Hi all,

We have a detached double garage that the previous owner had converted into a playroom for the kids by fitting stud walling/insulation to the existing brick walls and plasterboarding/wallpapering over it. They also glued carpet tiles to the floor and boarded the celing with plasterboard and polystyrene tiles. I have exposed one of the garage doors so I can get my gear/car inside, but I could do with doing some welding in the future and am obviously worried about the high risk of the ceiling/floor catching fire.

I would ideally like to fit some kind of plastic floor tiles from the likes of dynatile or the like - is it such a bad idea to fit these over the carpet tiles or do I need to bit the bullet and remove them - also has anybody ever done any welding over them?

The main concern is the ceiling tiles, people have told me horror stories about houses burning down from them catching fire so I not sure what to do about these - pull the plasterboard down and start again or is there a product I can paint over them?

Thanks in advance for any help/experience you can give!

Shaun

My mates kitchen was gutted from Polystyrene tile fire,...

get them down before any hotwork

I would remove the polystyrene tiles whether I was welding or not. Having seen what they do when they burn it just doesn't bear thinking about. Not sure you need to remove the plasterboard, it depends on how good a finish you're bothered about.

The carpet tiles should be fairly easy to remove, the glue residue may still be tacky though so you'll need to put something else down.

Bite the bullet. It's just NOT worth the risk.

Plaster board will be OK.

Polystyrene exposed anywhere a NO NO where extreme heat is.

Carpet tiles are likely to have some form of bituminous layer PLUS the nylon derivatives in the pile, ALSO make a bit of a NO NO when welding.

Clean clear walls floors and ceilings are best when welding.


JMHO JGG.

This video (from the 70s!) says that polystyrene tiles are 'safe' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT7chxB45Ms

I've been to enough fires to know that they're not! Get them down! If the ceiling above is damaged you're probably best to board over it (make sure the joints don't line up).

If you have rooms above or the roof void is not separated from the rest of the property, make sure you form a fire resisting ceiling!

Wyn

If you put the dynatiles down I suspect they will not cope very well with welding. And as others have said, get the ceiling tiles down!

Thanks for the replies,

I thought as much about the tiles, I think it will be easier to just cut the old tile/plasterboard down in sections and then put new plasterboard sheets up!

Yep get everything combustible out of the way, well out of the way. Its not just welding, grinding sparks as well as weld spatter can go a long way and worse still can smolder away and then flare up long after you have left the work space.

If you did a nice tight job of plaster boarding over the polystyrene tiles, they would provide an extra level of insulation.

Be careful as the conversion may have been done when asbestos was deemed an acceptable building product. Boarding over the tiles could be an option.

As above, I'd build over rather than remove the polystyrene tiles.

Carpet tiles would need to go too into.

Had a similar arrangement in my previous house. The garage had been converted into a teenager bedsit, shower in the corner with a toilet, the works. Garage door had been removed and replaced with window, wood batten/plaster under that with plasterboard attached to battens all around. House was 1970's, plenty of asbestos around, but not used in the garage conversion.

Basically stripped the whole lot back to walls/floor, nice bonfire and a full skip. Garage door installed. Full ring main around the garage, with a dedicated 32A round pin for the welder.

Carpet tiles might not be too bad, I use an old rug to rotate chassis on when welding, sometimes slightly moist. Just be careful.

Ceiling tiles must go, period.

I'd also suggest boarding over it- the issue will be how to suspend it without drilling. If it's asbestos my Black + Decker should stay well away.

I'd also support the suggestion that it's not so much the welding as the associated grinding that causes the issue. Welding is usually fairly localised sparking, grinding sparks can go quite some way. I recently had cause to wash and clean my Locost windscreen for the first time in about five years (couldn't see where I was going). I couldn't work out what these black specks were all over the screen and when I went to try and remove them found them firmly stuck in place, when I tried to remove them only half of each speck came away- it was like it was actually melted into the............ bugger.

My angry grinder had obviously shat all over my screen at some point. So that's another trip round the M25 at some point to pretend I have a track-going Caterham......

Thanks again for all the replies, The garage was constructed mid 80's with the house and looks to be a standard brick garage with the same pitched roof as the house. I have had a quick look and the ceiling is just plasterboard nailed to the bottom of the trusses (?) with the tiles glued to that. The is they have done a proper job with coving too! so that will need to go aswell.

I use carpet tiles for kneeling on and sometimes welding on. There fine as sparks and drips of metal only mark or burn small holes right through. The main risk is if they get oil on them as they then keep burning which is bad if you are finished for the day a close the garage with a fire under your car.

I'd also add that decent ventilation would be a good idea - welding fumes are probably bad for you, and they can certainly make you cough and splutter. If the garage is attached to the house then 'er indoors would probably not appreciate welding fumes either...

I make a living from coded welding, always have to stop welding 30 minutes before finish to ensure no smouldering oily rags are about. Ventilation is critical, may not be the weld fumes but the stuff you are welding too may have paint or worse still ingrained. Plus make sure you have a fire extinguisher at hand, and that it'll work when required, been there scorched the tee shirt