The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[mlroseplant]

It's interesting that you refer to the plywood, et al., as being 8 x 4. At least in my locale, we would never refer to it that way. It's 4 x 8 here. Plasterboard we typically call sheet rock, though I think that's a brand name. Drywall is the generic U.S. term. I'm sure if I traveled 500 miles in any direction this would change slightly, but here in central Iowa, the person who installs said material is a drywaller, but we turn the brand name into a verb to describe the process of installation. Example of a conversation you might actually hear on a construction site:

"Are you gonna rock that wall right now?

"Uhhh, I was planning on it, yeah."

"You know the fire alarm guys haven't finished that yet?"

"Well, what if we just rock one side for now?"

"They can prolly make that work. I'll let 'em know."

[at9]

As far as I'm aware, in the UK we always give the larger dimension first for sheet materials and timber. Hence 8' x 4' and 4" x 2". In the US I believe it's always the other way round.

Sheetrock is not a term used in the UK. It's always plasterboard. I don't know what term is used for the guys who instal it, but I've heard "dry wallers".

[Puffer]

On 11/26/2025 at 10:55 AM, at9 said:

In the UK, as others have mentioned, you get plasterboard in sheets of 2400x 1200mm (8x4 metric feet) and plywood etc in 2440x1220 (8x4 proper feet). When you have that sort of thing, it's often convenient to refer to 300mm as a metric foot.

Exactly (as I stated in the 'other' thread).    UK timber is invariably sold in length increments of 300mm, which is close to the imperial foot that used to be the increment.   2.4m (7.87 feet) is a very common length and still often referred to as an '8 foot' - but don't complain if it isn't quite that long when making something!