This was the stage that we had been dreaming about for ages: Drywall. Romantic, huh? We had talked to several people about DIY drywalling, but decided that it was going to take too long and be too big of a job if we did it ourselves. Yes, we’d save a few bucks, but we’d also lose 2-3 weeks (we wouldn’t be nearly as fast as professionals), and therefore would lose on potential rent income. We hired a really nice guy from a nearby town (tip: folks in the country are way cheaper than in the city!) who had done some work on my parents’ place. He came to do an estimate of the space, ordered the drywall and came in (with his crew) on four separate days to do the job. Putting up drywall involves three basic stages: Mounting, taping/mudding and sanding.

Here is a reminder of what we were starting with:

Mounting: The large sheets of drywall were brought into our basement through the windows (easier than getting them down the stairs, since our windows at that point were just big holes in the concrete). They were then cut down to the right size for all of the walls and ceilings. The sheets are then screwed on, one by one, to the studs (remember all that framing we did?). Here are the after-mounting shots — isn’t it a total transformation?:

Taping & Mudding: This is the lengthiest stage, which involves covering up all the seams between the different pieces of drywall to ensure a smooth wall/ceiling surface. Our drywall guys did about three coats of mudding in total (letting them dry completely between coats).

Sanding: Good drywallers don’t have to sand much since they are so skilled at putting on just the right amount of mud. Our guys came in, did a couple hours of sanding, came out covered in white dust and a finished job. Check out these seamless walls (!!):

Boy did it ever look great. This totally transformed the space. It was actually looking like a real space, and those who weren’t able to see the potential before, started to understand where we were going with this. Now we were getting to the more fun jobs – painting, putting in the kitchen, and installing the floor. We were gettin’ close. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

Tags: basement renovation, drywall

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 26th, 2010 at 8:23 am and is filed under basements, renovations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.