If you’ve been doing home alterations for a while, tempers will be a little frayed; you want your home back and the builder gone.
Hang in there; keep the lines of communication open and solve problems as they arise, don’t let things start to fester and don’t allow yourself to be forced to accept anything but the best. And remember to keep a check on health and safety issues.
Partitioning:
Dry-wall partitioning is not used as much in the domestic South African market as elsewhere in the world. We tend to rely on bricks and mortar for internal walls, unlike our friends in the US, Australia and Europe. In the local market, it is used mainly for internal alterations, where areas are divided without the mess associated with bricks and mortar. It’s also widely used in loft conversions, where weight is often a deciding factor.
A lightweight frame is built from timber or metal and cladded with rhino board, the same as is used in ceilings, but thicker, usually 9mm, and fixed to both sides of the studding.
Once the boards have been fixed, they can be skimmed with cretestone, giving a similar appearance to conventional walls.
The advent of water resistant boards meansdry-wall partitioning can even be used in bathrooms. I am not the greatest fan of the domestic use of partitioning, but thethe speed, cost and lack of mess certainly make it worth considering.
Be careful how and where you hang pictures, but even this problem can be overcome.
Wall linings:
Wallpaper is still around and available in all sorts of fabrics including vinyls; you can even design your own patterns. Try searching on the internet; it is quite amazing what is available to change the appearance of a room or wall.
Walls can be lined with just about any material, starting with basic knotty pine, which like a ceiling application can be lime washed, through to hi-tech punched metal sheets. I make no pretences about being an interior designer or decorator, but it is worthwhile spending time searching to really add that something special to your walls. - Weekend Argus