New walls and ceilings · Birmingham and the West Midlands
Split a room, add a bedroom, replace a ceiling
Stud walls and plasterboard ceilings are what PAT Partitions does on every commercial job. In a house that means a straight, solid new wall with a door in the right place, or a ceiling that's flat again after decades of lath and plaster giving up.
New stud walls
A stud wall is a frame of metal or timber studs, boarded both sides and skimmed. It's how you turn one big bedroom into two, put a wall back that a previous owner knocked through, box in a utility, or create a home office out of half a dining room. Not structural, so no steels and usually no planning, and up in a couple of days.
- Metal stud as standard, the same system we use on commercial work, because it's dead straight and doesn't shrink or twist like timber.
- Door openings framed with a proper lining and stop, ready for your door.
- Acoustic insulation in the frame if the wall is between bedrooms or next to a living room.
- Cable routes left for sockets and switches, with an electrician arranged if you want new points.
- Boarded, taped, beaded and skimmed ready for paint, both sides.
New and replacement ceilings
Ceilings in older Birmingham houses are often lath and plaster, and once it starts to crack and sag there's no good way to patch it. We either take it down and board direct to the joists, or overboard it in place, which keeps the mess down when the joists are sound. Either way you get a new plasterboard ceiling, taped and skimmed, flat.
We also drop ceilings to hide pipework or add downlights, and board and skim ceilings in extensions and garage conversions.
Common jobs
What people ask us to build
Wall and ceiling questions
Do I need planning permission for a stud wall?
Not for an internal non structural wall. Building regulations can apply if the new room needs its own window for escape, or if you're creating a habitable room from a garage or loft. We'll tell you if your job is one of those before we quote.
Can you make a new wall soundproof?
We can make it a lot quieter. Acoustic insulation in the frame, two layers of sound rated board each side and sealed edges gets a stud wall to roughly the performance of a brick wall. Tell us what the room is for and we'll build to suit.
My ceiling is lath and plaster and cracking. Repair or replace?
If it's sagging or the plaster has come away from the laths, replace it. We either take it down and reboard from the joists, or overboard it in place if the joists are sound, which is less mess. Both give you a flat, skimmed ceiling.
How long does a stud wall take?
A single wall to split a room is normally one day to frame and board and a second to skim, plus drying before paint. A door opening, a socket or a light switch add a little time and are quoted separately if they need an electrician.
Planning a new wall or ceiling?