Another weekend, another piece of drywall

Yes, that's right. We managed ONE piece of drywall this past weekend. But to be fair, it was a REALLY tough piece.

Remember this?



Yes, that really was ... uh ... god, I suck at math ... um, close to EIGHT months ago. Yeah. Anyway, if you don't recall, that's the hole we had to cut in the drywall (plaster, actually - more on that in a bit) so the plumber could run the vent stack for the new bathroom up the wall, through the attic, and out the roof.

Well, we wanted to make sure we had a goodly amount of time in which to tackle drywalling over that particular hole, so we waited until this weekend. And it's a good thing we did.

Saturday started with a trip to, of course, Home Despot, where we picked up a couple of 2x2s and a few steel brackets. We need these to create nailing edges for the drywall to screw into. (As a general aside, anytime you have to make an extra trip to the hardware store to pick up material just to make sure you have something to drive screws into, you're in for a long day.)

Once we got home, it was time to move all the stuff out of the front hall, and hang a sheet of plastic across the entrance to make sure the dust didn't coat the entire living room. We - okay, the War Department - initially thought the dust wouldn't be too bad, given that it was plaster we were dealing with and not the dust factory that is drywall, but within about thirty seconds of starting to work, I knew we'd need a dust barrier.

The first step was to even off the sides of the plaster with the existing studs inside the wall. We hadn't been too fine with this when we first cut the hole as we were more concerned with just opening up the wall for the plumber. Of course, now that there was a pipe running up the right side of the wall, this was a little more difficult that it would have been if we'd just cut it better the first time. But, armed with a drywall saw, a sharp utility knife, and the godsend of a woodworker's rasp, I managed to trim both side edges flush with the studs. Of course, I managed to hurt myself (that's right, the Injury Report makes a triumphant return this post!) and cover myself with a thick layer of plaster dust in the process, but if nothing else, home renovations are sacrifice personified (that's deep, I think I'll get it put on a T-shirt or something).

Anyway, with the plaster trimmed back, it was time to install the nailing edges. Of course, this wasn't quite as easy as just lining up the 2x2 with the edge of the existing studs - oh no. You see, the plaster on the walls averages 3/4 of an inch thick, whereas the drywall is a 1/2-inch. Yes, I said it averages. To get the spacing right, I had to use a piece of scrap drywall (fortunately, we had enough lying around) fastened to a piece of scrap 2x2 to draw a mark on the parts of the wall that weren't blocked by the vent pipe.

To get around the vent pipe, I had to use a piece of half-inch plywood fastened to three brackets that would fit just behind the pipe - but not too far, or I wouldn't be able to drive in the screws. Needless to say, all this took some time.

Sigh.

I really wish I'd taken a picture, but by the time I got the nailing edges installed and the piece of drywall cut to fit (only took three trips up and down the stairs to do it - it wasn't exactly a square piece, even with the plaster trimmed back), I was covered in dust, tired, hot, and somewhat unwilling to take the drywall out of the hole just so I could go and get my camera.

So, no work-in-progress shots I'm afraid, but I do have one of the finished project:



So yeah. That's a weekend's worth of work right there. Oh, and of course, it's time for another edition of

The Injury Report

The plaster on our walls is made of concrete - or something very close to it. At any rate, it's very sharp.

I scraped my right pinkie finger on some protruding plaster inside the wall while I was trimming the sides of the hole. It bled somewhat, but not too badly.

While trying not to touch the injured part of my pinkie to the plaster on the back of the wall, I scraped the cuticle of my right index finger across what proved to be an exceptionally sharp part of the plaster I was attempting to trim. It didn't bleed as much, but hurt much, much more.

Anyway, I hope to get one more post in before our travel-imposed hiatus next weekend. But if not, well... see you in April.