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Submit plansI have installed some reclaimed oak beams in my family room and I want to drywall between them, but I am unsure what to use tight up against the oak beams, as I want to avoid compression and cracking due to expansion and contraction. Is there a product or system that you would recommend?
As you are using reclaimed oak you have the advantage that most of the timber shrinkage has probably occurred long ago, which should minimise cracking. Notwithstanding, the usual practice is to fix timber noggins between the joists against the beams to fully support the plasterboard sheet edge and screw-fix the board at 150mm intervals. It is usual to staple polythene around the beam to protect against the wet plaster – best to fix this before the noggins. The plastering is then taken up to the polythene faces, which are then trimmed of with a craft knife when the plaster has dried. It is inevitable that cracking will occur alongside the beams necessitating filling at a later date, but the polythene seems to help by providing a form of slip membrane between the end of the plasterboard and the beam face.
