Garage Apartment at Redoverfarm

[Redoverfarm]

Yes I live in West Virginia but have never worked in the coal mines.  But I can sympathize with the old miners crawling around in a shallow mine trying to work.  I have been working on the storage spaces behind the knee walls.  They measure 61" tall, 65 " wide and have a 10/12 slope wall which is 80".  The measurements are deceiving in that the height is only 61" at the very peak.  My knees are telling me no more.  No to mention the numerous times I have hit my head crawling through the access door.  Here are a couple photo's demonstrating what the space actually looks like.  I haven't finished the ends yet as I will be using surplus material from the rest of the drywall being hung.





It is no small feat working alone with 12' sheets of drywall in a confined space.  There is not room for any type of drywall jack so you have to be a little inventive in your approach.  I found a couple methods.  Mainly using a ledger board and then using a hasp type piece of 3/4" stock attached to the ledger board which actually keeps the sheets from falling when you finally get them lifted and into place and rotate the wooden hasp.  I set the ledger 1" wider than the sheet which gives me room to maneuver the sheet to the proper fit. The way you have to hang them you cannot set your ledger to the exact width of the sheet like in a straight vertical wall.  Then I shim between the ledger and the drywall raising or closing the seam joint.   Here is a couple photographs demonstrating the procedure. 



This photographs shows the wooden hasp strips of wood which are attached to the previous sheet and rafter so that once the sheet is in place you can just flip the hasp to keep it from falling out.  There is no way you could hold the sheet and attach a drywall screw to hold it in place.



This has been a real slow process.  In two days I have completed two areas 1st being a 10' and 2nd being a 14'.  I still have another 14' 10' and the largest 22' areas to do. 

[Redoverfarm]

Finally all the crawlspace storage are almost done.  No small feat putting up the 12' sheets in the confined space but it is done.  Still have the end walls yet to do but that will be a piece of cake in comparison to the flat walls.  Everyone ask "why are you building so many storage spaces?"   My reply is that you never have enough storage space.  Although it has taken over a week on these I think it is well worth the time.   

On a unrelated note my Delta-Rockwell 10" table saw bit the dust.  Or at least the motor which is only a 240V 1-HP tri-belt. Never seen a motor with no more HP weigh so much.  I am estimating that it is at least 100#.   Not sure exactly sure what is wrong with it.  Windings, brushes, or something else.  Anyway I took it to Roanoke to a Armature repair shop and am waiting there diagnosis.  Actually I am not in the building stage but occasionally I run across something that needs modified or adjusted.  Boy I miss that saw.  Kind of hard ripping 2X material with a skill saw. 

Going to take a day or two off just to give my poor knees and back a rest.  I guess I will work on my 2015 Income tax paperwork.    

[pocono_couple]

Hi John,   it has been a while since i last visited the site.. looks like you are making some progress..    good that you have so much patience!    drywall is tough enough when one has  a partner, but  3 times as challenging doing it alone..    we still have fond memories of  our visit with you..  think about that trip every time i use the  cutting board that we bought in town!    lots has changed since then.   i am no longer teaching..  we opted out of the "mainstream"  and  took jobs at a campground in Maine last summer.. totally loved it..   will be headed back in May..    in the meantime, we are still working on our house here   in bear creek, and working at a local amazon warehouse..   quite the experience ..   planning a new construction project  in Maine as soon as we can afford it..   good luck with finishing the  apartment!  jt

[Redoverfarm]

Hi John,   it has been a while since i last visited the site.. looks like you are making some progress..    good that you have so much patience!    drywall is tough enough when one has  a partner, but  3 times as challenging doing it alone..    we still have fond memories of  our visit with you..  think about that trip every time i use the  cutting board that we bought in town!    lots has changed since then.   i am no longer teaching..  we opted out of the "mainstream"  and  took jobs at a campground in Maine last summer.. totally loved it..   will be headed back in May..    in the meantime, we are still working on our house here   in bear creek, and working at a local amazon warehouse..   quite the experience ..   planning a new construction project  in Maine as soon as we can afford it..   good luck with finishing the  apartment!  jt

Hello Jason,  I had wondered what happened since I hadn't heard anything.  Sent you an E-mail but didn't get a reply so I figured you no longer used that address.  Wondered if you were able to get out on the sail boat this past summer.  I take it that your wife is not working at the orchard or maybe not in the winter months.

Yes the drywall has been challenging.  I started w/56 -12' sheets and 7=8' blue board sheets.  Well I am down to 4 -12' sheets.  You actually learn a lot of tricks when you work by yourself.  As the saying goes "the works starts in the finishing stage".  Not looking forward to that.  Getting ready to start heading down the stairs in the next week or so.  Will have to move what is left out the door and down to ground level because there is no way to get it down where it needs to go with the  design of the 2nd floor.  Just have to wait until the snow stops so I can take the plow off and put on the forks.

I guess since you are no longer at the school that you are not helping with Habitat concerning their transportation.  Well stay busy and live long.     

[pocono_couple]

thanks for the response, John..   no sailing this past summer..  the boat is sitting in the yard, waiting for more favorable times!    but.. lots of  kayaking, hiking, and biking  in acadia national park..   janet and i both left our jobs..  although we did help out at the orchard  for their fall festival.. got home from maine just in time for that..    lots of pics on my blog..   https://lifeat6mph.wordpress.com/     have not posted there either since we got back to pa, but i was pretty active on it during the summer months..      no more student trips..  that is one thing that i will particularly miss about  no longer teaching..   we had a lot of fun traveling to WV,  and  I took 7 trips to Maine with students  to work up there at  Chewonki...    those times were the highlight of my career..   

email..  cp23_1983@yahoo.com..   don't want to hijack your thread!     i bet you are happy that the pile of drywall is shrinking!      take care,   jt

[Redoverfarm]

Still hard at it.  Down to my remaining 4 sheets of drywall.  I was wondering if I had figured my drywall out and actually I did if they would have shipped the remaining 4 sheets I would probably have enough.  Well I will work with what I have and then pick up what I need.  No small task figuring the quantity needed when there is so many small spaces which have to be calculated.  Just round it up by sq ft and add the 10%.  I am real pleased by the waste that I have left from all the sheets.  Yes there is always waste but most of mine are small pieces.   Also I wondered how far the 35# bucket of drywall screws would last.  I can say that approximately 35# of 1-1/2" spaced at ten inches will do about 65 sheets.  I guess if you were wondering on smaller quantities this would give you some idea.

Anyway here are a few photographs of what is done.

Hallway looking from the kitchen to bedroom.  If you are wondering why I left one piece off the wall I have been waiting for a scrap the size that will work.  Hate to cut a full sheet for this one piece.  Odd ball 49-1/2" X 16.



View from the bedroom through to the kitchen. Bedroom closet to the right, back of the shower on stairwell wall and dormer cutout on the left.  I intentionally left these wall open so I can lay 2X & sheeting material to bridge the stairway to do that ceiling.  If I didn't all this would have to be done off a ladder.  Me, ladder and stairs do not get along that well. .  Once that ceiling is done there is nothing to prevent me from finishing that area.



One of the crawlspace storage areas.  In all there are 5 such areas.  All total excluding the stairs, dormer offsets there is 77 lineal feet in the storage areas.  To give you some perspective as to what size they are looking at the short knee wall to the left is 12", the end wall has a piece of 4' dry wall with additional width and height added to make it approximately 65" h and 60" w floor space



Oh  yes the bonus room.  Sort of a mess with building material, antique furniture and insulation.  It will lead off the bedroom and is approximately 10'W X 18'L. Not sure of the intended use for this but I am sure it will not be wasted.  That is the original house end wall with the house wrap showing.

[Redoverfarm]

Presently I am " dead in the water".  Out of drywall.  Out of Drywall screws.  Might be Friday before this weather clears up so that I can pick up both.  I do have some scraps suitable for a couple hours work in a closet but that's about it. 

Had to break out the "Drywall Stretcher" today.  Learned this little trick years ago.  When you are short on your piece and it is near a baseplate, ceiling or anywhere out of the middle of the sheet you can extend the sheet.  I use 1/2" OSB (or plywood) scrap about 2" in width and the length would depend on the opening.  Yes I could attach blocking to that area but this method works just as well and is a lot easier once insulation is in place and drywall covering the adjoining bays which would make nailing almost impossible.



Attach the OSB (1/2 width) to the top of the larger portion of drywall.  Attach the larger piece to your studs then come back and add the smaller piece.  I use 1" drywall screws so they don't penetrate the OSB. Easy as you go attaching the piece to the OSB or you will push it loose.  The screws generally penetrate with minimal pressure.





Here is as far as I got on the stairs.  View looking from the bottom to the top. The wood at the top is the doorway opening/  Had to build a temporary scaffolding to work off of.  Once I get the lower sheets on I am going to have to come up with a different support system to finish the stairway. 

[Don_P]

Tough weather to haul drywall in. I was doing porch ceiling framing today and stepped out and did a little soffit blocking on the overhang between rains, but we've been in and out of it. I need gravel but if I call now I'll need several truckloads just to get him in.

What did it turn out to be at the motor shop? Is this the old bullet shaped motor, if so it can work circles around a modern motor of the same rating. There is one in the old barn where I'm working that is down for now. The "starting necklace" is out of it. If it sounds similar and you have good luck, I want the name of the shop 

[Redoverfarm]

Tough weather to haul drywall in. I was doing porch ceiling framing today and stepped out and did a little soffit blocking on the overhang between rains, but we've been in and out of it. I need gravel but if I call now I'll need several truckloads just to get him in.

What did it turn out to be at the motor shop? Is this the old bullet shaped motor, if so it can work circles around a modern motor of the same rating. There is one in the old barn where I'm working that is down for now. The "starting necklace" is out of it. If it sounds similar and you have good luck, I want the name of the shop 

I guess this is what they refer to as the "spring breakup".  I did venture up to the cabin to make a check and the road is mud & ruts.  Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw and then the rain.  By May it will settle back down and pack solid again.  Yeah I am glad that I have been able to work inside the last couple weeks. 

Haven't heard from the shop yet.  From the looks of it when I was there it may be a while.  Motors scattered throughout.  No it isn't a bullet but more like a cannon with it's weight.  I will give you the address and phone # later.  It is off I-581 downtown across from the Railroad Shops.

[Redoverfarm]

Finally reached this stage in the project.  All of the drywall has been hung.  All total there was 62 sheets of 4X12 and 11 sheets of 4X8.  I saved the best to last.  The stairs.  With the help of a friend we finished it yesterday.  The first couple of sheets including the ceiling and two courses below I had to build a makeshift platform but after that I could use the stairs.  I guess I will have to repeat the process when finishing and repair the screw holes as I work down to the ground floor.  Now let the fun begin.   No those are not ripples in the wall board but light casting shadows from the stair which are not complete or sealed up.

[azgreg]

Drywalling that stairwell doesn't look like the least bit fun.

[Redoverfarm]

Drywalling that stairwell doesn't look like the least bit fun.

Honestly it wasn't that bad.  The worse part was figuring out a way to work around the step issue.  Secondly handling the 12' sheets.  My neighbor whom I had been helping give me a hand so it went really fast.  Faster than the ceiling and the first couple sheets which I did solo.   

[Redoverfarm]

It's been a couple months since I last posted my progress.  After serious consideration I decided to have a professional finish the drywall.  Checked at the local "Tudors " restaurant being built in town and found a local person finishing the drywall.  He said he would do it when he finished that job.  Come to find out that he is not a perfect stranger and I had no idea that he finished drywall.  So I am on a waiting list with him now.  No hurry.  I figure that he could still get it done faster than me if I had to wait a month or two.  The angled ceiling is going to be a real pain to keep a straight line.  I managed to buy some reinforced drywall tape made specifically for that purpose which will help.

I did go ahead and finish off the storage areas behind the kneewall.  Maybe not a complete professional job given the steep angles in their ceiling and the majority had to be done lying down.  But once a coat of primer and paint is on it will be fine.  Shoot it is a extra closet and I will probably only access it a couple times a year.

Starting on the plumbing now.  Boy one does forget exactly how the main drops were installed in the floor to tie into the house line after 12 years. Yes I did take photographs which shows the install.  Probably not as many as I would have like to have taken but they were better than nothing.   Then I start guessing myself on whether I put enough fall in the lines.  There is  concrete floor covering them now.  Well I guess you could call this a "redneck check".  Using food coloring water I went to the furthest drop which was a toilet in the shop area.  I watched the colored water make its way to the main drop for the apartment that will feed into the house system.  Then to the basement where it will be connected and Yes red colored water appeared with no standing water.  So now I know that I at least got the line right. So as it stands there will be 2 toilets, kitchen sink, shower, bathroom sink and workshop sink in the new line.



 

[MountainDon]

Pictures are great. I take them and then half the time if I need to use them wish I had taken more and more detail.

I don't blame you for hiring out the drywall. Especially when it is not a simple square box.

[Redoverfarm]

I spent part of last week on the plumbing.  Managed to get everything stubbed off at the floor level.  The runs are a little longer than I would have liked but to eliminate compromising the trusses it was my only option.   The main sewer line due to the size of the pipe (3") there was no way I could keep it up within the floor joist bay.  There was also the drain lines for the kitchen sink and bathroom sink which I had to lay the main line adjacent to the side wall.  These will have a bulk head built to conceal them later with access panels for the traps and clean out.  All the lines and traps for the additional sinks are contained up within the floor joist bay so other than 1 small trap access panel the ceiling will be flat and not require a bulk head to conceal them.

Here is the main toilet drop, shower, vent stack to the sidewall drop to the floor.  A lot to cram into a small space but with a little figuring and a lot of fittings I managed.



Here is the main drop.  I purposely used the 2" sink drops on top to force the more or less solids below the concrete floor level ( 90 deg elbow) which will travel to the main sewer line in the house basement some 10' away.  You may notice that I only have one water line present which is a cold supply line running parallel to the stack from the floor.  This ties into the main water line of the house.  The hot water supply is in the far top right which comes from the storage area under the stairs.  I plan to sit the hot water heater for the apartment in that area.  There is an additional cold water supply line to there.  In addition to the water drop under the stairs for the hot water heater there is a drain line for a utility sink as well as a toilet flange for a workshop toilet under the stairs.  I am sure my wife will appreciate that as I will not be tracking sawdust through the house when the need arises.

[Redoverfarm]

Moving right along.  Finally got someone to finish out the drywall.  The person that I originally intended to do the work backed out as he had too much on his plate.  I am happy with the one I ended up with.  Maybe a little higher in cost but definitely a professional. He too was busy and asked if he could do it intermittent with his other jobs.  I told him that was fine. Being in a remote rural area unlike in a major city  the availability of finding skilled workers is hard to come by and some times you just have to wait if you can find someone.   So far all the taping and first coat applied.   It is nice to sit back and watch someone else do the work for a change.    That is until the job is done and I am handed the bill.  Well nothing is free any more.   

Can't wait until I can start on the flooring and move forward.  Been long enough. 

[Redoverfarm]

No I haven't quit.  Been slowly working on the apartment as time permits along with others things that seem to have taken precedence.  Update is the drywall is finished, primed and painted.  Have a little touch up to do.   I ran into a little problem with the angled joints.  I used a metal backed drywall tape on those joints to keep a straight line.  The drywall installer said that he doesn't normally use this type and said it may develop bubbles.  Well he was right.  Several places it appeared that the drywall compound did not adhere.  He brought some plastic reinforced tape and used it on several portions.  No problem with it.  Anyway I used a air stapler to draw it back down and seem to be holding.   I believe that when it was primed and painted the liquid might have saturated the tape and caused some of this.  So now I have been patching the divots with compound, sanding, priming and touch up painting.  Hopefully it will be finished.

Next step it to get all the receptacles and switches installed.  Then onto the flooring. 

[dablack]

We need pictures. 

Crazy about the bubbles.  I've never seen that.  Then again, I hate drywall so much, I mostly do shiplap. 

[Redoverfarm]

We need pictures. 

Crazy about the bubbles.  I've never seen that.  Then again, I hate drywall so much, I mostly do shiplap.

Better late than never.  Although hard to capture the bubbles this is one attempt.  In this photo there are two.  Over a 14' wall there are about 6 such places in the seam.   



This is what I used for that seam.  As you can see one side has two metal strips which actually is embedded into the joint compound.  The opposite side is just paper like regular joint paper tape. My drywall finisher cautioned against this at the onset.   I thought that I could repair them by shooting pneumatic staples and drawing down the metal but it just pops back up on either side of the staple.  So I am not satisfied and have already contacted the guy that finished the drywall and he is going to come and pull out the tape and use another joint tape with a hard plastic backing.  In fact he used it on three joints to finish out and there have been no problems.

[pocono_couple]

hi john,
  hope you guys have had a wonderful summer..  i found this post about the  metal reinforced tape rather interesting..  i tried the same thing on the angled portion between the walls and the ceiling on the second floor of our house in the poconos..  same result as yours..  it was rather disappointing..    one of the jobs on my to-do list when we return to PA next month will be to  rip that all out and replace it...    jt

[Redoverfarm]

hi john,
  hope you guys have had a wonderful summer..  i found this post about the  metal reinforced tape rather interesting..  i tried the same thing on the angled portion between the walls and the ceiling on the second floor of our house in the poconos..  same result as yours..  it was rather disappointing..    one of the jobs on my to-do list when we return to PA next month will be to  rip that all out and replace it...    jt

JT they do make a wider tape ( 4") and it has a plastic or fiberglass hinge.  My drywall finisher used some and no problems.  Cost is about 3 times.  The tape area is more than 1" which is probably the key.  I imagine it did not have enough tape to mud ratio if there is such a thing. 

[dablack]

Makes sense to me.  Glad you got it fixed.  I HATE DRYWALL!

Austin

[Redoverfarm]

Well as you have probably noticed that I haven't posted here in some time.  The reason is that I have went back to work.  The first of October I was asked to supervise a clean up crew in the county.  It is part of a $3.5 mil grant to aid in the flood/disaster that occurred in some 17 counties through out the state.  Pocahontas was one of those designated.  A lot of preliminary work had to be done before the actual work started.  Finding a suitable office, interviewing and hiring of crew members.  I has been no easy task given the population base here of less than 9,000.  As it stands the crew is comprised of 10 members.  Thus far I have only been able to find 8 suitable workers.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can fulfill the crew in force.  Never the less we have already been working short handed.  Normally I would not consider going back to work but this opportunity is one that affects how the county looks and it helps my neighbors restoring their landscape without any expenses on their part. I guess you could call it West Virginia Pride.    The grant is good until July 31, 2017.  The workers are those who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks.  In additional it will teach them new skills that that might not have already possessed.  Stream work is basicly the venue clearing obstructions with chain saws, trimmers, ropes, rakes and other hand tools.  Pretty labor intensive given the navigation through the stream beds.  The debri that is burnable is piled up along the streams and will later be burned once the fire season is lifted in January.   I believe I had posted pictures earlier of some of the devastation that occurred.

On an unrelated note Dogtrot has been winterized.  I still have to clean the gutters of leaves but other than that it is ready to weather the winter.  Come on springtime.   

[MountainDon]

Yes, John, your absence here was noted and I am happy to hear it was caused by you doing good for others who have suffered disaster, nit because you were ill or something. .  Be safe.

[azgreg]

What a great program.