Cladding a plasterboard wall with pallet wood

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

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As topic, we're cladding an office wall with pallet wood. It's plasterboard with paint. What's the best/easiest way of doing this? Couple of nails in each end of each plank? Wood glue? There's no services (leccy or water) behind the plasterboard.

In the past we've done a mini one which we've put two horizontal strips on and then attached each individual baton to those, but we'll lose too much depth on this particular wall by doing that and the pallet wood lengths will be too mishmashed to have just a few batons that cover all of them.
 
Screws into plasterboard is a terrible idea, never going to get a good fixing. Even if you drill through to the wall behind and use plugs, screws will also look crap unless you counter sink them then plug...lots more work. Will probably take an age to do it.

If the pallet boards were being fitted horizontally then a nail gun would be best as you could fix to the vertical batons behind the plasterboard...thats counting on the plasterboard being fixed to batons rather than dot n dab. I'm assuming @Russinating is wanting to fit them vertically so grab adhesive is really the only sensible option.
 
gingergundog said:
Screws into plasterboard is a terrible idea, never going to get a good fixing. Even if you drill through to the wall behind and use plugs, screws will also look crap unless you counter sink them then plug...lots more work. Will probably take an age to do it.

If the pallet boards were being fitted horizontally then a nail gun would be best as you could fix to the vertical batons behind the plasterboard...thats counting on the plasterboard being fixed to batons rather than dot n dab. I'm assuming @Russinating is wanting to fit them vertically so grab adhesive is really the only sensible option.
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Obviously you have to use wall plugs, can't just screw direct into plasterboard.

Glue will mean wall needs replastering when the wood is eventually removed.
 
How about 38x16mm battens? You will lose less than 40mm with the pallet wood on top. 38-50mm stainless brads will hold the boards. Although you would have to use quite a lot battens to catch the boards while having random joints. Or maybe sheet the wall with 11mm OSB to give the brads something to fire into? Paint the OSB dark as there will be the odd gap in the pallet wood.
 
danlightbulb said:
Obviously you have to use wall plugs, can't just screw direct into plasterboard.

Glue will mean wall needs replastering when the wood is eventually removed.
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Wasn't obvious from your post and its probably not the best/easiest way that the OP was looking for.

Who cares if it needs plastering if it gets removed? I imagine the pallet boards are going to be there for some time, id worry about that if/when the time comes.

Also bear in mind the whole board wont need to be stuck to the wall, a small amount of adhesive dotted randomly on each board would be enough. Might then be able to fill and sand the holes in the plaster if ever removed.
 
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Most people seem to do one of the following:
- Grab adhesive
- Nail gun
- Battons fixed to the wall
- Wallpaper that looks like pallet wood

Given this trend of putting cheap rubbish wood on a wall is going to fade and look very dated in the future I'd suggest avoiding grab adhesive as it'll trash the wall and need re-plastering. A nailgun will likely pop sections of the plaster but can probably easifill or similar afterwards, same with battons. The least damaging is to properly seal the wall and put up paper but I get that doesn't look quite as authentic.
 
Surely you'll have to fill and paint holes regardless of glueing or screwing? I'd go for plugs as I'd be a bit paranoid about glued items falling on people's heads.
 
Russinating said:
As topic, we're cladding an office wall with pallet wood. It's plasterboard with paint. What's the best/easiest way of doing this? Couple of nails in each end of each plank? Wood glue? There's no services (leccy or water) behind the plasterboard.

In the past we've done a mini one which we've put two horizontal strips on and then attached each individual baton to those, but we'll lose too much depth on this particular wall by doing that and the pallet wood lengths will be too mishmashed to have just a few batons that cover all of them.
Click to expand...

Firstly, you need to regularise the cladding (make sure it's all the same width) using a table saw.
One way of fixing it is to use a standard building adhesive and a second-fix-nail-gun with nails about half an inch longer than the thickness of the cladding. The nails just hold things in place while the glue sets.
It is preferable, though, to mark the suds on the wall and then use the nail gun with longer nails to attach the cladding to the studs. This means there is almost no damage to the underlying wall, should you decide to remove the cladding later.
 
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Russinating said:
To confirm, there's no studs behind anyway, just breezeblock. Don't know if that changes the nail approach?
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Ah, OK, so it's Dot and Dab, then...

Use a standard building adhesive and a second-fix-nail-gun with nails about half an inch longer than the thickness of the cladding. The nails just hold things in place while the glue sets.

Or..

Attach a framework using screws through the plasterboard in to the block, then nail the cladding to the frame. Again, this reduces the mess if you ever decide to remove it because all you end up with is the screw holes rather than glue all over the plasterboard.
 
Done! Took less than a day, all reclaimed wood, approx £200 total. Went with 4 horizontal batons behind in the end.

VcZEswW.jpg
 
While you have an empty space run a sander over it. Even if you are going for an industrial look. It will "grey" the wood out. You'll be able to put a nice finish over it and it will knock the splinters back.
 
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