Alignment and wall cladding with drywall is very often carried out during repair work in an apartment. As a rule, this operation involves fixing the GKL to a metal or wooden frame. But there are cases when it is easier and more profitable to fasten drywall to a wall without a metal profile and a wooden crate.
When can you do without building a frame?
It is recommended to fasten drywall sheets directly to the wall if it is relatively flat and the plane differences are no more than 5 centimeters. You can level such a surface with an adhesive composition. Installing drywall without crates has many advantages:
- GKL is easily attached to walls and partitions made of any material. All that is required is proper surface preparation. Meanwhile, it is rather problematic to fasten the profile to a wall made of foam block or aerated concrete.
- This cladding method significantly saves free space in the room: a frame made of a metal profile or a wooden beam “eats” at least 5 cm when finishing each wall. If drywall is attached to all 4 walls, then a small room will noticeably decrease in size.
- Savings: no need to buy profiles, as well as various connecting elements. Adhesives are much cheaper.
- Installation of drywall without erecting a frame is quick and does not require special professional skills.
Note! If the wall is very curved, you can not do without a frame. It will be expedient both from a technical point of view and from an economic point of view. Also, the crate is needed if it is planned to conduct insulation or soundproofing of the room, hide communications, place lighting elements under the drywall sheets.
If the crate is still required, but for some reason it is not possible to use a profile, in some cases it is allowed to be made from wooden beams. All the pros and cons of a wood frame, as well as the procedure for its installation, are written in this article.
Foundation preparation
In order for the plasterboard coating to last for a long time, it is necessary to treat the surface of the walls. It will prevent not only peeling of the GKL, but also the appearance of fungus or mold under it.
- If there is a significant layer of plaster on the walls, then it is better to remove it. You can leave a thin and firmly adhering layer. Any fragments whose reliability is in doubt should be shot down. Here details how to do this.
- Deep cracks must be widened with a chisel, cleaned of dust, primed and covered with a cement-based repair compound.
Advice. For the treatment of small cracks, it is convenient to use a sealant.
- The protruding sections are knocked off.
- The leveled surface is covered with a primer in two layers. Be sure to let each of them dry.
Having prepared the wall, you can proceed to marking its surface.
Markup, important points
This operation is carried out with a standard set of tools. You will need a level, a plumb line, a tape measure, a rule and a square. The laser level is very convenient, but it is not always possible to borrow it from acquaintances or friends, and buying it for one-time work is too expensive.
The following points must be taken into account:
- There are gaps between the ceiling, floor and drywall sheets. They are made in case of shrinkage of the house and prevent the gypsum board from warping. The gap between the sheet and the ceiling is 3-5 mm, the distance to the floor is 8-10. At the top, it is enough to draw a line marking the border of drywall, and from below it is more convenient to use gaskets of the desired thickness from chipboard or plywood.After fixing the drywall, they are removed, and the gaps are filled with mounting foam.
- One sheet may not be enough vertically for wall cladding. In this case, an additional line is drawn indicating the boundary of the entire GCR. As a rule, cut off fragments are placed on top, although the masters advise to fix whole sheets and halves in a checkerboard pattern.
- For the correct installation of the first plate, a vertical line is drawn with a plumb line in the corner of the room. All other drywall fragments will be displayed in a single plane with the first sheet, which is why its correct installation is so important.
How to fix drywall to the wall?
There are several methods for fixing GKL. The choice of a particular one depends on the condition and nature of the underlying surface.
- For a flat and smooth wall, you can choose any adhesive composition: a mixture based on gypsum or cement, foam or polymer mastic.
- For brick, unplastered walls, foam or mastic will require too much foam, and they may not provide reliable fastening. It is better to choose a composition based on gypsum or cement, which will fill all the cavities in the masonry.
- GKL is mounted on wooden walls using wood screws. It's as simple as hanging a shelf or a picture.
- The situation is more complicated if the wall surface needs to be adjusted in some plane. Here you will need beacons that set the correct position for the drywall sheet. They can be made from scraps of drywall or other improvised materials. The plate is fixed on the wall with screws, with their help the necessary adjustment of the position is also carried out. Subsequently, the cavity between the wall and drywall is filled with mounting foam.
GKL fastening on glue
After completing all the preparatory work, marking and laying the necessary communications, the adhesive composition is diluted according to the instructions. This is in the event that ready-made glue is not used, usually supplied in tubes for a glue gun.
For reliable fixation with the composition, it is not at all necessary to cover the entire back surface of the drywall: this will only lead to unnecessary costs. The glue is applied in separate cakes, placing them in a checkerboard pattern, and always with a strip along the entire perimeter of the sheet. The second option is a grid of strips placed at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other.
GKL tightly pressed against the surface of the wall. To evenly distribute the glue, you can use a wide rule or a board: gently draw several times over the area to be glued.
The setting time of the solution is about 30 minutes. During this period, you need to check the position of the fixed fragment and make the necessary adjustments. In the future, this will no longer be possible.
The adhesive composition can be applied directly to the wall surface. Some masters claim that it is much more convenient.
The adhesive mounting method is described in more detail. here.
Foam mounting
It is carried out in the same way as for the adhesive composition.
An important point: the foam expands when it hardens, so the sheet is fixed in the desired position for at least an hour. This can be done in two ways:
- with the help of various props;
- fixing the GKL with dowel-nails and placing strips of penofol under its surface as shock absorbers.
Mounting on mounting foam with void filling
Drywall can be attached to a curved wall using corrective substrates. But the presence of a void between it and the base surface is undesirable. For reliable fastening, it is better to fill this cavity with mounting foam. The algorithm of actions in this case will be as follows:
- Using the markup, we set the drywall sheet in the desired position.
- We make 10–12 holes in it, evenly spaced over the entire area.In this case, the drill outlines the recesses for the dowels in the wall.
- We remove the GKL, expand the holes in the ceiling and deepen it to the desired size, after which we hammer plastic dowels there.
- On the back side of the sheet, as shock absorbers, we glue strips of foam rubber or penofol of the desired thickness.
- We carefully fasten the gypsum board to the wall with screws with a wide hat. Another option is to use washers with regular screws. By releasing or twisting them, we expose the fragment to the required plane, controlling its position with the help of a level and using the created markup.
- In drywall, we make the required number of holes intended for pumping foam. We place them between the screws, the diameter of the holes is 7-8 mm.
- In order not to overdo it with foam, it is better to pump it with a special gun, adjusting it so that when pressed, an amount is squeezed out that is enough for a circle of 120–150 mm in diameter.
After the foam dries, you can unscrew the screws that fix the GKL. But professionals advise just drowning them into its surface by 1-2 mm.
Mounting on a wooden wall
The lightest possible option. GCR is fastened with wood screws. It is recommended to use a screwdriver to screw them in: this way the drywall crumbles less, and there is less chance of pushing it through if you correctly set the necessary force on the tool.
The position of the fixed sheet is adjusted by loosening or tightening the screws. If there are no chamfers on the GKL, then they are made using a paint knife or edge planer.
After facing the wall, the standard processing of the plasterboard surface is performed: seam reinforcement, sealing them and holes for self-tapping screws with putty, grouting and priming the entire area of the new wall. After the coating has dried, the base is ready for further finishing.
Ask all questions about the installation process in the comments - they will be answered by a finishing expert.
