My Industrial Cabin Build

[rScotty]

The problem with a poor drywall job is that it is what you see everywhere you look in the house. Regardless of the quality of the rest of the work, the drywall is what shows.

My wife and I designed and then worked building our house from the framing on up for almost 5 years of evenings and weekends.....and then after all that work, we hired a drywaller to do the walls while we took a vacation to see our folks. Very, very bad idea. We figured drywall would take a couple of weeks. He must have brought in every drunk he could hire off the street and was done in a weekend. When we got back we found all of our careful craftsmanship covered over with a screwed up drywall & paint job. No, you can't see the joints. But it was only a couple of years until you could see the nails. His job is all carboard shims and putty.

It's a beautiful custom house until you look closely at the drywall. I wish I'd done it differently. Not sure how...
rScotty

 

[rScotty]

You want to see what quality drywall job you have in a house? Look at the corners for plumb and check that cabinet walls are vertical & square to the floor at top and bottom. Most will not be. Pull some trim at the floor and around the doors and windows. Look for gaps not sealed or insulated.

Then take the cover off of any electrical wall switch and look at the fit to the electric box. Is the electrical box flush to the drywall? In a poor job you will have enough room between some of the electrical boxes and the drywall so that you can insert a little mirror or an inspection probe and look along the inside surface of the drywall. What you want to see is that the drywall is flat against the wall studs, not shimmed out away from them.

rScotty

 

[pmsmechanic]

It takes a very good finisher to get smooth finish sheetrock "smooth" with no evidence of seams. Very good.

We gyprocked a "cabin" that we have on the yard. I didn't have time to mud and tape it so I showed my three teenage/early 20's sons what I wanted and how to get there. I didn't supervise at all and they did a very good job. Like you can run your hands along the wall and not feel any screws or seams. All it takes is a bit of instruction and someone who wants to do a good job.

 

[EddieWalker]

Getting a smooth finish on drywall is the hardest to do, and requires the most skill. Smooth surfaces reflect the most light. The more texture you have, the less light reflects, and the more it hides imperfections. There is a FB Group for sheetrock contractors that I belong to that goes absolutely crazy over smooth finish jobs. Stull I never imagined, or heard of. It's always some super expensive restaurant or commercial building that they do this in. They even have 5 different degrees of smooth and flatness for flat finishes that a client is charged for. The price jump to each level is extreme!!!!

Orange-peel is the most common and easiest to do. With an eggshell sheen on your paint, it's pretty much impossible to see any issues on a well done wall. Trowel finish is my personal favorite, and what I have in my house, but it's also the finish that hides everything. To me, it looks like something from a Rocky Mountain Cabin, which is why like it, but a lot of people use it in high end homes too. It's very popular in all the new "farmhouse" homes that are being built right now. It's also great for going over a "faux" finish and wallpaper.

Ceilings are harder because the sheetrock will sag over time between the joists. Popcorn was used to hide this, and it worked great. Most people hate popcorn, so when it's scraped, you can usually see the joists after it's been painted. Flat paint and some texture on a ceiling is your best friend!!!!

When hiring a crew, you have to be able to explain what you are wanting from them, and to not pay them anything until they do what you have agreed to. Best to have it in writing!!!

Here is a video that shows a very good crew taping sheetrock. Notice how clean their tape is, how smooth their edges are, and how quickly they get it done.

 

[747driver]

The hardest job is getting the butt joints to not show !! But it also helps you get the sheetrock hung properly so that the seams all align nice and even. I noticed there is not many screws showing in the 'field' of the panels. I assume these were hung with an adhesive and used a few screws to keep the panels in place till the adhesive dried ?

Most all my finish on the the walls is hand textured. Don't like the plain smooth finish. Plus it hides slight imperfections at the seams...HA I have come up with some real nice designs just using a sponge or drywall brush.

Most pro tapers use banjos to install the tape. I do 3 coats. First coat is the general purpose 'green lid 'mud which has more plaster in it to make it harder as a base coat. Then the last 2 coats are the USG Plus 3 which is a lighter weight and easier to do the final sand. I use the 'California' style rounded metal for my outside corners....does take more time to finish, but we like the look.

Keep the fans running to to allow the mud to dry properly.

It looks like your drywall crew is doing this as time allows for them instead of getting it done on a more timely basis. You have hired professional installers and most of us here are hoping you get that 'professional look '. Don't settle for something less that you will be looking at everyday well after the crew has left !

 

[Gator6x4]

You want to see what quality drywall job you have in a house? Look at the corners for plumb and check that cabinet walls are vertical & square to the floor at top and bottom. Most will not be. Pull some trim at the floor and around the doors and windows. Look for gaps not sealed or insulated.

Then take the cover off of any electrical wall switch and look at the fit to the electric box. Is the electrical box flush to the drywall? In a poor job you will have enough room between some of the electrical boxes and the drywall so that you can insert a little mirror or an inspection probe and look along the inside surface of the drywall. What you want to see is that the drywall is flat against the wall studs, not shimmed out away from them.

rScotty

With the quality of lumber today dry wall installers are having to shim to take the wavy look off the wall.

Shims also have to be used in kitchen cabinet installs. The corners are not true and square. There is no way you can install a true and square factory built cabinet into an untrue and non squared corner with out shims.

Most dry wall and cabinet installers carry a 8-10 foot one inch or larger steel tube to hold against the wall to check for crooked studs. Most Dry Wallers first try sawing the stud and trying to straighten it with a slave scabbed on the side. Some studs they have to use shims on because they would have to cut the stud out and install a new one it is so crooked.

 

[ovrszd]

With the quality of lumber today dry wall installers are having to shim to take the wavy look off the wall.

Shims also have to be used in kitchen cabinet installs. The corners are not true and square. There is no way you can install a true and square factory built cabinet into an untrue and non squared corner with out shims.

Most dry wall and cabinet installers carry a 8-10 foot one inch or larger steel tube to hold against the wall to check for crooked studs. Most Dry Wallers first try sawing the stud and trying to straighten it with a slave scabbed on the side. Some studs they have to use shims on because they would have to cut the stud out and install a new one it is so crooked.

When my carpenters built my house they had 200 extra 2x6 studs onhand. They culled and only used straight studs. Material provider took back the culls and credited me.

 

[rScotty]

When my carpenters built my house they had 200 extra 2x6 studs onhand. They culled and only used straight studs. Material provider took back the culls and credited me.

Exactly what we did in 2005 building this place. We set up an account with the local long time multi-generational lumber dealer so that we could phone in our orders. He delivers for free on pallets. We didn't pick through it all, just put the bent sticks into a neat palleted stack to send back as we came across them.

He picked up the culls, banded them, and credited us. Including ply we didn't like and no reason was ever required. Sometimes we had simply ordered too much. Every quality custom builder I know in our area does the same - and uses the same yard His yard backs onto RR spur line which has got to help. We paid monthly.

Did another building here in 2021. Same lumber yard. Same deal.

I've often wondered what they do with the culled lumber. His prices to me are competitive. So where do the warped sticks go?

Yes, we use shims. Lots of them as we go. Not much afterwards - although it would be the odd door or window that didn't benefit from shims. Always use two tapered softwood shims driven together for a good parallel variable thickness shim. Sometimes with glue but mostly not. There is no better way to keep a wood frame structure straight and tight than to shim properly as you go.

But next time I hire a drywall crew I'm going to hire my own guy to oversee the job.

rScotty

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Spread out and run over the leftover drywall with tractor or excavator

Most people, when they say they are building a house means they have a builder building a house for them and they get to pick options like cabinets. They have no clue what goes into building a house yourself.

Built 1 home by myself from the ground up, never do that again! Now I think I'm smart enough to not do it all myself.
I often get the "can you help me with how to go about getting this done"? Yes, Hire a competent contractor for that portion of the work!!
Or, "did you count the cost to get it to completion"? Counting the cost includes your time and money, not hours but weeks it takes to research the methods and materials to satisfy building codes.
I still have no clue what it takes because a lot of codes have changed since I built.

 

[Gator6x4]

When my carpenters built my house they had 200 extra 2x6 studs onhand. They culled and only used straight studs. Material provider took back the culls and credited me.

You had good framing carpenters. One of the things good framing carpenters hate is an all day soaking rain before they can get the house under roof and dried in. Twisted and wrapped studs occur when they get rain soaked.

I was fortunate and did not get the rain. The Framing Crew postponed the start two times because they advised they would not be able to get the house under roof before rain was forecast. They advised they had plenty of inside work to do at other job sites and would start as soon as they got what they considered the right weather.

The Farming Carpenters also still went through the house with a metal straight edge looking for wrapped studs to insure they had not missed any.

Another thing I liked was, during construction they were constantly checking the corners of rooms for plumb and square with a framing square.