Plasterboard walls, niches and built-in storage

What can be built in plasterboard?

Plasterboard on metal framing is extremely versatile. The jobs we do most often in homes on the Costa del Sol are:

• Partitions that split a large room in two, create a dressing area or close off a home office.
• Wall linings that straighten an uneven wall or create space for cables and insulation.
• Niches and shelving walls with recessed shelves, often lit from inside.
• Wardrobe enclosures and bulkheads that house sliding doors flush with the wall.
• TV walls and headboard walls with hidden cables and indirect lighting.
• Boxing-in of pipes, downpipes and ducts that cross a room.

Ceilings are a related but separate job; see our suspended ceilings page.

Plasterboard or brick: which is better for a new wall?

Both have their place. Plasterboard is lighter, quicker to build and creates far less dust and debris, which matters in an occupied apartment. It is easy to run cables inside and to add insulation in the cavity. Brick or block walls are heavier and more robust against impact, and are traditional in Spanish construction, especially where walls must carry heavy loads such as kitchen wall units.

For most interior partitions in homes, plasterboard is the practical choice, provided the framing and boards are suitable and reinforcement is added where heavy items will be hung. Our guide to plasterboard and ceilings explains the differences in more detail.

Can plasterboard be used in kitchens and damp areas?

Yes, with the right boards. There are boards designed for areas with higher humidity, and we choose the type according to the room: a utility room, a kitchen wall or a space next to a bathroom. In areas exposed to direct water, such as inside a shower, plasterboard is part of a specific waterproofed system and that work belongs to a bathroom renovation, which our sister site reformabanosmalaga.eu covers.

In homes that are closed for part of the year, ventilation also matters. A well-built plasterboard wall in a room with poor air movement can still suffer from condensation on its surface, as any wall would.

Will a plasterboard wall keep noise out?

A partition with insulation in the cavity and well-sealed edges noticeably reduces airborne noise between rooms, such as voices or a television. How much depends on the build-up: the number of board layers, the type of insulation, and above all on sealing at the floor, ceiling and around sockets, because sound finds the weakest point.

Spain’s building code includes a document on protection against noise (DB-HR), whose official application guide also deals with existing buildings. Whether and how it applies to a specific interior job is a technical question we flag to you rather than decide alone (applicability to each project: to be verified with a technician). We describe what a given partition is designed to do in the quote, without promising figures.

Do I need permission to add a partition?

Dividing a room inside your own home does not change the building’s structure, but it can change the layout described in your property documents, affect ventilation or natural light in the new rooms, and in some towns may require notifying the town hall. In Andalusia, works of minor scope and technical simplicity that do not require a project can be carried out under a declaración responsable, a sworn notification filed with the town hall, rather than a full licence, according to the Andalusian planning law LISTA.

Exactly which category your partition falls into depends on the municipality and the scope (to be verified with your town hall for each job). We do not handle permit applications ourselves, but we tell you before starting what usually needs checking. In an apartment block, the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal asks owners to inform the community’s representative before altering elements or installations of their flat.

How is a plasterboard wall built?

The position of the wall is marked out on the floor and ceiling and checked against doors, windows, radiators and electrical points. Metal tracks are fixed to the floor and ceiling, studs are placed between them and reinforced where doors, shelves or heavy items will go. Cables and boxes for new sockets or switches are placed at this stage by our authorised partner installers, and insulation goes into the cavity before the second side is closed.

Boards are fixed, joints are taped and filled, corners are protected with beads, and the surface is sanded and checked before painting. A plasterboard wall that is properly framed and finished looks exactly like any other wall in the room. We explain this in non-technical terms in our guide, not as an instruction manual; the work is best left to a crew that does it every day.

What can go wrong, and how is it avoided?

The most common problems are cracks at joints, walls that flex when a door closes, and shelves pulling away under load. They almost always come from the same causes: framing that is too light for the job, missing reinforcement behind fixings, joints finished in a hurry, or boards fixed before the building has dried out after wet work. Good sequencing and the right framing avoid all of them. Our article on what can go wrong with a suspended ceiling covers similar issues from the ceiling side.

The quote lists the walls in square metres, any insulation, reinforcement, door openings, niches and shelves, finishing, and painting if included. Cost factors are explained on presupuestoreforma.eu.

Official sources

• Ley 7/2021 (LISTA), art. 138.1.a, as cited in a municipal declaración responsable form for minor works (Vera)
• Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, art. 7.1 (consolidated text hosted by the Ayuntamiento de Madrid)
• Código Técnico de la Edificación: application guide to DB-HR (protection against noise)