How do you plaster over interior brick walls?

[MitchellMc]

Fixing plasterboard over a brick wall is a project that you can easily achieve.

You’ll need to start by fixing furring strips over the brick wall which you’ll then fix the plasterboard onto. This ensures the plasterboard is never actually touching the brick wall, whilst also allowing you to hang items of it later due to the cavity.

Take your timber studs and apply a bead of construction adhesive to one side. Adhere these to your wall at 450mm centres.

Make sure to have enough room at the top and bottom of the studs so you can install horizontal top and bottom plates. These are needed for fixing the top and bottom edges of the plaster board off to.  

Once the studs are in place you’ll need to drill through them and the into the brick behind with a multi-material drill bit. Locate these holes down the length of the studs every 450mm. Flat head Dynabolts can then be used to permanently fix the studs into the wall.

Once you have you timber frame attached securely to the wall you’ll then find this step-by-step guide useful: How to plasterboard a stud wall.

Bunnings shares popular projects from the Workshop community on Instagram and Facebook every Workshop Wednesday. This question was submitted by a Bunnings customer via Instagram.

[Handy2]

There's an easier way:

Put dabs of adhesive on the brick work and fit the paster sheets to it

OR

Put dabs of adhesive on on the vack of the plaster sheets and stick to brick wall.

1)You can use plaster for adhesive: much cheaper

2) As well, you can nail sheets to wall: run chalk lines along (horizontal) mortar joints and nail sheet there so sheets are straight till adhesive dries. Use galvanised nails to avoid rust stains bleeding through after painting. Space nails about 450mm to ensure sheets stay flat.

[EricL]

Hello @Handy2

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your ideas on how to plaster over brick walls.

Fitting plaster sheets is a quick way of covering up your old brick wall and using galvanized nails is definitely the way to go if you don't want to see any rust blooms on your plaster wall. Nailing or glueing are certainly good options when it comes to attaching the plaster sheet to an existing brick wall.  

It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge and experience to share with the community, we look forward to reading more of your posts soon.

Eric

[Handy2]

PS: You can make it easier still by running the sheets vertically:

1) Put some plaster sheet off cuts against wall on the floor (so sheets won't touch floor)

2) Cut sheet to room height (less off cuts at bottom and small gap at top

3) Lean bottom of sheet  on off cuts and push against wall - make sure adhesive is on sheet

4) Mark mortar coursed on sheet with chalk line - every fourth or fith course will do

5) Nail sheets to mortar

Much easier this way as you don't have to have one sheet on top of another; you'd probably need help for this for a long sheet and more likely to have a mishap fitting, especially if you need a third narrow sheed at the top to cover the gap below the ceiling.