Plasterboard ceilings in Batumi: frames, boxing, partitions

What we build from plasterboard in an apartment

In an apartment, plasterboard (drywall) is needed where something is hidden behind the finish or will have to be reached later: air conditioning lines, extract ducts, risers, cables to the lighting. It is dry work: unlike masonry and plaster, the frame and boards bring no water into the apartment, and only the filler in the joints has to dry. If you are not sure whether a room needs plasterboard or a stretch ceiling will do, read how the two differ by the sea.

The ceiling frame: hangers, profile, spacing

Around the perimeter we fix a perimeter track to the walls over sealing tape, then hangers to the slab, and the main profile on the hangers. We work out the hanger spacing from the load: lights, hatches and backing make the ceiling heavier, and then the hangers go closer together. Nothing heavy is hung on plasterboard at all. A chandelier, a projector and the indoor unit of a ducted air conditioner are fixed to the slab on their own hangers, and the board simply goes round them.

The boards go with the long side across the main profile. Every board end must land on a profile, and the ends in neighbouring rows are staggered by at least one profile spacing, so that the joints do not meet in a cross. We space screws no more than 15 cm apart and sink each head by about a millimetre without breaking the paper. Cut edges are chamfered so that the filler fills the joint to its full depth.

Access hatches to the air conditioning lines

We put a hatch over anything that will need opening one day: line joints, ventilation dampers, the filter and condensate pump of a ducted unit. Its size depends on what will be serviced and with what. A hand is enough to reach a filter, while a unit needs an opening it can be taken out through. The hatch frame is fixed to its own profile, not to the board, otherwise the cover goes out of true over time.

In living rooms we use concealed, paint-ready hatches: the cover opens with a push, and on the ceiling only a thin line gives it away. We mark the hatch positions on the ceiling plan in advance, together with the lines. How the lines for multi-split and ducted systems are routed is covered separately, and we build the ceiling around the finished layout.

Boxing, partitions and wall lining

A riser serves the whole building, so we build the boxing around it in a way that lets you reach the drain inspection opening, valves and meters through a hatch without breaking the finish. How bathroom boxing is soundproofed and tiled is covered on the page about toilet renovation.

We build partitions on stud profiles, with sealing tape at the floor and ceiling so that less sound travels through them into the slab and walls. A reinforced stud or a timber post goes into the door opening, otherwise a slamming door will crack the corners. For kitchen cabinets, a TV and a curtain track we fit plywood into the frame before boarding. If a partition needs to keep noise out, we price the two layers of board and the mineral wool together with apartment soundproofing. Lining on a frame straightens a crooked wall without wet plaster and leaves a gap for cables.

Joints, corners and junctions

We deliver the boards a day or two before installation and store them flat on a level floor: a board leaning against a wall bows over time. The frame goes up after the wet work, once the screed and plaster have given off their water, and the joints are filled when the apartment is no colder than +10 °C.

We fill the joints with filler and reinforcing tape and cover external corners with perforated corner beads. The junction between ceiling and wall is never filled rigidly: in a new building the slab and walls move differently, and a corner like that cracks along its whole length. We stick separating tape to the wall under the edge of the board: if the corner does open, it does so in a thin straight line that is closed with paintable flexible sealant. After that the ceiling goes on to skim coating and painting like an ordinary wall.

How much plasterboard ceilings cost in Batumi

A single-level plasterboard ceiling costs from 48 to 72 ₾ per m², and that is labour only: the frame, boarding and filling the joints. The profiles, boards and fixings add from 48 to 66 ₾ per m², full skim coating and painting another 42 to 54 ₾ per m², and in the estimate these are three separate lines. Boxing round a riser or pipe is priced by the linear metre, from 45 to 60 ₾ per metre.

Boxing with turns, a reinforced frame for backing, and concealed hatches cost more. A flat ceiling in a rectangular room with no lines costs less. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.

How we sign off the frame and the finished ceiling

We sign off the frame before boarding, because after that it cannot be seen. We check the plane of the main profile with a laser, the hanger spacing and the backing for lights and furniture. We photograph the frame, the lines above it and the hatch frames with a tape measure from the walls: these photos show later where the profiles run, so a curtain track or a new light is fixed into a profile rather than into bare board.

We look at the boarded ceiling with a lamp held along the surface. Our acceptance standard is a gap of no more than 2 mm under a two-metre straightedge, joints filled flush with the board with no bumps, and hatch covers that open and close without skewing. After painting we look at the ceiling again, in side light from the window.