Crumbling walls with weak plaster, undiscovered until simple
renovations began, saw an Oxford family turn to British Gypsum’s Gyproc
Habito for a solution.
Thomas and Erika bought their three bedroom property in September 2015 and soon after they found a serious problem that needed to be addressed.
“We started removing the wallpaper throughout the house and discovered that the plaster underneath was old and crumbling. It needed to be taken off. We looked at all the products on the market and decided to use British Gypsum’s Gyproc Habito plasterboard, as we needed something that was stronger than the standard offering. We had previously read about the product in a magazine and a friend in Germany who had installed Gyproc Habito had recommended it and told us about the benefits.”
Gyproc Habito is a plasterboard with a reinforced core, making it five times stronger than regular plasterboard. The product is installed in the same way as standard plasterboard but can support up to 15kg with a single number 10 woodscrew. This super strength solution meant that Thomas and Erika would not have to worry about crumbling walls or knocks and bumps to the walls in high traffic areas of the home.As art lovers, they were also able to hang pictures and paintings without specialist fixings.
The installation of the product has definitely lived up to my expectations. My experience with normal plasterboard in previous properties drove me a little insane, with things falling off the wall and mistakes not being so forgiving. When moving big pieces of furniture into a house it is difficult to avoid banging and catching the walls, often causing lasting damage. However, after we finished installing Gyproc Habito we did not have to worry about this. With normal plasterboard you might knock the wall and it can make a hole or dent difficult to cover up, but with Gyproc Habito you just paint it and it looks as good as new.”
With the interior of the house now complete, Thomas and Erika feel they have really benefited from installing Gyproc Habito throughout their home. They have found it quick and easy to personalise their walls and talking through their experiences, Thomas said: “We’re now not afraid of hanging anything on the walls. We’ve hung heavy items from free floating shelves, large heavy tapestries, original art and kitchen units safe in the knowledge that nothing will fall off. We’ve also had to implement extra shelving throughout the house, in particular the living room, but being a stronger product we had no concerns with adding these storage solutions with Gyproc Habito.”
The couple are pleased they made the decision to use Gyproc Habito to create a flexible home that can grow with them. Erika continues: “We’re so happy with the end result. With a young child and another one on the way, we are expecting the walls to take some pretty heavy damage over the next few years. We wanted to put something in the house that would last and look great for a very long time and we certainly have achieved that.”