Stud or block walls upstairs

mrsWhippy

Hi,

Just copped on that our upstairs walls are stud (on our plans), rather than masonry. I assumed as we will have a concrete slab first floor, that all our walls would be masonry upstairs and down.

What are the arguments for stud walls, any reasons other than price to go with these?

Cheers

alan partridge aha

I have concrete ceiling and block walls upstairs, I defo would go with block, better noise insulation, easier to hang things etc. Maybe there is some reason they have stud walls on plans dunno why though.

Gumbo

mrsWhippy wrote: »

Hi,

Just copped on that our upstairs walls are stud (on our plans), rather than masonry. I assumed as we will have a concrete slab first floor, that all our walls would be masonry upstairs and down.

What are the arguments for stud walls, any reasons other than price to go with these?

Cheers

Just make sure your engineer knows so that if the first floor slab needs to be reinforced in the wall locations, it can be done.

Stud walls allow easier alterations into the future.
Might be cheaper too for studs.
Keeps the weight of the loading onto the slab down also.

mrsWhippy

kceire wrote: »

Just make sure your engineer knows so that if the first floor slab needs to be reinforced in the wall locations, it can be done.

Stud walls allow easier alterations into the future.
Might be cheaper too for studs.
Keeps the weight of the loading onto the slab down also.

Yep, ok.

Looking at our BoQ estimate, it's actually works out out at 3 times the cost for the studwork upstairs compared to a similar linear meterage of block downstairs?

Am I missing something? Assuming it's the rockwool which is inflating the price of the stud?

Fayre

I have block walls everywhere. In the house I grew up in you can hear everything everywhere so I wanted block.
Do you have babies that cry during the night and wake the other kids up for example?

mrsWhippy

Fayre wrote: »

Do you have babies that cry during the night and wake the other kids up for example?

Not anymore thankfully

Metric Tensor

Ease of cutting, breaking/moving and installing additional services in future are benefits I see to using stud partitions upstairs when you have a concrete first floor.

Sound problems are by far and away the biggest down side.

If I was in your position mrsWhippy I'd go for blockwork every single time. Your engineer will need to check that the floor is designed to support the concrete walls but that's not a big deal.

BarneyMc

Went for blockwork upstairs myself - much better job in my opinion.

Calahonda52

mrsWhippy wrote: »

....which is inflating the price of the stud?..

Made me smile this wet morning!:D

Just the check the BoQ that you are comparing like with like: Ie fully finished wall for both.

What is the house design, just a straight forward 2 or 3 storey or does it have some rinky dink stuff that might shift the price

mrsWhippy

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Made me smile this wet morning!:D

Just the check the BoQ that you are comparing like with like: Ie fully finished wall for both.

What is the house design, just a straight forward 2 or 3 sorry or does it have some rinky dink stuff that might shift the price

You're easily amused

Pretty straightforward afaik - see below what we're comparing:

BLOCKWORK
Solid concrete blocks; I.S.20; size 440 x
215 x 100mm; compressive strength
7.5N/mm2; stretcher bond; in cement lime
and sand mortar (1:1:6) type III as
Engineers specification; pointing details
to be agreed with architect onsite
following sample details

STUD PARTITIONS
44 x 100mm timber studs grade C16 at 400mm
centres; faced both side with single layer
12.5mm Standard plasterboard; 3mm skim
both sides; Rockwool insulation between
joists 100mm thick

Compared the cost per metre is a lot higher for the stud walls.

Anyone know why?

Gumbo

mrsWhippy wrote: »

You're easily amused

Pretty straightforward afaik - see below what we're comparing:

BLOCKWORK
Solid concrete blocks; I.S.20; size 440 x
215 x 100mm; compressive strength
7.5N/mm2; stretcher bond; in cement lime
and sand mortar (1:1:6) type III as
Engineers specification; pointing details
to be agreed with architect onsite
following sample details

STUD PARTITIONS
44 x 100mm timber studs grade C16 at 400mm
centres; faced both side with single layer
12.5mm Standard plasterboard; 3mm skim
both sides; Rockwool insulation between
joists 100mm thick

Compared the cost per metre is a lot higher for the stud walls.

Anyone know why?

More labour, more materials and the stud walls are priced to a ready to paint finish. The block walls then need to have plasterboard attached or be finished with a top and finishing coat so that will bring the price of block up to match the timber or thereabouts.

mrsWhippy

Decision made: block.

Thank you all!

Calahonda52

kceire wrote: »

More labour, more materials and the stud walls are priced to a ready to paint finish. The block walls then need to have plasterboard attached or be finished with a top and finishing coat so that will bring the price of block up to match the timber or thereabouts.

which is why I asked:
Just the check the BoQ that you are comparing like with like: Ie fully finished wall for both., so perhaps not pretty straightforward.

mrsWhippy

Calahonda52 wrote: »

which is why I asked:
Just the check the BoQ that you are comparing like with like: Ie fully finished wall for both., so perhaps not pretty straightforward.

Yep, I found a separate section outlining what looks like a plaster coat on internal downstairs block walls, so I assume these costs will have to be added to the line item I quoted above.

Either way, it still works out around 1k less than the stud option.

chillit

does anyone just go with sand/cement plaster these days or does everyone put skim coat over the top