Plasterboard is used to create hollow internal walls (also known as stud partitions, stud walls and dry wall) quickly and for less cost than building a solid block wall.
Plasterboard is also used to line the inside of exterior walls.
Plasterboard with a bonded insulation backing can be used on the inside of exterior walls to help insulate them and improve the thermal efficiency of a building. If fitted well, wallpaper can be applied straight over plasterboard, without the need for plaster, saving time and money.
But to create a quality finished wall the plasterboard sheets need to accurately butt up to each other and fit around windows, doors, switches and sockets. Although jointing tape and compound are used to cover the joins of the plasterboard, the better the joins between the plasterboard, the less visible they will be and less likely to develop cracks once covered with jointing tape and compound.
A dry wall rasp is used on the edges of cut plasterboard to give a smoother finish, allowing the cut sheet of plasterboard to fit more accurately up against the other sheets or around windows, doors, switches and sockets. This means you can create a better quality finished wall.
What other uses are there for dry wall rasps?
The other potential uses for a dry wall rasp will depend on the type of rasp and what sort of blade it has.
Dry wall rasps with fine teeth have several other uses. They can be used in model making for shaping foam or clay models, and ones with hardened steel blades can be used for filing plastics, wood and even soft metals such as aluminium.
Rasps with coarse teeth have fewer additional uses as the coarse tooth design cuts into a workpiece more, which prevents them being used on harder materials such as metal, plastic and many woods.
Due to their smaller size, pocket dry wall rasps have more additional uses than larger two-handled rasps. However, ones with guide rails are limited in what other applications they can be used for as the rails can prevent the blade making contact with what you want to file.
The most obvious other use for a dry wall rasp is for grating food. Rasps with a coarse-toothed blade can grate foods such as cheese, carrots or courgettes into strips, while fine-toothed blades can be used to finely grate things such as hard cheese, nutmeg, ginger and chocolate, along with zesting fruit such as lemons, limes and oranges.