Shaped by Your Underwear
The shape of any curved plasterboard wall, curved bulkhead or curved ceiling is ultimately determined by its under structure. Basically, what you wear underneath can affect what you see outside so your underwear gives you shape. Hence, it’s no different for a dry wall.
With gypsum walls and ceilings, there are two basic ways to build the support structure – you either use preformed steel profiles or you use timber. Timber was the traditional method and is still widely used in America but this has more and more been replaced with steel profiles which are easy to procure and commonly available from building product distributors. Steel has the added advantage that it has better environmental credentials than timber.
When it comes to creating curves, timber has the advantage that it can be sawn to shape or pre-manufactured on CNC equipment so that it is perfectly shaped to the design required. Steel studs and tracks, on the other hand, need to be worked on site to achieve the shape. The Knauf Performer system requires the steel track to be snipped on site at regular centres to form the curve. British Gypsum’s Gypwall Curve uses its CurveLyner pre-slit steel channel to allow it to bend to the curve. Siniat (formerly Lafarge) also has a pre slit steel track known as GTEC Flex Track. However, there are other manufacturers of steel profiles for curved drywall ceilings and walls such as I Profili who has a patented track that can be bent on site (see picture) or Protektor. The alternative to all these would be to roll form the tracks to the required radius but this is expensive.
Once the shape is formed on site, i.e. the underwear is in place, the covering can be applied and here V-Cut’s Flexiboards are the simplest and fastest technique to get the best result. It neither matters which stud and track system is used, timber or steel, nor from whom, the Flexiboards will follow the contour of the structure and when lightly skimmed produce a smooth appearance. Shaped underneath and beauty on the outside – the V-Cut solution makes it simple, easy and quick. You can buyFlexiboards from selected building product distributors and V Cut plasterboard stockists as indicated on our website.
