help with plaster board

Hello, this is my first post. But I've been lurking and searching for
some time. Just bought a flat and it needs some DIY-loving. I've never
tried to do most of the things I want to do, so you'll probably see
several panicky posts in the next few weeks.

Anyway, to start off, how should I repair the plasterboard wall that I
destroyed trying to knock tiles of it? The board is fixed to fairly
lightweight galvanised studs, and the cavity is insulated with some
sort of loose fibre.

You might not need to repair it at all.
What finish do you want on it finally?

Probably just paint. Maybe wallpaper.

How damaged is it? Just the surface pitted, or are the sheets
fractured through?

Sheets are fractured through in places. The damage varies according to
whether the paper on the outside of the board stayed in place or
whether the tiles took the paper with them when they went. Where the
paper is torn the plaster board underneath is totally soft and
crumbly, which makes me think that the damage is probably pretty bad
even where the paper is intact.

Get a foam gun for about =A320 and fill the hole with foam. About a
cartridge or less should be ample -though a picture will be more
illuminating. Then replace the tiles or PVA the wall and plaster (or
whatever) over it.

If a large proportion of the wall is in need of attention, then the
simplest repair might be to acquire some 9mm taper edge plasterboard,
and some longish (say 40mm) dry lining screws and just board over the
lot, screwing through the exiting board into the studs. You can then
make good with some scrim tape, and plaster board joint filler. Once the
filler is sanded you will have a perfect painting surface. As a DIY job
this does not require any particularly hard to master skills.

I intend to:

1. cut out the damaged section(s) by cutting vertically between studs.
What should I use to make these cuts? A jig saw?

If going this route, then dry wall saw is good for plunging into
plasterboard and cutting bits out:

You could do. You may need to space it off from the wall to avoid the
blade digging into the plasterboard on the other side.

If you are only removing a section, then you will need to cut to the
side of the stud rather than attempting to cut down the middle of it.

Then obtain an additional length of stud and screw it to the existing
one from the side, making sure that the front face, when a piece of
board is laid on top of it, is perfectly flush with the existing
remaining wall.

There are a few decisions to make and tricks that can be done to make
later stages easier, largely based on how you are going to finish the
wall.

- One option is to get a plasterer in to skim the board after it has
been fitted. This is generally quite inexpensive. It *can* be a DIY
job but takes most people a lot of practice - hence may not be worth it
unless you are going to do a lot or are a diehard. You can paint,
paper or tile this as you like.

- Another is to tile again. For this, you can just cover the joints
with some jointing tape and do a quick skim over them with some
jointing compound and a wide filling knife (or not bother).

- If you are going to paint or paper, then you can do jointing of the
boards with paper or glass fibre tape and then cover it with jointing
compound. Generally it takes three goes with successively wider
jointing knives, feathering the edges. This is a lot easier to do
than it sounds and you can easily sand the surface to complete the job.

You can save work by orienting the boards suitably. For example,
let's say you plan to tile to a certain height and then paint or paper
above. Typically a wall height is around the length of a sheet of
plasterboard, or a bit less. If the tiling is a bit above half way up
the wall, you can have the sheet horizontal instead of vertical and
then the joint to the next sheet will be under the tiles.

2. screw replacement sheets to studs. Presumably I will have to drill
through the board into the stud, and then screw into this. So what
size and type of drill bit and screws do need? And can I use this same

You can buy various kinds of drywall screws. The most common ones are
for wooden studs, but you can get them for metal as well - they have
sharp points to cut into the stud directly. The screws have a bugle
shaped head especially designed for attaching plasterboard.

The recommendation (in my drywall book) is to put the fixings in at
400mm apart, certainly not greater than that.

Some screws are supplied on plastic bands for use in a collated
screwdriver. These are used in the trade and you can rent them,
although they are more common in the U.S. than in the UK. Unless you
are doing a large area or several rooms, these aren't worth it - a
cordless screwdriver will work very well.

The idea is to drive the screws in such that the flat heads are just
below the surface, but not crushing the board. You then cover them
with a quick skim of compound.

type of screw (inot the metal studs) to hold kitchen wall cabinets up?

There is no need to drill plasterboard as such - you can push just about
anything through it!

Not really. They are a bit too small and too short. I would get
some longer self tap screws.

Better still, since the plasterboard is off on the other side, you
would get better fixings by attaching some wooden noggins horizontally
between the studs and screw through the plasterboard into those.

There is some wiring between the studs which of course I have isolated
by removing the breaker. I will probably take the opportunity to
relocated some of this.

Two things here. Cables should only be run vertically or
horizontally from sockets and switches, never diagonally. You can run
them in a space 150mm wide from the corner of a wall or horizontally in
a space 150mm down from the top of a wall. You must not use the space
150mm up from the floor.

Where passing cables through metal studs, grommets should be used to
protect the cable.

This is in the kitchen of a flat built, I think, late 1980s. I'll same
my questions about slate tiling for another thread :)