Plasterboard

What plasterboard to use in a Passive build?

I wanted to achieve an excellent level of sound insulation between rooms and between floors where possible and also wanted a large mass of plasterboard in the build as it is proven to help stabilise temperature fluctuation in lightweight builds. I decided to double slab all of the walls and the ground floor ceiling and to also use a range of plasterboard types.

What are the different types of plasterboard?

Habito

I specified Habito plasterboard for the top layer on the walls, which at the time was a new product and a bit of an unknown to the installers. They ended up hating it as it is really heavy and needs to be cut with a saw rather than a knife and fixed with special screws and an impact driver, not an autofeed screw gun. It was for these reasons that I wanted it. It is hard and withstands impacts, dense to reduce sound transmission and able to take a screw fixing without needing ply behind to screw into. Used in a 2.7m board on the ground floor

SoundBloc

Good for reducing transfer of sound and a heavy board. Can be cut with a knife, and I used in behind the habito where I wanted really good sound deadening.

Wallboard

Standard cheap plasterboard used in 2 x 12.5mm layers on the ground floor ceiling and 1 layer on first floor ceiling. I also used it under the habito on the ground floor perimeter walls to help create the flush skirting detail.

Moisture Resistant

Used in the bathrooms. The tiler was happy to tile straight over it rather than use a tile backer board.

Fixing plasterboard above the landing. The blue plasterboard at lower level is SoundBloc that was then overlaid with Habito. This was to reduce sound transfer from the bedrooms.

Resilient bar was fitted under the floor joists on the ground floor. This gives a separation from the joists to the plasterboard to greatly reduce the transfer of impact sound. Rockwool insulation was installed tightly between all of the ground floor ceiling joists.