Magnesium silicate board

To date we have been using 9mm Resistant Multi Pro XS board for boarding the internal walls and ceilings. However we were unable to get this last delivery and we had Resistant Multi Pro instead.  The difference between the two is that the XS board has four layers of mesh, while the multi pro only has two layers which gives it extra strength.  The extra strength is important if you were using it as a racking board for example but for us it wasn't critical so we gave the multi-pro board a go.  Whilst these  board are less expensive they have not bee  as easy to work with.  They are much more brittle and tend to crack much more easily.  The corners are particularly prone to breaking and are incredibly difficult to fix and keep in tact!

There are various methods that can be used to cut the boards, the most common is by scoring and snapping.  In some cases this is not possible, for example if you only want to take a small strip off or if you need to cut out a socket.  Other methods can be used, for example hand sawing, or jigsawing.  The board are very hard though and tend to blunt everything amazingly quickly!  One really good way of taking a small about off the board is by using these - blacksmiths files/ rasps.

We tried carpentars rasps but they were forever blunting, but these blacksmiths files stay amazingly sharp and you can be very accurate with them.  They don't look much but trust me they're great!  What is even better is that these ones were being thrown out by a blacksmith, so we are giving them a new lease of life!