I wrote Monday about part of the really fun weekend myself and a couple of helpers had tearing apart 3 walls in our future nursery and guest room/office. It was a very long Saturday, but we managed to get the walls demolished and put back together, and we even started to prime a few of the other walls in preparation for the final color choices that I’ll hopefully be able to get to this weekend.
After installing the insulation, the next step was to add a vapor barrier to the walls. Vapor barrier is just a fancy term for plastic. 4mm plastic to be exact in our case. Vapor barrier is something that wasn’t around in 1964 when our house was built. When we remodeled our bathroom almost 2 years ago, I installed a vapor barrier on the ceiling and the one exterior wall along with the new insulation and drywall, and that bathroom has since been the warmest room in our house. It comes in 3′ X 50′ rolls that get cut to length and then stapled to the studs. Because it is only 3′ wide, it is necessary to tape the seams with vapor barrier tape, which is really just ridiculously sticky packing tape.
After the vapor barrier was installed on the three exterior walls, it was time to start hanging drywall. Each wall required three 4′ X 8′ sheets which all needed to be cut. The windows, electrical outlets, heating vents and edges all needed to be notched out. For this, we measure using a tape measure and then mark them using a drywall T-square and a pencil. We then used a drywall knife for the hole cuts and a utility knife for the longer, straight cuts.
After each piece was cut, we lifted it into place and secured it to the studs with 1 1/4″ drywall screws.
After all the drywall was hung, we taped all of the joints. For this we used a semi-tacky fiber tape that comes in a roll about twice the size of duct tape. It goes on very easy, and in no time you’re ready to start applying the joint compound.
One problematic section was where the old drywall met the new drywall in the corners. For this we cut about a 2 inch slit the length of the wall and removed a strip of the old drywall.
This gave enough space to attach the fiber tape, so when the joint compound is laid in the tape will not show.
I used the pre-mixed joint compound that is easy to scoop out of the pail into a trough. I then filled all of the screw holes and joints, scrapping off all of the excess leaving a fairly smooth seam. Next I’ll have to sand everything down and add one more layer of joint compound which I will then sand down smooth again. After that the new walls will be ready to paint with primer.
Here’s a look at the head start we got on priming those crazy bright colors we painted the study when we moved in.
It was bittersweet watching those colors disappear since it took me 6 coats of paint to get them that bright, but we enjoyed it for almost two years. This weekend the painting will continue along with priming and painting new trim boards. We’ve also been busy working on windows (which we ordered last night after a marathon Home Depot session) and baby room furniture (which is difficult because it’s nearly impossible to meet our price point that keeps moving up and a certain someone’s very high expectations.)
