Rec Room
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UncleMac
Posts: 12,920 Member
Part of what started off this project was the layout... the useless hallway, the oversized laundry room and the disco-era rec room.
I don't know which was worse; the rec room with it's awful with nasty smelly carpet glued to tiles which were stuck to the concrete. The ceiling had faux wooden beams; the wood was real but it wasn't structural. There was a dry bar in one corner, an electric fireplace in another corner and one wall was covered by a home-built entertainment centre of sorts.
At least the laundry room wasn't as nasty... although it wasn't great either... The green indoor-outdoor carpet wasn't glued down; the laundry sink was inaccessible etc...
So I knocked down the drywall and determined neither the hallway walls nor the shared wall/closets between the laundry and rec room were weight bearing... so I could remove them and did so. In this picture, the tarp on the right is covering the stairs (to keep dust from going upstairs), part of the hallway is still intact but the closet walls are gone. The pattern on the floor shows where the walls were formerly found.
I don't know which was worse; the rec room with it's awful with nasty smelly carpet glued to tiles which were stuck to the concrete. The ceiling had faux wooden beams; the wood was real but it wasn't structural. There was a dry bar in one corner, an electric fireplace in another corner and one wall was covered by a home-built entertainment centre of sorts.
At least the laundry room wasn't as nasty... although it wasn't great either... The green indoor-outdoor carpet wasn't glued down; the laundry sink was inaccessible etc...
So I knocked down the drywall and determined neither the hallway walls nor the shared wall/closets between the laundry and rec room were weight bearing... so I could remove them and did so. In this picture, the tarp on the right is covering the stairs (to keep dust from going upstairs), part of the hallway is still intact but the closet walls are gone. The pattern on the floor shows where the walls were formerly found.
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This picture is from the opposite side of the room after the hallway walls are gone...
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Long story short, I ended up finding a small crack in the foundation which I injected with foam to repair... then used a membrane paint to seal the foundation to keep water out... Once that was done, I put up rigid foam insulation as previously there was no insulation and no vapour barrier... Then I framed in walls, reducing the laundry room to a more normal size... and making the rec room larger... as in 24 feet long by 14 feet wide... big enough for a pool table. Over the past few months, I've been wiring in lights, etc and now I'm finally to the point of adding the last bit of insulation... fibreglass mats...
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And so the drywalling begins... A few years ago, I bought this drywall lift while it was on sale.
Generally putting drywall on a ceiling is a huge nuisance... nearly impossible to do without two people AND some way of bracing the drywall up until it's secured in place... Having the lift allows me to do this solo.
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So far, so good... I put up four more 12'x4' sheets including cutting out light fixtures & vents.
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Two steps forward... le sigh...
If you look closely at the picture above this post, across from the rectangular cutouts (vents), there is a lump in the centre sheet of drywall. Initially I was going to leave it... but my fussy nature showed up. I ended up removing half the screws, letting the sheet partly down so I could access the space above where I found one of the braces (similar to this one) was 1/4" too low. So I shaved off the extra 1/4" and screwed the drywall back up again. Problem solved.
After fixing the issue, I put up the final 12'x4' sheet. My back was starting to get grumpy so I decided to work on the walls for a while instead.
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The 12'X4' panels are a bear to wrestle around but the advantage of having fewer seams to fill should more than make up for the extra grunting & sweating...
Also very glad I bought the rotary cutting tool for going around windows doors etc.. It does a great job!!
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Ceiling is done and I'm putting drywall over the HVAC ducts.
I got tired of drywall so I decided to hang the door to the laundry room...
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So much work accomplished last week. Nice job doing it solo!1
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Another productive day. The most challenging wall so far, I would say...
Oops!! I started writing 0.5 of an inch and that looked wrong so I changed it to 1/2 inch... but I missed a number.
The rim joist itself was level and plumb. The bottom sill and the studs of the upper area, however, weren't straight. I used a saw to remove around half of an inch in two areas (they're lighter in colour) and then used a hand plane to smooth things out.
How much did I cut & shave? Well...
Once I got that sorted out, I cut strips of half inch plywood which I placed at several points to create a more level and plumb surface for the drywall... and then I hanged up the drywall... I think it's looking good so far...
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Wow. Amazing job. 👏👏👏👏2
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Not sure if this panoramic pic will work or not... The rec room is nearly 24' x 15' so my pool table will fit...
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Tape and mud... mud and tape... rinse and repeat... lol
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Looks fantastic! So much work though!0
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I'm looking forward to finishing up the mudding. Should be done tomorrow, I think. Working above my head on the step ladder isn't making my back happy. The last hour today, I stopped mudding and did some sanding on the ground-level stuff as I was getting creaky.Looks fantastic! So much work though!
The laundry room mudding will be easier since there's no drywall on the ceiling. Once the walls are done, I'll add a t-bar dropped ceiling.2 -
Sanding sanding sanding... At this rate, I might be priming tomorrow...
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To help keep the dust out of the rest of the house, I put two large box fans in the windows, blowing out. This makes the room is at lower pressure than the rest of the house... so I'm literally drawing air from the rest of the house... and dust can't swim against the movement of air. So far, it seems to be working well.1
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Here's my dust abatement strategy (as per above) and while it isn't a complete solution, it works well.
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After finishing up for the day, I hit the shower. When I took off my iWatch, I chuckled and took a pic to show Pam later.
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