FINISHED IN 2020! Sharward's Partial Garage Conversion

How much does the drywall lifter lack of allowing you to touch the wall with a panel? Steve

At least a foot.

Can you post a pic of the lifter in position up against whatever "roadblock" there is, so I can see the casters/legs and where the wallboard support sits? Preferably shot from along the same wall, looking at the "gap" between where the sheet of wallboard would go and the studs? Steve

knightfly wrote:

Can you post a pic of the lifter in position up against whatever "roadblock" there is, so I can see the casters/legs and where the wallboard support sits? Preferably shot from along the same wall, looking at the "gap" between where the sheet of wallboard would go and the studs? Steve

Well I can't right now because I took the lifter back to The Stickhouse on Sunday so that he and his contractor could use it on Monday morning. But your illustration is just about dead on... Except the "stud frame" is actually a stud frame with OSB already on it (a shear wall). The white area in front of that is the gap, and the "obstruction" is the soleplate of the inner leaf wall -- which I could remove, but then I'd risk rolling the drywall lifter off the slab and that would ruin the laminate underlayment moisture barrier I have attached. No biggie -- I'll do that wall with a helper. I have a couple of people I can call upon and probably will do so this weekend. :) In other news... Green Glue arrived today!! 8) In reviewing Kathy's thread, I noticed this post from back in March where she learned hwo to use a nail gun. Prior to reading that, I have to admit I was more than a bit nervous about the prospect of using a nail gun for the inner leaf framing -- but my landscaper buddy (who cut my concrete for me -- remember?) said he has one he'd be happy to loan to me. Well, I'm quite inspired by Kathy's experience, so I'm a lot less afraid of the idea of using the nail gun now! 8) Or maybe it's just that I refuse to be upstaged by a girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl. :lol: :P ;-) With Brian wrapping up his drywalling with the drywall lifter, and a case of Green Glue in my possession, soon there will be nothing holding me back from a major spurt of progress!! :twisted: I'm considering scheduling some time of of work again to do construction -- maybe doing the "taking one day off per week" thing like I did at this time last year. Holy crap -- It just "hit me" that I was working on this darned thing "at this time last year"! :shock: :evil: :P ;-) --Keith :mrgreen:

Check out what I wrote 11 months ago!

On September 28, 2005, I wrote:

. . . I still figure that I won't have a "grand opening" until late Winter or early Spring. Maybe that's pessimistic, but I've learned that this project is taking a lot longer than I ever imagined it would. We moved into the house in May 2004, and I honestly figured I'd be up and running with my music room before 2004 ended! :lol:

Late Winter or early Spring? It's mid-Summer and I haven't even started my inner leaf framing yet!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: It's a good thing I'm just "rolling with it" and not stressing out about the time it's taking! :lol: :lol: (Am I? :shock:) --Keith :mrgreen:

Ok, so tell me now... You wanna predict a finsh date now? You seem to be rolling along a little faster. I think your floor took a lot of time and was REALLY involved, BUT...you got through it!! :D So, as I said...your estimated finsh date is??? (BTW, I'll know in about a week about the TOTAL financing to get everything done...My target date is Christmas, but after looking at all these threads that ended up taking years... :shock: ...I just don't know if I'll be able to finish it that quick... But you know what??? I've got CONFIDENCE!! :D :D :D I've got DETERMINATION!!! :D :D :D I've got a little "knowledge" under my belt!! :D :D :D Uh...I've got no money... :( (but I'm still "in there"... :wink:)

Keith: Your thread has seemed to un-ceremoniously pass 1000 posts.... ONE THOUSAND!? Are we all headed in that direction, we who persist? Imagine: a thousand candles on cake frosted with sheetrock joint compound! K

You sure are right about that slab work and all the preparation that was involved. Holy crap! A little part of me thinks that I might be done before 2006 ends. However, in order to keep my sanity, I have gotten out of the time frame setting business! Spring 2007 is probably more realistic.

camistan wrote:

...My target date is Christmas, ...

Stan, that's a fine target date. Just don't attach a year to it! :-) I WILL be finished by Christmas, I'm just not sure which Christmas it will be. I projected November 2005 as my opening date with great celebration and fanfare. Here I am almost a year later still doing some construction work. :-( My new goal is: It will be done when it's finished. I'm not going anywhere and as Keith has said elsewhere, why spend all this time and money doing this (I long ago gave up on the idea that it was "fun") and then have it look and sound like crap? I probably COULD have finished up 6 or 7 months ago but it would have been a terrible studio. This forum provides an intangable incentive to do things better than we might settle for if we didn't have all of our friends watching over our shoulder. :-) Peer pressure can be a good thing too. len

I went to Contractor's Warehouse today to buy screws (2½", 3", and 3½"), hard hats for my buddy and myself, and a screw gun holster (thanks for the tip in your thread, Dan!). Hopefully I'll be picking up the drywall lifter tonight after work at The Stickhouse. 8)

:? hardhats??????????

Hardhats are a good idea, really, if you consider that the weight of a sheet of drywall falling from 10 feet could potentially kill you (although, even the hardhat might not protect much from getting a broken neck), or at least ruin your day, by busting a cheekbone or fracturing a skull..... And yeah, as most contractors might not use them on residential jobs, THEY are more experienced with construction and its hazards, and so much more likely to avoid incidents needing protection (although, it may only take one to change your life forever)...

jammin dad wrote:

:? hardhats??????????

Yeah -- what he said. ;-) Plus, the operator's manual of the Telpro Panellift says to wear one. --Keith :mrgreen:

I work construction,cranes,ect. hardhats are good for stopping a 3/4 inch bolt from penatrating your skull but most of the hazards you encounter in residental type setting other than a 2x4 falling a story or two it seems a little overkill. As in what Luftweg said it wont stop you from getting you neck broke or jamed from a sheet of drywall. If you have somebody working above you where the danger of handtools dropping on you they can come in handy.

jammin dad wrote:

... If you have somebody working above you where the danger of handtools dropping on you they can come in handy...

A good rule of thumb might be to use a hardhat in instances where your co-workers names are something like: Larry, Shemp, Curly, Chico, Harpo, Bud, Lou, Stan, Olly, Laverne, Shirley, Lucy, Ethel, Groucho, Cosmo, or just plain Moe... Or, maybe better off hiring the job out entirely... For me, I'm always worried that the other guy is NOT looking out to avoid injury to ME (although, I'd like to think that I'm doing the reverse).... K

The only thing i would worry abought when hanging drywall is not cutting myself with a utility knife or slipping and running a screw thru my hand. :P hanging celing never used a lift, did it the old way(strong helper and trusty deadman.

Well, none of the overhead stuff was done today, so the hardhats stayed in my car. But, some good points have been made about what hard hats are good for and what they're maybe not so good. Nevertheless, the operator's manual of the drywall lifter says to wear one, and that's what I'm going to do when I'm working that machine. :) My good friend Gavin, who accompanied me on my road trip to see the Dream Theater shows back in March, came through for me today and spent the day helping me with drywall today. 8) He was a huge help. For much of the day we were pretty productive, with Gavin cutting the pieces and me driving the screws, and the both of us lifting the larger pieces into place. Not a whole lot of progress to show though. I'll get going on it some more tomorrow. Here I am spreading the acoustic sealant in the seams on the first layer. Are we having fun yet? Here's a wide shot of the scene of the crime. I called a quits after Gavin left and I was too pooped to put anything away! :roll: Here's the state of the back wall as of this moment... First layer done, second layer about 80% covered, with lots more screws to drive. You can't really tell from the photo, but the top two feet is actually the first layer showing. --Keith :mrgreen:

You can't really tell from the photo, but the top two feet is actually the first layer showing.

well you CAN tell by the way the caulk on the first layer going behing the second, anyway, flipped through the topic (took some time, yes) but missed the post about how many layers your putting up on the inside? two or three? if your going for three and are using 2400x1200mm gypsum you could turn them horizontally, I founf out itäs a LOT easier to put up gypsum at that height when they're lying down.. anyways, looking good, keep them pictures coming. a

The wall I'm working on right now is actually the middle leaf in a three leaf wall. :roll: There is OSB sheathing on that wall on the garage side for seismic stability. The other side is my office, which has one layer of 1/2" drywall on it. Since beefing up the office wall was not really practical, my strategy is to disproportionately increase the mass on the middle leaf and have a generous air gap between inner leaf and middle leaf. So, I plan to use three layers of 5/8" drywall over the 3/8" OSB that is there, plus cover the whole thing with one layer of leftover 1/2" drywall with Green Glue on that the back of that last layer. That will give me about 2 3/4" of mass, with Green Glue that will in theory make it behave like about 4" of mass. My inner leaf walls and ceiling will eventually consist of OSB sheathing plus three layers of 5/8" drywall, most likely with Green Glue on the final layer. Iin the event that my three leaf wall performs poorly on the office side, I'll add a layer of 5/8" drywall to the office side and use Green Glue when doing so. Thanks for your interest! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

I had a semi-productive day today. Lazy start (kind of achy from yesterday). When procrastination became pathetic, I pushed myself out there this afternoon. ;-) Then I realized the source of my procrastination... How the heck am I going to get that 8 foot long by 2 foot wide piece in place without the drywall lifter? Then I realized -- while I may not be able to get close enough to the wall to use the lifter exactly as designed, I can definitely use it to help me get the thing off the ground and close to where I need it! 8) So, after some tinkering I managed to raise it up about 8 feet, then I climbed the ladder under it, pushed up on it with both hands, then flopped it 90 degrees into place, with its bottom edge resting on the top edge of the partially completed second layer below it. A couple of little nudges later, I drove some screws into it, and... There it is! :twisted: I then took care of the small area on either side. It may not seem like much, but I was kind of dreading lifting that long 40 pound piece into place on my own, but the lifter made pretty easy work of it. :D We'll see how much I can get done this week and the upcoming three-day weekend. Hopefully I'll be done with drywalling that wall and the ceiling so that inner leaf framing will begin soon after! --Keith :mrgreen:

I had a semi-productive day today. Lazy start (kind of achy from yesterday). When procrastination became pathetic, I pushed myself out there this afternoon. ;-) Then I realized the source of my procrastination... How the heck am I going to get that 8 foot long by 2 foot wide piece in place without the drywall lifter? Then I realized -- while I may not be able to get close enough to the wall to use the lifter exactly as designed, I can definitely use it to help me get the thing off the ground and close to where I need it! 8) So, after some tinkering I managed to raise it up about 8 feet, then I climbed the ladder under it, pushed up on it with both hands

Still waiting on that picture I asked about, might be able to help with future snags... Steve

From Marc's thread...

guitardad72 wrote:

it appears you are using acoustic sealant in between drywall pieces on same layer not just around perimeter of layer, as apposed to mud/tape joints of drywall pieces together and backer rod/caulk around parameter . . .

Yeah, I'm just using acoustic sealant on all the seams, no backing rod. It's already pretty much air tight -- I just did that because it's quick and resilient. I know that technically I should probably use mud and tape. I'll definitely do that on the seams of the final layer of my inner leaf though (the one people will actually see). I'll definitely use backing rod and acoustic sealant on my inner leaf tops, bottoms, and corners on every layer. --Keith :mrgreen:

I have been trying to catch up here and have been running through all this progress in your studio. Amazing stuff!

I was actually thinking the same thing to myself about the whole mud/tape vs. caulk thing. So I guess it's safe to say that it's really not a big deal to use caulk everywhere then right? Just want to be clear.