Fixing drywall to a wall without a profile: mounting on glue, on screws, on foam

Alignment and wall cladding with drywall are very often carried out during repair work in the apartment. As a rule, this operation involves the fastening of gypsum plaster onto a metal or wooden frame. But there are cases when it is easier and more profitable to fasten drywall to the wall without a metal profile and a wooden crate.

When can I do without the construction of the frame?

It is recommended to fix the drywall sheets directly to the wall if it is relatively flat and the differences in the plane are no more than 5 centimeters. This surface can be leveled with adhesive. Installation of drywall without lathing has many advantages:

• GKL is easily attached to walls and partitions made of any material. All that is required is a proper surface preparation. Meanwhile, screwing the profile to the wall of foam block or aerated concrete is quite problematic.
• This method of cladding significantly saves free space in the room: the frame of a metal profile or a wooden beam “eats” at least 5 cm for each wall. If drywall is fixed 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 will be much cheaper.

• Installation of drywall without erection of the frame is quick and does not require special professional skills.

Note! If the wall is very curved, you can’t do without a frame. This will be advisable both from a technical point of view and from an economic point of view. Also, a crate is needed if it is planned to carry out insulation or soundproofing of the room, hide communications, place lighting elements under the sheets of drywall.

If the crate is still required, but for some reason it is not possible to use the profile, in some cases it is allowed to make it from wooden beams. All the pluses and minuses of the wood frame, as well as the installation procedure, are written in this article.

Foundation preparation

In order for the drywall coating to last for a long time, it is necessary to process the surface of the walls. It will prevent not only peeling of GCR, 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 held layer. Any fragments whose reliability is in doubt need to be knocked down. Here described in detail how to do this.
• Deep cracks must be expanded with a chisel, cleaned of dust, primed and coated with a cement-based repair compound.

Tip. It is convenient to use sealant to handle small cracks.

• The protruding sections stray.
•  The leveled surface in two layers is covered with a primer. 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. It will take a level, a plumb line, a tape measure, a rule and a square. The laser level is very convenient, but it can not always be borrowed from acquaintances or friends, and buying it for the sake of one-time work is too expensive.

The following points must be taken into account:

• There are gaps between the ceiling, the floor and the drywall sheets. They are made in case of shrinkage at home and prevent warping GKL. 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 boundary of the 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 whole GCR. As a rule, cut fragments are placed on top, although the masters advise to fix whole sheets and halves in a checkerboard pattern.
• For proper installation of the first plate with a plumb line, a vertical line is drawn in the corner of the room. All other fragments of drywall will be displayed in a single plane with the first sheet, so its proper installation is so important.

How to fix drywall to the wall?

There are several methods for fixing GCR. The choice of a particular one depends on the condition and nature of the base surface.

• For a flat and smooth wall, you can choose any adhesive: a mixture of gypsum or cement, foam or polymer mastic.
• Too unplastered brick walls of foam or mastic will require too much, moreover, 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 the wooden walls with wood screws. It is as simple as hanging a shelf or painting.
• The situation is more complicated if the wall surface needs to be adjusted in any plane. It will require beacons that set the correct position for the drywall sheet. They can be made from GKL scraps or other improvised materials. The plate is fixed on the wall with screws, with their help the necessary adjustment of position is carried out. Subsequently, the cavity between the wall and the drywall is filled with mounting foam.

GKL fastening on glue

After finishing all the preparatory work, marking and laying the necessary communications, the adhesive is diluted according to the instructions. This is the case if the ready-made glue, usually supplied in tubes under the glue gun, is not used.

For reliable fixation, the composition does not need to cover the entire back surface of drywall: this will only lead to unnecessary costs. Glue is applied in separate cakes, placing them in a checkerboard pattern, and always with a strip around 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. For an even distribution of glue, you can use a wide rule or a board: carefully draw several times along the glued area.

The setting time of the solution is about 30 minutes. During this period, you need to check the position of the fixed fragment and perform the necessary adjustment. In the future, it will be impossible to do this.

The adhesive can be applied directly to the surface of the wall. Some masters argue that this is much more convenient.

The adhesive installation method is described in more detail. here.

Foam mounting

It is carried out in the same way as on the adhesive composition.

An important point: the foam expands upon hardening, so the sheet is fixed in position for at least an hour. There are two ways to do this:

• using various props;
• securing the gypsum board with dowel nails and placing foam foam strips as shock absorbers under its surface.

Foam mounting with void filling

Drywall can be attached to the curved wall using corrective substrates. But the presence of a void between it and the base surface is undesirable. For reliability of 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, put in the right position a sheet of drywall.
• We make 10-12 holes in it, located evenly over the entire area. In this case, the drill marks the grooves under the dowels in the wall.
• We remove the GCR, expand the holes in the overlap and deepen to the desired size, after which we hammer in plastic dowels there.
• On the back side of the sheet as shock absorbers, glue the foam or penofol strips of the desired thickness.
• GKL is neatly fastened to the wall with self-tapping screws with a wide hat. Another option is to use washers with regular screws. Letting go or spinning them, we expose the fragment to the necessary plane, controlling its position using the level and using the created markup.
• In drywall, we make the necessary number of holes designed for pumping foam. We place them between the screws, the diameter of the holes is 7–8 mm.
• In order not to go too far with the foam, it is better to pump it with a special gun, adjusting it so that when pressed, the amount that is enough for a circle of 120-150 mm diameter.

After the foam dries, you can unscrew the screws that fix the GCR. But professionals advise just to drown them in its surface by 1-2 mm.

Mounting on a wooden wall

The easiest option. GKL is fastened with wood screws. To screw them in, it is recommended to use a screwdriver: this way the drywall crumbles less, and there are less chances to push it, if you set the necessary force on the tool correctly.

The position of the fixed sheet is adjusted by loosening or tightening the screws. If there are no chamfers on the GCR, then they are done with a paint knife or edge planer.

After facing the wall, the standard treatment of the drywall surface is performed: joint reinforcement, sealing them and holes for the caps of 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 - the finishing expert will answer them.