Shapely Curves

Any modern home or office will invariably involve drywall or plasterboard partitions as these offer the possibility for greater flexibility to integrate services and produce light weight constructions.  Producing curved plasterboard walls, bulkheads or ceilings, however, is more complicated.

Gypsum boards are mostly produced in 12.5mm thickness. Thicker boards are available to achieve specific performance criteria and the core gypsum material can be varied with additives according to the required sound or fire resistant properties.  12.5mm thick gypsum boards are naturally straight but will bend although only to a fairly large radius before the board will break. British Gypsum indicates a minimum radius of 600mm for 6mm thick Glasroc, 1800mm for 9.5mm thick wallboard and 3600mm for 12.5mm thick wallboard.  Knauf Drywall recommends a minimum bending radius of 1000mm for 9.5mm thick and 1500mm for 12.5mm thick board.  Lafarge (now Siniat) indicates a minimum radius of 600mm for its 6mm thick wall boards.  As is clear, to produce a plasterboard wall with particularly tight or even double curvature would involve exceeding the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Traditionally, skilled fixers have used clever techniques to get the plasterboards to bend to tighter radii.  Wetting the boards and leaving them to rest over night on a former shaped to the required radius sometimes does the trick.  This has the disadvantage that you first need a former and secondly it slows the installation process and even then has limitations about what radii can be achieved.  Using 2 layers of 6mm thick boards is another possibility but 6mm thick boards are difficult to procure and cost as much as 12.5mm thick as well as having a propensity to break as they are bent due to the thinner material.  Laying the boards horizontally, i.e. with the long edge parallel to the floor and ceiling, is also a common technique. Scoring the backs of the boards with a knife is another common trick but you have to be skilled to do it properly and it is time consuming.

It is this last technique that V-Cut can replicate with its machinery.  Our CNC equipment can groove the boards at close centres to allow them to become highly flexible.  We can do this with different types and different thicknesses of boards.  Our v cut Flexiboards can produce a radius as small as 30mm for 12.5mm thick plasterboard and will also wrap any structure to form “S” shapes.  V-Cut Flexiboards make producing curved walls simplicity and when lightly skimmed the final effect is elegant and unique.  You can buy Flexiboards from selected building product distributors and V Cut plasterboard stockists as indicated on our website.