This drywall lift is for rent at Home Depot. $30 for 24 hours. Totally worth Marc not getting a flat spot on his head again. If you are drywalling a ceiling, I more then recommend you rent one, I downright order it. It made this job 200x's easier.
Plus, look at what a groovy yellow dinosaur it is. It looks like some sort of Palaeozaic era spinning wheel.
As this photos illustrates, due to the lift Marc did much of the work installing the ceiling. **Unfortunately**, we only have one screw gun with a clutch so I would help measure and position the drywall, then walk away for 10 minutes. In my defense, I did clean and do laundry.
Here is a little notice for fellow renovators thinking about ripping down old plaster. STOP. Put down the hammer. Let me tell you my opinion.
#1 - It feels great to get rid of old plaster, but it is disgusting and hard work tearing it down, Not to mention VERY heavy.
#2 - It is nice to be able to get some insulation in there, but those old ceiling joists or wall studs are rarely at 16" on center, which means you will have to cut many, many pieces of itchy insulation.
#3- It is nice 
to have smooth drywall walls or ceiling again, but in addition to not being at 16" o.c. (which makes knowing where to screw up drywall a terror), those old joists/studs are not level with each other. Which means that you will most likely end up having wavy drywall, or will have to shim like a mad man. ------->
This all being sad, Marc would tear down the dining room ceiling again in a heartbeat. Me, I don't know. I like paint. I think paint can cure a lot of things.
And lastly, here's a funny story. Marc was cutting a hole for the volume control knob that controls the in-ceiling speakers. He got a little overzealous with the rotozip and broke off a big red hot tip which fell into the wall cavity. No big deal, right?
Not until your wall cavity starts smoking ever so slightly. (see below) So I did what every good DIY'er would have done. I went outside, scooped up a cup of dirt and poured it into the wall cavity. The smoke subsided.
I can't wait until someone else is renovating this house in 75 years. They will be cursing, realizing what a mistake having just torn the plaster off the dining room walls was, and they will yell, "Who were these crazy previous owners?!?!! They put DIRT in the walls!"
:)
Finally, we do something the easy way.
9/15/08
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dining room
thanks for posting the price on the drywall lift...we have to do our basement ceiling and I probably would have tried to bribe my bro to hold the boards up but now that I know it's so cheap - we'll just rent!
ReplyDeletekatie
Good tip on the lift.
ReplyDeleteA fellow renovator gave us a tip on ceilings. Nail 1x3 furring cross wise 16" oc, and then get on a ladder or scaffold and look down the length and tap them down to make them more close to the same height.
Alas, we used screws, but it seems to work (with a bit more work).
I took one look at the efficiency numbers (reality vs. theory) on bats, and remembered how nasty is is to install them, and I settled on spray foam.
You can see what it's like on RehabOrDie.com, but the long and the short of it is that it's in in 2 days or so, you can fill as little as a 1" cavity at R7 per inch. It's spendy, but it's a great vapor and moisture barrier and it will NOT settle.
Of course, this is utterly irrelevant to you since you're done with it and also you're in a more temperate clime anyway. Still, I thought I'd share. :)
And the world comes full circle again. Dirt? Diapers? What's the difference.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad we ended up ripping out our plaster, we figured out that we needed to replace a VIB (very important beam) or our ceiling *may* have crashed on my head while cooking. I'm just sayin'...
I took another look at the smoking cavity again, and I wanted to say, a) nice thinking on your feet with the dirt, and b) I feel your pain re hot bits.
ReplyDeleteOur hammer drill would loosen up on the masonry bit and get really, REALLY hot. As I pulled it out of the wall and through the 2x4, you could see it burn and smoke. I was glad that I had brick and plaster there instead of anything flammable. Except, of course, the construction adhesive! :O
How much drywall did you guys end up hanging? I'm planning to drywall at my place but am a bit worried about the load on the floor of 40 sheets of 90 lb drywall. How did you guys manage to store it all?
ReplyDeleteBeen there. From the filthy, heavy plaster demolition to the late but wonderful 'discovery' of the rental drywall lift (an absolute necessity for 12'drywall--my head and flimsy arms couldn't take the load). Three different methods to level a ceiling. Third one, with variable width shims, laser level, and hat channel, the winner. Many more rooms to go. No between the walls dirt fire extinguisher...yet.
ReplyDeleteWell done.