Should I plaster my new dry-walls.

I haven't updated my 'Home Studio Build' thread for a while, but things are progressing well and I have loads of new photos to show when I get the chance to upload them. The new drywalls and new ceilings are up and it's time to start doing the finishing layers. But in the mean time I wanted to get your opinions on plastering the walls and ceiling because I've not seens it mentioned on this site. My partner and I will one day have to sell this apartment, so the question is not whether we should plaster the walls and ceiling, but whether we should do it now or when we leave. If we do it now then it seems we will be paying for plastering which may get damaged when the acoustic treatment / material is attached to the wall. But on the other hand, it would be good to know its done.

If you don't care about appearance now, I'd wait on the plastering. I don't think it's going to make a difference acoustically and I can tell you from my personal build, I wish I'd waited painting my studio because just in the process of building, I'm getting lots of nicks and such that will have to be touched up. len

Thanks Len, I guess if I do it now, I need to make sure there's a small gap at the bottom before it meets the floor. One other thing regarding plastering - my builers are telling me that we shouldn't put the caulk/mastic between the joints of the final layer of plasterboard (they say they need the small gap to help apply the plaster to the plasterboard). I think I need to seal all the gaps before plastering even though the plaster will seal the gaps itself. What do you think?

Are you talking about filling ALL the joints with caulk? That is generally NOT necessary. You want to fill wall-to-wall, wall-to-cieling, and wall-to-floor joints but not the joints between the sheets of drywall on walls/ceilings. In other words, where you have a corner of any sort, you want to calk. Anywhere else, standard joint compound is fine. len

But in some places they have not managed to get a tight fit in between the boards and there is often a small gap. I have been filling these gaps with an acoustic sealant (which is probably quite similar to the joint compound). For the seal between the floor and walls, I have been using a silicon based sealant. Thanks again.

Joint compound and sealant are NOT similar; joint compound dries hard as a rock and has about the same density as gypsum wallboard, while sealants typically have around half the density and a good sealant NEVER dries entirely, staying flexible enough to not allow any cracks to leak air. If you'll be plastering, the plaster will fill the cracks between sheets - with a multi-layer wall, you should have no joints in the first layer coincident with joints in the second layer, so even if there becomes a crack in the plaster where two boards meet it won't go all the way through. I'd listen to your plasterer but don't let them plaster up to adjoining walls/floors, etc; there, you DO want acoustic sealant... Steve

...and WHAT should be the specs when looking for acoustic sealant? should it be something like: Never dries/hardens, flexible, heavier than average sealant, doesn't shrink. that sorta stuff?

All those... Steve

cool, thanx! (I wasn't sure, I just figured it would be... wow! I HAVE been learning here, so it seams) ro