaster over it?

Taped and jointed as standard, which is what most people paint straight onto. If you want it skimmed I bring in a plasterer I have used for years and it goes on the quote as a line you can see.

Will it be dusty?

Sanding is the dusty part. Sheets down, doorway taped up, vacuum sander on the pole. It is not nothing, but it stays in the room it belongs to.

Often booked alongside

Fire doors · Door hanging · Carpentry · Flooring

Tell me about the wall

Quotes are free, in writing, and fixed. Ring during the day or send the form and I will come back the same evening.

07399 201558 Send the form

Studwork and dry lining

Three stages

How it gets priced

Asked most often

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