Chad's gameroom project - Drywall hanging / subfloor complete + new pics

[lilshawn]

good tips. it's always good to know little tidbits of info like that... that way when your friend is putting in a box and he's all like, "How long do i have to leave these wires??" 6 inches. bam! done.

[ChadTower]

Insulation!

[ChadTower]

Okay, so, next steps:

1)  Clear out a lot more of that stuff in the middle of the room.
2)  Insulation phase building inspection.
3)  Begin drywall.

[Vigo]

Sound like you got your work cut out for you with step one alone.

[ChadTower]

UPDATE:

The air exchanger has arrived.  I ended up picking this one from The Energy Concsious.  It shipped quickly arrived in only a few days so props to the retailer.  The same exchanger was selling locally at Grainger for $1200.  Thank god for online retail.  I grabbed this on/off humidistat controller too.  I probably could have installed this prior to the insulation and then placed the vents into the walls themselves but meh.  I can put them in the ceiling and they'll do the job.  I still need to figure out how many lines I need off of this.  I'm not sure yet if I can put intake on one side of the basement and outflow on the other side or if I need to put in more lines than that.  The whole area is going to be open, no internal walls, so that is probably a major factor.

[ChadTower]

UPDATE:

Just passed the insulation building inspection.  Not a lot to this one but one key nugget from the inspector.  Can't have any rigid insulation extending beyond the framed wall and exposed.  I have that on both ends just a bit.  I was told I could cut that off the wall or I could extend the framing to cover it.  I need to extend that framing out just a bit on both ends anyway so the geometry is a bit better for drywall mounting.  So no big deal there.

The building inspector was very interested in where I bought the air exchanger and how much I paid.  He said he has been seeing people recently quoted ridiculous prices by contractors to have them installed.  One guy was told $3000.  Now, I don't know what the ducting entails in that house, but I paid $650 for this and the controller.  Still have to buy the ducting.  The local Grainger wanted $1200 for the same exchanger.  So there is definitely a ton of middlemen profit going on there.


Next steps: 

1)  Clear out more stuff.  (still haven't done that)
2)  Extend framing one more member on one side and around the corner about 3' on the other side.
3)  Insulate those spots.
4)  Buy drywall and do some reading on best methods.
5)  Somehow find time to mount drywall before camping season starts.  This one might not happen and if it doesn't then we're looking at a project slowdown over the summer.

[mcseforsale]

FIFY!

UPDATE:

Just passed the insulation building inspection.  Not a lot to this one but one key nugget from the inspector.  Can't have any rigid insulation extending beyond the framed wall and exposed.  I have that on both ends just a bit.  I was told I could cut that off the wall or I could extend the framing to cover it.  I need to extend that framing out just a bit on both ends anyway so the geometry is a bit better for drywall mounting.  So no big deal there.

The building inspector was very interested in where I bought the air exchanger and how much I paid.  He said he has been seeing people recently quoted ridiculous prices by contractors to have them installed.  One guy was told $3000.  Now, I don't know what the ducting entails in that house, but I paid $650 for this and the controller.  Still have to buy the ducting.  The local Grainger wanted $1200 for the same exchanger.  So there is definitely a ton of middlemen profit going on there.


Next steps: 

1)  Clear out more stuff.  (still haven't done that)
2)  Extend framing one more member on one side and around the corner about 3' on the other side.
3)  Insulate those spots.
4)  Buy drywall and do some reading on best methods.
5)  Somehow find time to mount drywall before camping season starts.  This one might not happen and if it doesn't then we're looking at a project slowdown over the summer.
6.) Learn how to install exchangers and charge obscene amounts to install them and take the profit and build more arcade cabs.

[ChadTower]

 

Took me a minute to find what you added.

[Gray_Area]

 

Took me a minute to find what you added.

Yeah, the little quick-reply box can easily deceive.....

[ChadTower]

Had all day saturday to drywall but it was raining off and on all day.  Couldn't risk getting caught in a downpour with a load of sheets in the truck.   


I made the small framing changes on the ends that the building inspector suggested, moved a lot of the stuff out of that room, and put up the 2x4 support blocks that from which will hang the black shop lights.  Totally ready to drywall and paint those supports black.


I am considering ways of incorporating these into the room somehow.  It would be pretty cool to have a contiguous strip around the perimeter of the room with an RGB chase.  Maybe putting it in a small gap on top of the molding near the ceiling.  I'm not sure that will go well with the flat black ceiling, though, and I'd prefer not to have direct view on the LEDs themselves.  Another possibility is a string that is mounted on the underside of the pins with velcro.  A chase that goes around the underside of each pin cabinet would be pretty cool.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Consider calling a drywall supplier and getting the drywall delivered.  It's a small order but it would be worth it to pay a delivery fee and have them stock the job.  I.e. two burly dudes carry it into your basement and lay it on the floor.  Well worth it.  A 1/2 ton pickup can only safely carry about 10 sheets of  1/2" 4x8 gyp. 

I would have said just get the sheetrock done, it's worth it--but then I remembered you're in Taxachusetts where any construction work costs double what it does in the rest of the country. 

be careful - easy to hurt your back messing with sheetrock.  Walls aren't that bad but ceilings suck without help or a lift.

[ChadTower]

Heh, my 14 year old son and I just bought 7 sheets tonight and carried it into the basement.  Not so bad with a couple of drywall carrying handles.  Only hard part really was angling it so it would fit through the bulkhead.  I think I'm going to need 9-10 all told but this is a start.

My Tacoma had no issues whatsoever with 7 sheets.  Why would a 1/2 ton have issues with 10?

[TopJimmyCooks]

You didn't say you had a 14 yo available!

[leapinlew]

I just finished my basement (pics soon to follow) and I purchased 60+ sheets of drywall. Lowes delivered them and carried them into the basement for $2 a sheet. Well worth it for my setup.

[ChadTower]

Nice!  $2/sheet is a pretty good service.

With such limited spare time to do the work, if I had to arrange for delivery on Lowes' timetable, I'd probably end up waiting for weeks to get the stupid sheets into the house.  These days I am literally tossing in 45 minutes of work at a time.

[lilshawn]

keep picking away at it. every little bit gets you that much closer. 

[Gray_Area]

Forty-five minutes is much better than ten or fifteen.

[ChadTower]

Sure is! 

Tonight my son and I hung the first piece of drywall.  I didn't plan the mount points properly, though, and we ended up an inch short of one of the studs.  This is the first piece we've ever mounted and we learned a couple of small bits.  So that's good.

First thing is that when you're putting in electrical boxes think ahead to where your drywall seams will be.  Don't put them where there is likely to be a drywall seam.  We have one box on this sheet that is right on the 48" edge.  Bit of a pain.

Second thing is now I know why you do rough wiring, then insulation, then drywall, and then outlets.  The outlets are a bit in the way when putting up the drywall.  I can manage, I think, without having to pull out all of the outlets but it would be easier if they weren't there yet.

Third thing is to be sure of how you're going to do your drywall butting when you plan the cut.  That's what I did wrong this time, and once I dry fitted the piece, it was about an inch short when I put it where I wanted the butt joint to be on the corner.  Oops.  No biggie.  The knowledge more valuable than that half sheet of drywall.

Sort of hard to tell from the photo but the issue is that the piece is about an inch short of the leftmost stud.  The left edge is not supported by wood.  I'm going to pull that down this weekend and put a sheet up the right way for another start.

[mcseforsale]

Meh.  If it's just an inch, sister another 2x4 on the inner edge and call it a lesson.  Believe me, looking at the "craftsmanship" of my professionally done basement after taking down a couple of walls, you'd be surprised where the "pros" put the leftover lumber.

AJ

[TopJimmyCooks]

outlets and switches - the ears are designed to rest on the wallboard.  you'll have to unscrew them from the box and turn them at an angle.  Tape over the wire screws if they're hot. 

I'm curious about why you didn't just stand up the boards vertically.  You'll have a lot less joints and no butt joints, only tapered edge joints which are easier.  I wouldn't want hired pro's to do it on a high profile job, but for  a dark basement it's how I would do it. 

[ChadTower]

I was going to do them all the tall way but I was given a ton of advice to not do it that way.  Apparently floor to ceiling joints are difficult to hide.  I agree that it's easier that way and I might just do that.

Ears ON the wallboard... got it.  In that outlet I have them under it.  I looked at a couple existing outlets upstairs and they aren't on it as the hole is slightly larger than the outlets.  Now that I think about it, however, they CAN'T be under it.  If they are then I won't be able to pull them out for the final wiring inspection.

[ChadTower]

Grrr.

Attempt #2 didn't succeed either.  This time I cut a piece to go vertically, measured up nicely, went to dry fit it... couldn't quite get it in because the piece is 86" measured ceiling to joists with a half inch gap.  So I can butt it to the joists and then leave a half inch gap at the floor.  Sounds good, yes?  No.  Apparently the floor concrete varies just enough that I had to tetris that thing into place against the wall.  Then I find out I need about another half inch off.  So, I do the razor blade cut, but a half inch never just snaps off, it comes off in a billion pieces stuck to paper.  So that takes a while.

I get that piece up and nail it in place with 4 drywall nails as the guides suggest.  Then I go to work cutting the outlet holes.  There are two outlets on this piece.  I get the first cut with a handsaw, which is a major pain with the outlets there, but I do it.  Then I go to work on the second one.  This hole is a bit harder because down that low there are no nails to avoid flexing the piece too much while it's against the protruding outlets.  I finally get the second hole cut... go to press the piece flush to the wall at the bottom... and the holes don't line up.  While I was cutting the second hole, the piece shifted by about an inch, and now I can't get it over both boxes. 

 

Okay, so the ugly truth, is that I'm going to have to pull off all the outlets and switches.  Not long after changing all the outlets at the instruction of the wiring inspector.  Grr.  I can do that. 

I pull the piece off the wall, throw it into a scrap pile, and go to vacuum up all the dust I made hand cutting those holes.  The vacuum doesn't work.  Takes me 5 mins to remove something that looks like a tribble from the hose and it's working again.  I start sucking up all of the dust.  I turn around and notice that the vacuum is shooting all of the dust up into the air instead of collecting it.  I open the vacuum up and the filter on the output is ripped.  All I did was distribute the dust all over the basement. 

 

So I make a new filter out of an old T shirt and get the mess as cleaned up as I can.  Everything down here has a fine white powder on it now.  Sonofabitch.

I am about to go upstairs and I notice my wife has put a nicely folded pile of my work pants on the stair railing.  Didn't balance it well.  I only notice the pile of freshly laundered black dress pants when I see it fall onto the white dusty floor.

 

Now I sit here with a jar of blueberry moonshine waiting for my second work shift to start at midnight.  Hopefully I'm a little less ticked off by then or I'm going to have to mute my conference phone for nearly the whole shift.

[brihyn]

a pain to remove all of the outlets, but definitely worth it!
I remodeled the basement of my first house...even at the time I knew it wasn't my "forever home" and therefore considered it my practice house. I made tons of mistakes, but knew that most likely no one else but me would ever know. And after seeing how the previous owner did things, I was still a ways ahead.
This house came with an unfinished basement, so I was able to put a LOT of lessons to use. Still made mistakes, but i know that I'm the only one that could ever find the vast majority of them.

One quick tip that may help: Once you have the outlets off of the electrical boxes, and you have your sheetrock cut to fit the wall section, put something on the electrical box (paint, marker, anything that'll transfer). Put the sheetrock up into place, and lightly press it against the box. Voila, if you did it right, you'll have a marking of where to cut the hole for the box. Saved me a lot of time.

[ChadTower]

Thanks for the tip on marking the boxes.  I had thought of using chalk, actually, but with the outlets in it was of no use.  Now that I'm going to take them out I might try a light outline of wet paint. 

Another way I found was to get a drywall bit for the rotary tool.  Then I can sort of "route" around the boxes once I've found the edge. 

[brihyn]

I hadn't thought of Chalk...that might work really slick. Paint was kinda a pain, as it was just always "in the way", and I tried using a black permanent marker, which worked well enough, but I think chalk may be a great idea. If you do that, lemme know how it works.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Uh, CT, rotary tools were developed for drywall work - if you mean a rotozip.  If you mean dremel - that's different obviously.  the way the pros usually do it is to screw the board up over the box, eyeball or measure to the center of the box, plunge the pilot point rotozip bit inside the box, route to the edge of the box, pull out and replunge an 1/8" over to the outside of the box, and run the bit around piloting on the outside of the box.  then the gyp will lay flat on the studs and you can finish the wallboard attachment.  If you have a dremel def. get the drywall bit and do this.  rotozip-even better.

[lilshawn]

Uh, CT, rotary tools were developed for drywall work - if you mean a rotozip.  If you mean dremel - that's different obviously.  the way the pros usually do it is to screw the board up over the box, eyeball or measure to the center of the box, plunge the pilot point rotozip bit inside the box, route to the edge of the box, pull out and replunge an 1/8" over to the outside of the box, and run the bit around piloting on the outside of the box.  then the gyp will lay flat on the studs and you can finish the wallboard attachment.  If you have a dremel def. get the drywall bit and do this.  rotozip-even better.

as a rotozip owner i can attest to this. It's the bomb diggity. works awesome on suspended ceiling tiles too for pot lights speakers etc.

[ChadTower]

Uh, CT, rotary tools were developed for drywall work - if you mean a rotozip.  If you mean dremel - that's different obviously.  the way the pros usually do it is to screw the board up over the box, eyeball or measure to the center of the box, plunge the pilot point rotozip bit inside the box, route to the edge of the box, pull out and replunge an 1/8" over to the outside of the box, and run the bit around piloting on the outside of the box.  then the gyp will lay flat on the studs and you can finish the wallboard attachment.  If you have a dremel def. get the drywall bit and do this.  rotozip-even better.

My rotary tool is a Black and Decker... it can probably do it, but it's not a Dremel, and it's not a Rotozip, so there's always the chance it won't get the job done.  I'll just have to upgrade to a better rotary tool if it can't do it.  That would be awful... just terrible...

[Monkeyvoodoo]

Another option for marking holes is using lipstick. Doesn't dry out too quickly and transfers nicely.

[leapinlew]

I was able to mount all my drywall in about 45 seconds. Maybe less.... however long it takes to write a check.

[Nephasth]

When vacuuming up dust, the t-shirt as a filter is a good idea, even better though, dampening the shirt well stop the dust.

As for hanging drywall, I do it horizontally like you started off. But, I put up the bottom piece first. I'll cut one tapered edge off the sheet. This edge will be the bottom edge. I'll put a couple of shims down on the floor to get my desired gap, and rest the sheet on the shims while screwing it to the studs. Then I can rest to top sheet on the top edge of the bottom sheet while securing it to the studs. Much easier to just hold that top sheet against the studs, than trying to hold it against them and up at the same time.

Outlet and switch boxes, just a lot of measuring and a jigsaw here. Never had a problem doing it that way. I've never installed the outlets or switches before hanging the drywall.

[ChadTower]

I was able to mount all my drywall in about 45 seconds. Maybe less.... however long it takes to write a check.

Heh, I already know how to write a check, though.  Half the purpose of this project is so my son and I can learn as much as possible in the process.  If I hadn't taken that project view then I'd be annoyed as hell that a simple gameroom is taking me months and eating up every second of what little spare time I have these days.   

[mcseforsale]

+1.  Almost everything that I know about building things...especially the confidence that I CAN, came from watching Dad putter around his shop building us bunkbeds, coffee tables, bookcases, etc.  He's retired from is computer management job now, but he teaches wood turning at a college in Bangor, Me.  72 and still rocking the big lathes and stuff.

AJ

I was able to mount all my drywall in about 45 seconds. Maybe less.... however long it takes to write a check.

Heh, I already know how to write a check, though.  Half the purpose of this project is so my son and I can learn as much as possible in the process.  If I hadn't taken that project view then I'd be annoyed as hell that a simple gameroom is taking me months and eating up every second of what little spare time I have these days.   

[leapinlew]

I was able to mount all my drywall in about 45 seconds. Maybe less.... however long it takes to write a check.

Heh, I already know how to write a check, though.  Half the purpose of this project is so my son and I can learn as much as possible in the process.  If I hadn't taken that project view then I'd be annoyed as hell that a simple gameroom is taking me months and eating up every second of what little spare time I have these days.   

I know what you mean, but certain aspects of my build I hired out. The lesson there is, no one can do everything. I hired out the framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall and drywall finishing, lol. I laid the carpet, paint, decorating, baseboards and other trim work. It still took months to do.

Over the years, and many attempts, I've learned I just can't do drywall as well as I like it done.

[ChadTower]

Over the years, and many attempts, I've learned I just can't do drywall as well as I like it done.

I hear ya.  I'm not looking for perfection in this room.  If I do a half decent job, that's cool, it's a dark basement room as mentioned above.  I'm not willing to settle for total suckjob, though, so I'm taking down the stupid attempts and considering them lessons.   

[ChadTower]

Been a while since I updated.  Two reasons:  1)  Camping season started and that eats up a lot of our weekends this time of year.   2)  We were busy working on the gameroom!



Drywall is up now.  We eventually figured out some methods that, while they may or may not be awesome, were effective.  The drywall bit for a rotary tool is a lifesaver.  Be careful with it if you use plastic boxes, though, because you can chew the box edge up a bit with it.  I did that in a couple of places that won't matter in the long run.  There is only one spot where it didn't quite hit the stud edge the right way and is floating for a few inches.  I can cover that up with mud, since it floats into the wall, and hopefully with pins there nobody will go punching that spot. 

Subflooring is in.  The Dricore panels are really easy to work with once you get the hang of how to cut them.  They cut easily like any wood but it's really easy to trim off the wrong edge and end up cutting off a groove side where you wanted the groove to remain.  Or cut off the tongue when you needed that side.  My son and I were able to do this whole ~300sqft room, with stuff in it, in a weekend.  With no specific experience.  Yeah, it's not rocket science, but newbie is newbie.  This stuff isn't cheap but it's easy to DIY and it looks good.

[ChadTower]

There are supposed to be four photos there but the forum seems to be having issues serving them consistently tonight.  They're attached to the Project Announcements thread the way we usually do around here...