Drywall

So I don't mind hanging drywall, but I just don't like to tape & spackle. A friend recommended Richard S. Lapp drywall in New Holland, so I called him to quote the job. At the end of the day, for the cost, I decided just to let him do the entire project. For me, it's well worth the investment to get it done and look great in about a 1/10th of the time that it would take me to do it. If you live in the area, and need some work done, his phone number is 717.286.4631.

Richard came out to look at the job on Saturday, we agreed on the project on Sunday, and his supplier delivered the drywall Monday. Tuesday, almost the entire room was hung. Wed and Thursday he has been taping & spackling.

The space looks great so far.

The engineer behind the curtain

So Allison thought I was a little crazy early on in this project when I built a model of the basement as a solid model in CAD. I thought it was a nice way to determine how walls would look and once I settled on a design, it made it easy to count-up material requirements.

I'm happy to say I had one scrap 2x4 after all the framing. I think I'll do it again for the entertainment center and shelving. For me at least, it helps a lot to see it before I get started.

Insulation

Final step before drywall was installing insulation. Lowes had a sale on R13 rolls of Owens Corning faced insulation at $10 a roll. The pre-cut bat insulation was almost $40 for 13 pieces. Each roll would cover 4 joist spaces with a little scrap. So this worked out to $30 for 12 pieces. I was happy cutting to length, so for what I needed, it was about $60 cheaper to get the rolls.


I didn't have a stapler, so it was time for a new tool. Home Depot had the Ryobi One plus stapler on clearance for $45. What a great little stapler. It accepts a variety of staple lengths and has a simple dial to adjust the hammer force. I installed all the insulation on one charge with plenty reserve, and I had no staple jams. I dropped it off the ladder several times with no cracks and no functional issues.



Here's a picture coming in from the unfinished space in the basement.



And from the bottom of the stairs.

I stitched two pictures together with some issues around the treadmill, but you get the picture.

It's noticibly quieter with the insulation in, and looking a lot more like a functional room.

Fire Blocking

So summer is gone and so is most of the busy yard work and weekend activities that somehow absorbed all free time available. The basement is getting some renewed priority in life, and I'm making good progress again.

I passed rough-in inspection with no problems back in September. A framing inspection wasn't required because of the scope of the job. The electrical inspector only had one comment about considering fire-blocking the airgaps between the stud walls and the ceiling space. He noted that this is required for new contruction, but that it was up to me whether I wanted to do it or not here. It seemed like a good suggestion, so I did it.

There are two instances to resolve with fireblocking. The first is that the stud walls are offset from the foundation wall. As a result, there is a continuous air-gap behind the wall. In the event of a fire, the fire can travel continuously around the room with no inhibitors. To stop this, it is recommended to block in behind a stud every 10 feet. The second issue is at the top of the stud wall, where again, there is a air gap. Here, there is an uninhibited path for fire to run up into the joist space and travel from there. The solution here is that you fill this space to eliminate the gap.

Picture on the left shows the airpath for the 2nd issue, and the picture on the right shows the fire blocking element in place (purple).

A quick online search revealed several approved methods for accomplishing this. Rock wool was the most popular for hard to fill spaces that didn't have a lot of flat surfaces. It's basically fireproof insulation that you can jam just about anywhere. The two other methods were to install fire-resistant drywall and/or use fire-resistant expanding foam.

I chose a combination of the latter two because I had simple, straight sections to fill.

I found this great stuff fireblock expanding foam at home depot. It was just under $10 a can.

In this picture, you can see the expanding foam along the top and behind one of the vertical studs.

Here, you can see the fire-resistant drywall installed between the stud spaces. I then used the foam to fill the gap behind the studs, and around any wire-drops.

The vertical gap was too big for the foam in all but two locations. So I just used the drywall.