#I can tear down walls and build framing and get that drywall up taped and fucking plastered

[undeadhousewife]

Sometimes I feel I'm skill-less but then I look at my bedroom wall where a second door used to be, where we removed it and I realize how absolutely seamless it is. My fucking reno work is amazing. I can sling dry wall and plaster, I can paint entire rooms with out tape or drop cloth.

[d-noona]

AERO

SUMMARY: In a future of political, economic and moral collapse, a genetically enhanced superhuman prototype named Y/N escapes from military confines and dwells amidst the decadent underground street life of *Seoul* to avoid government agents who want to bring her back into the fold.

WORD: 1485

Jeon Jungkook x Reader

M.List | CH. 03

CHAPTER 02 - PAST AND PRESENT

The year was 2027

Y/n, despite the years that have gone by, has remained unchanged. Her aging has stopped abruptly, she still looks like a girl that's 18 of age. Her brown eyes are piercing and cold, her dark hair alive with the wind framing her beautiful face, lost in a train of thought that has haunted her for many, many years.

"The escape was not my idea. I mean escape to what? We didn't know if there was anything outside the walls of the corporation. Sometimes it seemed like it happened to someone else. Like maybe it was a story I heard. The hardest part is not knowing if any of them made it. If I knew for sure that I was the only one left, it would be worse. At least now I can make up lives for them. Like maybe Hoseok's an underground dancer...or an architect. Taehyung could probably be a photographer or a rapper for some idol group. The truth is they'd be just like me, living on the run, always looking over your shoulder."

As Y/N is seated a top one of the highest tower in Korea, with glimmering lights of Seoul on the background, with no harness, no way of getting up or down without diving into an unknown death if the wind blew the wrong way. She just sat there with tears falling from her eyes, still thinking about her horrible past still staring into the night.

"Hope is for losers. It's a con job people trip behind until they finally get a grip on the cold hard truth. But still I hope they're out there. Somewhere...and that they're okay." As her trail of thought was finally cut off y/n stands from the tower and jumps off, falling flat on her feet, landing on the cold hard ground at least 30 stories up, with a grace of a beautiful feline. She stands up and dusts her hands off. Rides on her motor bike unto the busy streets of Seoul to her home, to get some sleep.

As the night passes on, Y/n reaches her shared apartment, she attempts to sleep as she arcs her back. Y/n's eyes were tight shut tight, flinching from the inner concussion of her dream. Grainy, black and white images seen. A line of men and women, heads shaven, saluting. Feet marching in unison. There is only a roaring, rushing sound, and a kind of word babble of distorted, amplified commands, PA Speakers, megaphones. Y/N disoriented, wakes, hugs herself as she trembles with the images playing through her head. Y/n being on a plane crash, men in white gowns ushering her, sent over to a laboratory. Injected with serums of medicines unknown, being studied, surveyed. A human Guinea pig. Along with other kids. Hoseok and Taehyung with her in a cell. They were placed in a treadmill, wired and taped up with every kind of sensing device and electrode, with a tube tapped in their mouths, running with intense concentration.

Day by day the kids disappeared, their numbers from a hundred reduced to half, then down to at least 20. Then it was just Y/N, Taehyung and Hoseok and two other girls that seem to be beaten out ready to die any minute, it was just the five of you was left. Not knowing where the others went or whether they're still alive. Images kept floating in Y/N's head as she continues to have intense tremors. On a pupil scanned on a laser, electrodes being attached to her scalp. A needle rising against a surgical light. Cuts made on her body, stitched and seamed together like a rag doll, abstract figures in medical smocks, and no faces. An instructor standing against a large screen, flashing words: DUTY, DISCIPLINE, TEAMWORK.

As Y/n struggles she attempts to gather her strength, stands and holds on, she slams her bathroom mirror, staring at her own reflection, then glances down her hand, which is still shaking with a tremor. She clenches it into a fist and then bends to splash cold water on her face as she uncaps some pills and pops two in her mouth. She waits till the shaking stops and everything normalizes. She heads out of her bathroom and hears a very familiar voice.

"This sucks" says the girl's voice. She turned around replied with a smile "What sucks?" Y/n walks straight in her shared apartment's living space to see her flat mate and best friend, Park Choon-Hee, 25 years old, fashionista, foodie, who happens to be wearing some nicely ironed blue scrubs, brushing her teeth, with a hungover look attempting to get ready for work. Choon-hee is a respiratory therapist working at a nearby run down hospital in the city, tending to most of the unfortunates of Seoul. Y/n considers Choon-hee as family, since they live together and bicker a lot. She's a well-rounded person, with a bright personality, loves to drink, loves to eat, turns red as tomatoes whenever she's shy and loves Korean men and women. Y/n tilts her head, smirking at her friend for too much partying the night before, as she observes her surroundings, the apartment that they call home is an unfinished building, a luxury high-rise in the making until the day of construction simply stopped. The walls are taped drywall, spray-painted with colorful undulating graffiti by somebody's old boyfriend.

This is where Y/n and Choon-Hee have been crashing for at least the last several months, dominating the room are Y/N's bikes, an ugly but fast messenger bike and a much faster rice-burner motorcycle with a race faring. On top of Y/n's bike lays Choon-hee's underwear as she patiently waits for them to dry. Y/n annoyed by the sight, starts plucking her roommates undies off her baby.

Choon-Hee pouts as she finishes picking up her underwear from the floor and sits on the chair near the bar like counter table then looks at Y/N "This, all this sucks. I come home, it's 3:00 am, and you're still out. I feel like I got hit by a cement truck and you've been up for an hour bouncing around. That by definition sucks."

Y/n grabs a cup out of their empty drawers, pours a hot cup of brewed coffee and hands it to Choon-hee with a smirk on her face. "I made you coffee. That oughta help you cope up with the injustice of the world a little."

Choon-hee thankfully grabs the cup from Y/n, inhales the scent of caffeine, and slowly takes a sip of her Joe. She looks up at her roommate "Thanks. It's starting to kick-in" whilst taking another sip of her coffee "I feel almost human." As Choon-hee heads off to her room, Y/n replies "Yeah, me too." She studies herself in the mirror, with an enigmatic expression "Almost."

Evolution and technology was the key for everything in this brave new world, as they would call it. The world has turned into a very toxic and corrupt place. It wasn't the same as it used to be; or y/n re-calls things. Y/n wheels out her messenger bike out of the apartment, which has no door, only a piece of plywood which she slides across the opening. Y/n has a big glazed donut clinging in her mouth, which she eats throughout as she approaches their next door neighbor.

The corridor is lit by sunlight leaking in from the outside. No utilities. No rent. No problem. As she makes her way along the corridor she hears music and somewhere a TV blares the news.

"Knock, knock" as y/n gently taps the plywood. Y/n continues to go in the unit and smiles upon inside seeing her friend Felix, with his wife Lita and their little boy Oli. Lita was busy putting books into a knap sack for Oli as the little boy is dawdling with his breakfast. Felix sits on the edge of the bed, hunched and pale.

"Hi Guys" as she greets Lita and Oli, then turns to Felix "Let's roll, hotshot."

Felix looks longingly at his bicycle, leaning against the wall. He coughs, Lita flashes a worried look at Y/N. "Gotta take a personal day. Whatever it is I got, I'm biting it bad Y/N." as he hugs himself and shivers. Y/N tries to ignore the fact that Noel is sick to avoid giving him a pitiful look. She smirks at him in response "its payday today. Do you need me to pick up your check?"

Lita looks at y/n pleadingly and smiles. "You're the best yn-ie". Y/n heads out the apartment and winks at Oli who winks back.

[oneweekoneband]

If you get on folk music's most celebrated highway and drive north along the shore of the biggest freshwater lake on earth, cross Knife River and angle right onto a red-dirt gravel driveway that winds almost a full mile down through tangles of lupine and sumac and quaking aspen, you will find, set back on a sloping lawn, a gray house with a dark red front door. Ten years ago, I lived there. The plot of land where it stands used to hold a different house, white clapboard with blue trim; I watched one morning before fourth grade as a bulldozer ripped open the front wall of that house and something yellow — a forgotten toy, or maybe just a piece of insulation — tumbled from what used to be my bedroom to the grass below. We broke ground on the new gray house just before the leaves fell that year. My mother, an architect, drew the plans. My stepfather, a contractor, worked to frame it and roof it and hang the drywall. By the next summer, the house was complete enough that the three of us were able to move upstairs from the single dusty room we'd been sharing in the half-finished basement, and that fall, Suzanne Vega released Songs in Red and Gray.

---

The facts: Songs in Red and Gray is Vega's first album after her divorce from Mitchell Froom, who is the producer of 99.9F and Nine Objects of Desire as well as the father of her only child, Ruby. In the press she remained adamant that the album was not explicitly biographical, that only a handful of songs dealt directly with her emotions and experiences regarding their split, and that in no way should it be considered a concept album about her divorce. Nevertheless, the theme of divorce runs through the songs the way a vein of iron runs through earth, deep and heavy and unyielding. I have no way of knowing if, when I whirled around our new kitchen to "Priscilla" with tattered chiffon scarves from the dress-up basket swirling in my wake, that same vein already lay beneath the smooth tile and fresh paint and slab foundation of the gray house. I do know that, five years later, before we'd even installed the upstairs shower or finished the front porch, my mother and I moved out for good.

---

Trying to explain Songs in Red and Gray feels like trying to explain this house to you: the house my mother dreamed, the house my stepfather built. I could sketch a floor plan, spread out paint samples, tighten focus on any number of tiny details and fixtures to illustrate a point, but to me it is not about any small part of the whole. It's about the air inside. How it changed. This album sounds different than any of the work that came before it — there's a different atmosphere, a heaviness and a hugeness, a flung-wide feeling that could be freedom or grief, depending on the light. What must it feel like, spending years of your life laboring over a project with someone only to come to a point when the work is all that's left, and then not even that anymore? How do you learn to move alone through the space you once traversed together? This album starts with "Penitent" — once I stood alone so proud — and despite the name it is not so much a hymn of atonement as it is an exhale of long-held breath, a sigh of relief and frustration and pure honesty addressed to an indifferent god. Or husband. Or father.

---

If you're paying attention, you'll notice that the divorce already happened. Before the first house even got torn down, before I ever sang along to "Soap and Water" — daddy's a dark riddle, mama's a headful of bees — I'd learned to live like the little kite, carried away on the wayward breeze. My stepfather built the gray house; my father haunted it. Telephone calls and bad dreams. Twice a month my mother would drive me to see him: six hours one way on a Friday night, six hours back on Sunday. She copied Suzanne Vega's first two albums onto a single cassette tape so we could listen straight through both, and I'd stare out the window, past the ghostly reflection of my own face, the shadowed ditches, the half-moon hanging in my hair, listening. Mostly I was silent but sometimes I'd sing along. My favorite was "The Queen and the Soldier." She closed herself up like a fan.

---

I said I did not want to dwell on the small parts of the whole but, actually, it’s the smallest things that snag, burned into the back of my brain like afterimage. The gray pewter vase held the deep red rose / one piece of coral shone white / by the brass candlestick near your red velvet coat / is everything I can recall of one night. Color makes this album what it is, and it’s color that comes back to me most readily in memory. When they were building the gray house they cut down my favorite rowan tree, the one split at the base into three trunks with a cleft just big enough to hold me. I can still see it in my mind’s eye. Whorls of white lichen like lace over the dark silver bark. Vivid red berries. Did you know that there’s a logic to the way languages develop words for color? First comes the differentiation of values: dark and light. Next is always red, because you need a word to call attention to blood.

---

The traditional way to trace a family history is by tree, but I find it easier to follow the path not branch to branch but split to split, a maze of rifts and cracks. My family tree reads like twigs scattered on the ground, like fortune-telling. The week I watched the bulldozer tear down the white house, my teacher instructed our class to create timelines of our lives. Include significant events, she said, like when you've moved or your family structure changed. As I began to track backwards through the number of ruptures and relocations, I became increasingly anxious; I could not see how to cram all of my significant life events onto the paper she had provided. Already there had been too much upheaval. At the far right edge of the ruler-straight line she’d drawn for us, I wrote, watched my house get torn down. I don’t remember what I left off the page to make sure everything fit properly, I only know that I must have done so, because never in my life have I managed to tell the full story in any one place.

---

What stuns me most about this album, even after all these listens, is its sense of control. Amazon’s reviewer wrote that it is “arranged with the meticulous precision of a butler laying silver on a table,” and although I think that wasn’t meant strictly as a compliment I can’t help but hear it as one. There’s something heavy and rich and ritualistic in it, but no sloppy decadence; more like something Catholic, explicitly — the Virgin Mary on a chain has hit me in the mouth again — and implicitly, echoes of sin and sacrament and guilt and ceremony. Old magics and new. Actions seem spurred not by abandon but by lucid calculation, every sentiment balanced in a cold and practiced hand before being placed — not hurled, not smashed, not brandished — placed, with exquisite care, in exactly the right spot. A long row of silver knives on a red tablecloth.

---

Outside the gray house with the red door, walking the windswept shoreline, I collected stones. Smooth and round and dark gray, some washed almost to perfect circles in the tumble of the lake. I’d fill my pockets and bring them home to line the windowsill or bookshelf, dropped them carefully into glass jars. When we were packing to move out, I remember thinking: what the fuck am I going do with all these rocks? It seemed absurd to lay them carefully inside a box and carry them away, but somehow more absurd to bring them back outside, dump them unceremoniously on the beach somewhere and leave. The title track of this album has a line that goes will you please tell me why I remember these things / after all of this time I don’t know, and it was that line that echoed in my head the first time I encountered the much-loved quote from Anne Carson’s “The Glass Essay” where the mother says, You remember too much. Why hold onto all that? And the narrator replies, Where can I put it down? In the end, I took the stones.

---

My mother and I moved into a new house, splintery blue shingles and a rust-smeared white screen door, and the week afterwards, I started high school. We pulled up the stiff shag carpet and painted the walls wearing torn jeans and ate dinner together every night. Like the Gilmore Girls, people said to us; I hadn’t seen the show so I didn’t know whether to confirm or deny. I’ve watched a few episodes now and the comparison seems fair, but what struck me as the greatest difference is the ease with which they draw honest emotional conversation out of each other, how willing they are to speak the names of what haunts them. What hurts them. Then again, once my mother asked me over a plate of eggs Benedict in a diner: how come you were always able to understand when to get out of a relationship? And I said: I think watching you get divorced twice taught me that breaking up was always possible.

---

Forgive me all my blindnesses / my weakness and unkindnesses. I have the only child’s predilection towards secrecy and silence, sharing myself only insofar as I reveal nothing that sits too close to the bone. I have, too, the only child’s myopic self-absorption; I tell history by telling the story of myself. It is hard for me to talk about my parents’ marriage because I have no memories of them together, aside from a single hazy impression of my mother at the kitchen sink in my fathers’ house, washing dishes, her dark hair still tumbling halfway down her back. In that memory, she is only a few years older than I am now. So much of this album recalls my past selves, my early private dramas of sorrow and self-creation, but when Suzanne Vega sings soap and water / take the day from my hand / scrub the salt from my stinging skin / slip me loose of this wedding band I’ve never not pictured my mother’s hands under the fauce, her bony knuckles and trimmed nails, and the ring from her second marriage, beaten with an intricate pattern of platinum and rose gold. Our hands look remarkably alike, but they are not the same hands. I am embarrassed to say that I do not know the story of how she left my father, nor the story of how she left my stepfather, from her perspective. I am not sure that I have ever asked her, and if she ever told me, I have failed to remember.

---

Whatever happened to the handsome fist? He’s here, of course, he always is — the puppeteer from “Machine Ballerina,” the adulterer from “Song in Red and Gray,” the imperious patriarch of “Penitent.” The last time I saw my former stepfather was when we ran into each other in the grocery store a few years back. He looked the same as I remembered: close-buzzed silver hair, rough suntan, crinkles around the eyes. I almost hid from him at first, nervous and expecting some sort of confrontation, but of course he was perfectly kind to me. Every man is not a fist, as it turns out. Or, I guess — some fists don’t come out swinging. Some fists clench tight because they don’t know how to loosen into a flat palm, allow themselves vulnerability. Some fists clench tight because all fears elide into each other, and there’s no way to know when it’s safe to let go.

---

Take what’s wrong and make it go right, you can / weave it like a prayer. This is the part where there should be some kind of revelation. The place where, having been tossed up in the air, the pins come down and I catch them, set them out in sequence so the story makes sense. But the problem is it isn’t a story; I didn’t toss the pins in the first place, and I can’t do anything but scramble to catch them as they come plummeting out of the sky one by one. I’ve never been any good at magic tricks. I can barely even shuffle cards. I tried to learn, bought a book and everything, but my hands wouldn’t do what my mind asked. My father could make coins disappear and reappear at will; it is the only thing I remember him doing that ever delighted me.

---

Two years after my mother and I moved out of the gray house, I quit speaking to my father. I did not know that I was going to do it — I just left one weekend and never went back. Two years after that, I graduated from high school; I had a rocky start to college, but in another two years I moved out on my own, for good. My mother started dating someone new — another builder, actually — and they’ve been spending every summer and some winters tearing up the house, redoing bits and pieces to make it more livable without altering the fundamental structure, its good old bones. He re-shingled the outside in raw cedar, which will, over time, weather into a beautiful shade of silver. But they won’t be around for that — the plan is to try to sell it in a couple of years and buy a plot of land somewhere outside of town, build a place of their own from the ground up. Whenever I’m back to visit my mother reminds me that eventually I’ll have to sort through the boxes of my old things and decide what to keep and what to throw away. But, she says, no rush.

---

This album ends with a song called "St. Clare." It is, actually, a cover — the original is by Jack Hardy, an old-school New York folk singer and long-time friend of Vega's who passed away in 2011.  Bold little bird / fly away home. Where is home, exactly? Pretty soon every house I’ve lived in before age eighteen will be closed to me forever. A few summers ago I almost made it back to the gray house with the red door — a friend from college came to visit and we drove up the shore together, past Knife River, right onto the gravel road which, as it turns out, is paved now, but I couldn’t bring myself to go all the way down the driveway. What was I afraid of? Seeing something? Or being seen? I couldn’t explain it. We turned around, headed back past the lupines and the sumac and the quaking aspen, back to the famous highway. I think, actually, we listened to that album on the trip — yowling at each other, hoooow does it feeeeeeel! To be on your own. No directioooon home. That was three years ago, and I haven’t been back since. Lately I’ve been fantasizing about driving up the shore again. What I miss more than anything is the landscape: the rock beach, the shadows under the pines, the way the sunlight scatters off the surface of the lake on a calm day. I would like to go back on a clear afternoon and sit next to the water and feel the wind in my hair. When you say home, actually, that’s what I imagine. Not a house at all, not even a person — instead, the atmosphere that holds them, the air that slips in and around and through those precarious human spaces. A place to breathe, a sense of change. Something wild. Something green.

[thecoroutfitters]

Of all our survival needs, shelter is high up on the list. It is shelter, along with clothing and heating, which helps us to maintain our body heat, regardless of how frightening the weather outside might get.

This explains why we all collectively spend roughly one-third of our income on housing, whether that is buying a home, renting one, renting an apartment, or even paying for a trailer to live in.

But what makes a house, or any of those other things I mentioned, work as a shelter?

Basically, it’s three things:

The ability to keep the rain off our heads

The ability to block the wind

The ability to hold in or hold out heat

While there are a lot of other factors that go into home design, it is those three things that have dictated the basic design concepts of homes since the beginning of time. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about living in a cave, a Mongolian Yurt, or a modern home, the walls and roof are there to accomplish those three basic tasks.

Everything else about home design is about making the space more comfortable to live in.

This is Why Conventional Preparedness Wisdom is Deadly!

Homes Under Attack

But as the recent spate of hurricanes has proven, not all homes are created equal. Sadly, many of the homes in Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other Caribbean Islands were severely damaged or even destroyed by the winds and flooding that those hurricanes wrought.

Granted, many of the homes destroyed in those hurricanes were not built to American standards, or even to the International Building Code standards. That’s because most of the homes that were destroyed belonged to the poorer people living in the islands, who build their homes however they can, out of whatever materials they can and with no attention to the building code.

But to be honest, American homes are hard pressed to survive such an onslaught, and many of those didn’t fare all that well either. The basic problem in those cases is usually flooding, which American home building techniques and the materials we use, can’t handle.

By comparison, I’ve spent a fair amount of time south of the border, in Mexico. Rather than being built out of wood, like our homes are, most of theirs are built out of cement block, with tile floors. While that may not make for as attractive a house, and it definitely doesn’t make for as well insulated a home, it does make a home that is much more water resistant. When those homes flood, it’s a mess to clean up, but that’s about it. They don’t have to tear out drywall, insulation, carpeting and underlayment.

If we were to adopt their building techniques, we would have homes that were much more resilient to hurricanes and other natural disasters. But there are tradeoffs as well, especially in the area of keeping our homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The only problem with that idea, is that most of us already have our homes built. So it would be impractical to build ourselves new homes and abandon our old ones.

With that in mind, what we really need to do is find a way to improve our existing homes ability to withstand the forces that nature can bring against them.

How Does Nature Damage Homes?

There are actually quite a number of different ways in which nature can damage our homes. Each natural disaster has its own damage it can produce. Even normal storms can cause damage. Allow me to briefly summarize this damage:

Hurricanes: High winds can tear off roofs, blow out windows, and even flatten walls. Flooding can weaken foundations and damage the materials the home is made of, especially on the interior of the home.

Tornados: Even higher winds than hurricanes produce can tear off roofs, drive loose objects through windows and some walls, and generally tear things apart.

Flooding: As with hurricanes, flooding can damage the materials the home is made of, requiring major rebuilding, as well as undermining the foundation.

Earthquake: Literally shakes the house to pieces.

Hail: Damage to roof shingles.

Wildfire: Burning the home down; many of the materials our homes are built from are flammable.

Of course, it’s unlikely that your home is in a place where you are subject to all of these possibilities. It seems that some parts of the country are more susceptible to some, while other parts of the country are more susceptible to others.

Nevertheless, while some of these forces of nature are so severe that there is nothing we can do about them, there are others which we can effectively combat, protecting our homes from damage and destruction.

Protecting Your Home from the Ravages of Nature

With all this potential for damage and destruction, it only makes sense to ensure that our homes are as well protected as possible. After all, for most of us, our home is our biggest investment. With that in mind, it only makes sense to take good care of it.

While there are specific actions that we can take to ensure the soundness of various parts of our homes and their ability to withstand damage, it should be noted that the overall maintenance and condition of your home is important. The better condition that your home is in, the more likely it will be to sustain rough weather, without damage.

Much of the damage which can happen to our homes starts with one loose board, shingle or brick. Wind or rain gets in there and the damage can spread. This can take minutes or years, depending on the nature of the damage and the severity of the weather.

But if we can deny the weather that first opening, we can avoid a lot of damage.

Windows

As we all know, glass is fragile, easy to break. Yet we still use glass windows for our homes, mostly because there really is nothing better to replace them with.

Oh, I suppose you could replace your glass window with a polycarbonate material, like Lexan, which is considerably stronger than glass, as well as more expensive, but even Lexan can be broken by objects driven by the wind.

Nevertheless, this is one option to consider.

Some people recommend taping windows with masking tape or packing tape to keep them from breaking, but that doesn’t work.

There are two basic problems with that. The first is that the tape only makes contact with a small amount of the window’s surface area, so the rest of the window can still bust out. The second is that the sun bakes the adhesive from the tape onto the window, making it hard to remove it.

The best way of protecting windows is probably the oldest, shutters. People have been using shutters to protect their windows since before glass was used in them. They aren’t all that popular today, but if you have shutters on your home; real shutters that is, you’re ready to protect it.

If you don’t have shutters, you can simulate them by cutting pieces of plywood and putting them over your windows. That’s quite effective in the face of a hurricane; but there usually isn’t enough time to even bother when there’s a chance of tornadoes.

Even thin plywood will offer a lot of protection to the glass, helping prevent it from being broken.

The other option is to add security window film on the inside of the windows. This is something like window tinting film, but it is clear and thicker than tint. What it does, in addition to making the glass stronger, is keep the glass in place, should it get broken, much like a car’s windshield is designed to stay intact, even when it is shattered.

Roofs

After windows, the roof is the most vulnerable parts of your home. Hail can fall upon it, causing damage and high winds from hurricanes or tornadoes can lift it right off the home, more or less intact, depositing it some distance away. It can also be damaged by tree limbs falling on it, as they break off of trees.

The typical asphalt or fiberglass tiles we use for roofs today are not the best roofing material you can buy. Nor is a typical two-sloped roof the best design. Roofs made with two opposing slopes leave vertical walls at the gable ends. In contrast, a hip roof, with four or more sloped surfaces, eliminates this problem. Eliminating the gable ends eliminates the large sail area for the wind to push against.

Standard two-sloped roofs can be converted to hip roofs by removing the trusses at the ends and framing in the hip roof portion. Any framing contractor can do this work. While it might be expensive, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as expensive as replacing the roof.

The biggest wind force working on a roof is updrafts. This is caused by wind hitting the wall of the home and looking for the easiest direction it can travel. Those updrafts catch on the roof overhang, pushing up on it and sometimes even tearing the roof off, lifting it right off the house. A smaller amount of overhang, with narrower soffits reduces this risk.

The other thing that should be done with roofs is to have the trusses installed with hurricane clips. These are metal straps, which attach the trusses more firmly to the wall structure, fighting against the propensity for the updraft to lift the roof off the home.

Another thing to consider is changing your roof shingles, replacing them with another material, which is less susceptible to damage. Of all the common roofing materials used, metal roofs are the best for this. Even if they become pock damaged by hail, it will not affect the ability of the roof to protect the home.

Finally, if you have any trees, whose branches overhang your home’s roof, you should cut off those limbs. This is especially true of old or diseased trees, where the branches might be weak and susceptible to breaking in high winds. A tree limb falling on your roof can do a lot of damage.

Exterior Walls

The exterior walls of your home are much less likely to become damaged than any other part. However, there are some things that can happen, especially if your home is not properly maintained.

High winds can peel off wood, aluminum or vinyl siding. All they need is a loose corner or edge. The corner trim on your home is intended to protect against this, so you want to check that your corner trim is firmly attached, that the siding does not extend out past the corner trim and that the siding is attached firmly to the home.

It’s also a good idea to caulk the seam between the siding and the corner trim. A good painter will do this when the home is painted. If you paint your home yourself, be sure to include this in your prep work.

Flooding

Of all possible damage that can happen to a home, flooding is the hardest to prevent and the hardest to repair.

Our homes are not designed to be boats or dams, withstanding the rising waters. Even so, there are some things that we can do.

Brick homes withstand flooding better than wood-sided ones do, as the brick is not as badly affected by the water. It also makes a better barrier against water, if it is properly sealed.

However, most brick homes will have spaces between bricks, near the bottom of the wall, which are not filled with mortar. This is done to allow vents for equalizing air pressure, as well as places for water to drain out of the wall. For the wall to be waterproof, these must be filled.

Even with this done, water can get into your home, simply by flowing under the doors. This is why most people who live in hurricane zones will put sandbags in front of their doors, anytime a hurricane is on the way. If you don’t have sandbags, the same thing can be done by filling kitchen trash bags 1/3 full of water, and attaching the drawstrings for those bags to the door frame, holding the bags up. The water in the bags turns the bags themselves into very effective barriers against minor flooding.

Of course, that’s only going to work for low-level flooding, say a foot or less. For more than that, you’d need to have either a sandbag wall running all the way around your home, an earthen berm, or one of the inflatable water dams (inflate with water), which have been designed to replace sandbag walls.

There are farmhouses and whole towns in North Dakota, which have been built with an earthen berm all the way around them. This was done to combat the annual spring flooding that happens there. It floods a lot because the nearby river dips south, and then turns north again, before going back south. So, that point where it turns back north stays frozen, while the farther south parts thaw, effectively putting a dam across the river and causing flooding.

Regardless of whether sandbags, inflatable dams or an earthen berm is used, the barrier must be out away from your home, leaving at least a three foot gap for you to walk through, checking for leaks. Some leaks are likely to happen, so you should have transfer pumps, which you can use to pump that water back out over the barrier.

While adding this sort of barrier is a expensive, as well as a lot of work, it’s the only sure way of protecting your home from flooding. So, if you are living in an area which is prone to having problems with floods, this is something that you might want to consider.

Overall, having a shelter is one survival need you have to start with. Now check your home and see if you can call it a safe shelter.

If it’s not, what do you expect to turn it into one?

This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[d-noona]

AERO

Chapter 2: Past and Present

"The escape was not my idea. I mean escape to what? They didn't know if there was anything outside the walls of the Corporation. I have forgotten what my life was like outside the Corporation. I don't even know who I am anymore. Sometimes it seemed like it happened to someone else. Like maybe it was a story I heard. The hardest part is not knowing if any of them made it. If I knew for sure that I was the only one left, it would be worse. At least now I can make up lives for them. Like maybe Yugyeom is an underground dancer...or an architect. Jinyoung could probably be a actor or a singer for some idol group. The truth is they'd be just like me, living on the run, always looking over your shoulder." - Seven

The year was 2027

Seven, despite the years that have gone by, has remained unchanged. Her aging has stopped abruptly, she still looks like a girl that's fresh out of puberty. Her brown eyes are piercing and cold, her dark hair alive with the wind framing her beautiful face, lost in a train of thought that has haunted her for many, many years.

As Seven is seated a top one of the highest towers in Korea, with glimmering lights of Seoul on the background, no harness, no way of getting up or down without diving into a certain death especially if the wind blew the wrong way. She just sat there with tears falling from her eyes, still thinking about her horrible past, staring into the night.

"Hope is for losers. It's a con job people trip behind until they finally get a grip on the cold hard truth. But still I hope they're out there. Somewhere...and that they're okay."

Seven's trail of thought was finally cut off, she stands from the tower and jumps off, falling flat on her feet, landing on the cold hard ground at least 30 stories up, with a grace of a beautiful feline. Seven stands up and dusts her hands off. Rides on her motor bike unto the busy streets of Seoul to her home, to get some sleep.

As the night passes by Seven reaches her shared rundown apartment, she attempts to sleep as she arcs her back like a cat stretching to get a good use of space.

Seven's eyes were shut tight, flinching from the inner concussion of her dream. Grainy, black and white images seen.

A line of men and women, heads shaven, saluting. Feet marching in unison. There is only a roaring, rushing sound, and a kind of word babble of distorted, amplified commands, PA Speakers, megaphones.

Seven disoriented, wakes, hugs herself as she trembles with the images playing through her head. Her being on a plane, the plane crashing in a middle of nowhere, smoke filling the air as she struggles to breathe, blood lots of blood, men in white gowns rushing and ushering her limp body, a helicopter, then all she sees are white walls, lights, medicines, surgical masks then she realizes that she in a laboratory.

Injected with serums of medicines unknown, being studied, surveyed, like a lab rat. A human Guinea pig. Along with other kids and plane crash survivors.

Yugyeom and Jinyoung with her in a cell. They were placed in a treadmill, wired and taped up with every kind of sensing device and electrode, with a tube tapped in their mouths, running with intense concentration.

Day by day the number of plane crash survivors slowly go fading, the familiar faces that Seven has grown accustomed to seeing have lessen, their numbers quickly decreasing from hundreds reduced to half, then down to 10.

Then it was just Seven, Jinyoung and Yugyeom. The other in vitro babies seemingly losing the life in their eyes, questioning every second of their existence. Not knowing where the others went or whether they're still alive. Images kept floating in Seven's head as she continues to have intense tremors.

In her dream, Seven is once again tied up in a chair, her pupil scanned on a laser, electrodes being attached to her scalp. And a needle rising against a surgical light. She feels cuts made on her body, she recalls the feeling of needles as stitches made on her skin, seamed together like a rag doll, abstract figures in medical masks, and no faces.

Her dream jumps off to an instructor standing against a large screen, flashing words: DUTY, DISCIPLINE, TEAMWORK.

As Seven struggles, she attempts to gather her strength, stands and holds on, she slams her bathroom mirror, staring at her own reflection, then glances down her hand, which is still shaking with tremor. She clenches it into a fist and then bends to splash cold water on her face as she uncaps some pills and pops two in her mouth. She waits till the shaking stops and everything normalizes. She heads out of her bathroom and hears a very familiar voice.

"This sucks" says the girl's voice.

She turned around replied with a smile "What sucks?"

Seven walks straight in her shared apartment's living space to see her flat mate and best friend, Park Choon-Hee, 25 years old, fashionista, foodie, who happens to be wearing some nicely ironed blue scrubs, brushing her teeth, with a dreaded hang over attempting to get ready for work.

Choon-hee is a respiratory therapist working at a nearby run down hospital in the city, tending to most of the unfortunates of Seoul. Seven considers Choon-hee as family, since they live together and bicker a lot. She's a well-rounded person, with a bright personality, loves to drink, loves to eat, turns bright red like a tomato whenever she's shy, or so the act goes but truthfully speaking Choon hee, loves Korean men...and women.

Seven tilts her head, smirking at her friend for partying a little too much on a work night, as she observes her surroundings. The apartment that they call "home" is an unfinished building, a luxury high-rise in the making until the day of construction simply stopped. The walls are taped, drywall, spray-painted with colorful undulating graffiti by somebody's old boyfriend.

This is where Seven and Choon-Hee have been crashing for at least the last several months, dominating the room are Seven's bikes, an ugly but fast messenger bike and a much faster rice-burner motorcycle with a race faring. On top of Seven's motorbike lays Choon-hee's underwear as she patiently waits for them to dry. Annoyed by the sight, she starts plucking her roommates panties off her baby.

Choon-Hee pouts as she starts picking her underwear from the floor and sits on the chair near the bar like counter table then looks at Seven "This, all this sucks. I come home, it's 3:00 am, and you're still out. I feel like I got hit by a cement truck and you've been up for an hour bouncing around. That by definition sucks."

Seven grabs a cup out of their empty drawers, pours a hot cup of brewed coffee and hands it to Choon-hee with a smirk on her face. "I made you coffee...That should help you cope up with the injustice of the world a little."

Choon-hee thankfully grabs the cup from Seven, inhales the scent of caffeine, and slowly takes a sip. She looks up at her roommate

"Thanks. It's starting to kick-in" whilst taking another sip of her coffee "I feel almost human."

As Choon-hee heads off to her room, Seven replies "Yeah, me too." She studies herself in the mirror, with an enigmatic expression "Almost."

Evolution and technology was the key for everything in this brave new world, as they would call it. The world has turned into a very toxic and corrupt place. It wasn't the same as it used to be; as Seven re-calls past memories.

Seven wheels out her messenger bike out of the apartment, which has no door, only a piece of plywood which she slides across the opening. She has a big glazed donut clinging in her mouth, which she eats throughout as she approaches their next door neighbor.

The corridor is lit by sunlight leaking in from the outside. No utilities. No rent. No problem. As she makes her way along the corridor she hears music and somewhere a TV blares the news.

"Knock, knock" as she gently taps the plywood. Seven continues to go in the unit and smiles upon inside seeing her friend Namjoon, with his wife Han Byeol and their little boy Jungkook.

Han Byeol was busy putting books into a knap sack for Jungkook as the little boy is dawdling with his breakfast. Namjoon sits on the edge of the bed, hunched and pale.

"Hi Guys" as she greets Han Byeol and Kookie, then turns to Namjoon "Let's roll, hotshot."

Kim Namjoon looks longingly at his bicycle, leaning against the wall. He coughs, Han Byeol flashes a worried look at Seven. "Gotta take a personal day Sev. Whatever it is I got, I'm biting it bad." as he hugs himself and shivers. Seven tries to ignore the fact that Namjoon is sick to avoid giving him a pitiful look. She smirks at him in response "Well, it's payday today. Do you need me to pick up your check?"

Han Byeol looks at Seven pleadingly and smiles. "You're the best Sev".

Seven heads out the apartment and winks at Jungkook who winks back.

[manuelclapid]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[williamccreynolds]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Real Estate https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thegregorybruce]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[manuelclapid]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thegregorybruce]

How Hard Can Drywall Be?

This is drywall being finished in a new home. The sheets are heavy and you need hand-eye coordination to finish it. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

QUESTION #1: I’m building a new home and because of the booming economy and shortage of great help, I might be forced to hang and finish the drywall myself. I’ve done a few repairs here and there and wonder if it’s really possible to pull off DIY drywall work on a larger scale. Don’t sugarcoat it. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. Steve B., Spotsylvania, VA

Steve’s in the same boat as one of my new neighbors on my street. A young NH state trooper bought a lot here a year ago and broke ground this spring hoping to move his two kids and wife into their new home by Thanksgiving. He discovered six weeks ago that the rough carpenters he was counting on to frame the house and get it under roof abandoned him. He couldn’t even get others to answer his calls for quotes.

Guess what? This homeowner is framing the house himself with some occasional help from friends. He’ll be lucky, at the rate he’s going, to have it under roof by Thanksgiving.

Drywall work is hard. The hanging of the large heavy sheets is mind-numbing. You can rent or purchase mechanical lifts that hold the sheets up to save your back should you proceed. I’d absolutely do this because any helpers you conscript will not have the required experience to hold a giant sheet overhead while securing it to the ceiling joists.

An experienced drywall hanging crew might install all the board in just two days. It could take you two or three weeks as you start to develop speed and accuracy. It’s important to realize you must use the correct screws, they must be the right length, the spacing between fasteners is critical, and by all means, you must not overdrive them tearing the tender drywall facing paper. All the information about this can be found in the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by the USG Corporation.

Once the drywall is hung, then you need to finish it. I’m convinced, after watching many try to do this on countless job sites, that not everyone possesses the required hand-eye coordination to finish drywall as a pro might do. You have no idea the muscle memory you need to master to not only tape the seams the first time but then also apply the all-important second coat just right.

The consistency of the vinyl taping and finishing compound is critical. You can’t have it too stiff and if you add too much water, you dilute the water-based glue that’s part of the product. Many finishers strive for a consistency that’s close to warm cake icing.

Taping drywall looks easy. It’s not. The most common mistake is to remove too much of the joint compound from under the tape. If you do this, the tape will blister when you go to apply the second coat. Your goal is to leave just under 1/16th inch of drywall taping compound under the tape. Once again, refer to the Gypsum Construction Handbook for guidance.

Let’s assume you successfully tape all your new drywall. Now comes the most challenging part. You need to cover over the tape with a second layer of finishing compound. I can’t begin to explain how difficult this is to get right. To add further misery, there’s a very specific methodology to what flat and tapered seams and which side of inside and outside corners get coated the first day. You don’t want to run into a situation where you’re trying to apply a second coat at the same time where a flat seam intersects an inside or outside corner.

The edges of the second coat must be feathered to nothing. This requires you to bend the blade of the finishing knife you’re using. Press too hard and you’ll scratch the paper facing. Apply too little pressure and you’ll probably leave a little too much compound on the wall. Don’t forget, all new finishing knives have to have the sharp corner filed down ever so slightly!

You don’t want to leave too much compound humped up in the middle of seams. This will show up at night when light travels at a low angle across the walls and ceiling. Butt seams where the ends of two sheets of drywall touch one another are an extreme challenge. You’re forced to hump up the finishing compound higher than the unfinished drywall and it needs to be feathered out about one foot either side of the center of the seam to make this buildup invisible.

Some professional drywall finishers skim coat all of the drywall after everything is sanded. This extra step fills in the tiny void spaces in the paper facing of the drywall. The entire wall and ceiling surface then has the same sheen and texture when you paint. You can purchase special paints that eliminate the need for skim coating new drywall.

If you’re in the same situation as Steve and my neighbor, I wish you the best of luck and know one thing: Elephants are best eaten one bite at a time.

Column 1315

The post How Hard Can Drywall Be? appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/how-hard-can-drywall-be/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises

Large sheets of drywall are very heavy. You can rent machines that hold the sheets up against the ceiling. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

Drywall Requires Muscle

QUESTION #1: Tim, I need your honest advice. I’m seriously pondering installing new drywall in a room addition while I’m on vacation. I’ve watched cable TV shows, numerous online videos and read a few articles. It really doesn’t appear to be that hard. I’ve got a few helpers so I’m convinced we can install the material and finish it. Is drywall work harder than it looks? What are a few tips you can offer to help me complete this with a minimal amount of work and frustration? Mike M., Tyler, TX

Have you been on the receiving end of some of the digital courage that fueling Mike’s positive attitude? It’s easy to get intoxicated by what you see on shows and such. All too often the producers tend to gloss over the hard stuff. After all, if you walked away from a few TV shows thinking everything was too hard to do, you’d probably stop watching. I can tell you that’s the last thing the cable TV channel and producers want you to do!

It’s important to realize lots of books have been written about the craft of drywall installation and finishing. One of the best is the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by one of the top manufacturers of the drywall and finishing compounds - USG Corporation. I highly recommend reading the chapters about drywall so you make sure you’re installing it correctly.

Another key point is the weight of the material. You can now purchase drywall or sheetrock that weighs less than its predecessors, but even the lightweight material’s weight might stun you. Lifting and hold a 4x12 sheet of 1/2-inch drywall over your head while trying to monkey around with the screws and screw gun might extract all the strength and skill you have. I guarantee you’ll be sore the second day.

Installing drywall can be nasty dusty work. Razor knives are used to score, snap and cut the large sheets. Professionals use handy small hand-held routers with special bits to make the cutouts for electrical boxes and other fixtures. You might use a traditional punch saw made for drywall. By all means, do not use a circular saw to cut drywall like you might plywood or OSB!

Be sure you use the correct length screw and recess it just enough so it doesn’t tear the paper facing. Screw guns have precision depth adjustments so you get the screws just right. On ceilings, place the screws on 12-inch centers. On walls, the screws can be 16 inches on center.

Finishing drywall is an art. It requires significant hand-eye coordination. You need to mix the finishing compound so it’s the correct consistency. I prefer to have mine like moist mashed potatoes or warm cake icing. Put too much compound under the tape and you’ll have humps in your walls. Put too little under the tape and you’ll end up with blisters when you second coat.

I recommend that you build a test wall and practice finishing it before you ruin your new room addition. You’ll be stunned how hard it is to get professional finishing results if you’ve never done it before.

House-Cracking Noises

QUESTION #2: Hey Tim, it’s been really hot here the past few weeks. In the evening while watching TV with my husband, all of a sudden our deck and our house makes a cracking or popping noise. Sometimes I hear it up in the roof, but it’s often a noise in a wall. I’m worried that our house is going to fall apart and collapse. What’s causing the cracking and popping and should I be concerned? Elizabeth B., Knoxville, TN

Elizabeth would hear the same sound if she came to my own home. She’s hearing the lumber and decking moving as they cool down from the extreme temperature swings that happen on brilliant sunny days.

The sun can and does heat up roofs and walls. Here at my own home, my roof temperature gets close to 160 F. The wall siding is just a little below that and my composite decking gets so hot you can’t walk on it with bare feet. Composite decking that’s got lots of plastic in it expands quite a bit when heated.

This heat is transferred to the framing lumber in the roof, exterior walls, and deck structure. If you pay attention in the late morning, you might also hear cracking and popping as the lumber is expanding.

When the sun is setting the house material starts to cool down and it contracts. This movement can create a cracking sound much like when you crack a knuckle or an ankle tendon. It’s normal and not a reason for concern.

I’d only start to be concerned if I saw cracks in the interior finishes that started growing in size. If you are extremely concerned, you can hire a residential structural engineer to inspect your home and confirm all is well.

The post Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/drywall-requires-muscle-and-house-cracking-noises/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thegregorybruce]

Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises

Large sheets of drywall are very heavy. You can rent machines that hold the sheets up against the ceiling. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

Drywall Requires Muscle

QUESTION #1: Tim, I need your honest advice. I’m seriously pondering installing new drywall in a room addition while I’m on vacation. I’ve watched cable TV shows, numerous online videos and read a few articles. It really doesn’t appear to be that hard. I’ve got a few helpers so I’m convinced we can install the material and finish it. Is drywall work harder than it looks? What are a few tips you can offer to help me complete this with a minimal amount of work and frustration? Mike M., Tyler, TX

Have you been on the receiving end of some of the digital courage that fueling Mike’s positive attitude? It’s easy to get intoxicated by what you see on shows and such. All too often the producers tend to gloss over the hard stuff. After all, if you walked away from a few TV shows thinking everything was too hard to do, you’d probably stop watching. I can tell you that’s the last thing the cable TV channel and producers want you to do!

It’s important to realize lots of books have been written about the craft of drywall installation and finishing. One of the best is the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by one of the top manufacturers of the drywall and finishing compounds - USG Corporation. I highly recommend reading the chapters about drywall so you make sure you’re installing it correctly.

Another key point is the weight of the material. You can now purchase drywall or sheetrock that weighs less than its predecessors, but even the lightweight material’s weight might stun you. Lifting and hold a 4x12 sheet of 1/2-inch drywall over your head while trying to monkey around with the screws and screw gun might extract all the strength and skill you have. I guarantee you’ll be sore the second day.

Installing drywall can be nasty dusty work. Razor knives are used to score, snap and cut the large sheets. Professionals use handy small hand-held routers with special bits to make the cutouts for electrical boxes and other fixtures. You might use a traditional punch saw made for drywall. By all means, do not use a circular saw to cut drywall like you might plywood or OSB!

Be sure you use the correct length screw and recess it just enough so it doesn’t tear the paper facing. Screw guns have precision depth adjustments so you get the screws just right. On ceilings, place the screws on 12-inch centers. On walls, the screws can be 16 inches on center.

Finishing drywall is an art. It requires significant hand-eye coordination. You need to mix the finishing compound so it’s the correct consistency. I prefer to have mine like moist mashed potatoes or warm cake icing. Put too much compound under the tape and you’ll have humps in your walls. Put too little under the tape and you’ll end up with blisters when you second coat.

I recommend that you build a test wall and practice finishing it before you ruin your new room addition. You’ll be stunned how hard it is to get professional finishing results if you’ve never done it before.

House-Cracking Noises

QUESTION #2: Hey Tim, it’s been really hot here the past few weeks. In the evening while watching TV with my husband, all of a sudden our deck and our house makes a cracking or popping noise. Sometimes I hear it up in the roof, but it’s often a noise in a wall. I’m worried that our house is going to fall apart and collapse. What’s causing the cracking and popping and should I be concerned? Elizabeth B., Knoxville, TN

Elizabeth would hear the same sound if she came to my own home. She’s hearing the lumber and decking moving as they cool down from the extreme temperature swings that happen on brilliant sunny days.

The sun can and does heat up roofs and walls. Here at my own home, my roof temperature gets close to 160 F. The wall siding is just a little below that and my composite decking gets so hot you can’t walk on it with bare feet. Composite decking that’s got lots of plastic in it expands quite a bit when heated.

This heat is transferred to the framing lumber in the roof, exterior walls, and deck structure. If you pay attention in the late morning, you might also hear cracking and popping as the lumber is expanding.

When the sun is setting the house material starts to cool down and it contracts. This movement can create a cracking sound much like when you crack a knuckle or an ankle tendon. It’s normal and not a reason for concern.

I’d only start to be concerned if I saw cracks in the interior finishes that started growing in size. If you are extremely concerned, you can hire a residential structural engineer to inspect your home and confirm all is well.

The post Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/drywall-requires-muscle-and-house-cracking-noises/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[andrewmawby]

Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises

Large sheets of drywall are very heavy. You can rent machines that hold the sheets up against the ceiling. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

Drywall Requires Muscle

QUESTION #1: Tim, I need your honest advice. I’m seriously pondering installing new drywall in a room addition while I’m on vacation. I’ve watched cable TV shows, numerous online videos and read a few articles. It really doesn’t appear to be that hard. I’ve got a few helpers so I’m convinced we can install the material and finish it. Is drywall work harder than it looks? What are a few tips you can offer to help me complete this with a minimal amount of work and frustration? Mike M., Tyler, TX

Have you been on the receiving end of some of the digital courage that fueling Mike’s positive attitude? It’s easy to get intoxicated by what you see on shows and such. All too often the producers tend to gloss over the hard stuff. After all, if you walked away from a few TV shows thinking everything was too hard to do, you’d probably stop watching. I can tell you that’s the last thing the cable TV channel and producers want you to do!

It’s important to realize lots of books have been written about the craft of drywall installation and finishing. One of the best is the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by one of the top manufacturers of the drywall and finishing compounds - USG Corporation. I highly recommend reading the chapters about drywall so you make sure you’re installing it correctly.

Another key point is the weight of the material. You can now purchase drywall or sheetrock that weighs less than its predecessors, but even the lightweight material’s weight might stun you. Lifting and hold a 4x12 sheet of 1/2-inch drywall over your head while trying to monkey around with the screws and screw gun might extract all the strength and skill you have. I guarantee you’ll be sore the second day.

Installing drywall can be nasty dusty work. Razor knives are used to score, snap and cut the large sheets. Professionals use handy small hand-held routers with special bits to make the cutouts for electrical boxes and other fixtures. You might use a traditional punch saw made for drywall. By all means, do not use a circular saw to cut drywall like you might plywood or OSB!

Be sure you use the correct length screw and recess it just enough so it doesn’t tear the paper facing. Screw guns have precision depth adjustments so you get the screws just right. On ceilings, place the screws on 12-inch centers. On walls, the screws can be 16 inches on center.

Finishing drywall is an art. It requires significant hand-eye coordination. You need to mix the finishing compound so it’s the correct consistency. I prefer to have mine like moist mashed potatoes or warm cake icing. Put too much compound under the tape and you’ll have humps in your walls. Put too little under the tape and you’ll end up with blisters when you second coat.

I recommend that you build a test wall and practice finishing it before you ruin your new room addition. You’ll be stunned how hard it is to get professional finishing results if you’ve never done it before.

House-Cracking Noises

QUESTION #2: Hey Tim, it’s been really hot here the past few weeks. In the evening while watching TV with my husband, all of a sudden our deck and our house makes a cracking or popping noise. Sometimes I hear it up in the roof, but it’s often a noise in a wall. I’m worried that our house is going to fall apart and collapse. What’s causing the cracking and popping and should I be concerned? Elizabeth B., Knoxville, TN

Elizabeth would hear the same sound if she came to my own home. She’s hearing the lumber and decking moving as they cool down from the extreme temperature swings that happen on brilliant sunny days.

The sun can and does heat up roofs and walls. Here at my own home, my roof temperature gets close to 160 F. The wall siding is just a little below that and my composite decking gets so hot you can’t walk on it with bare feet. Composite decking that’s got lots of plastic in it expands quite a bit when heated.

This heat is transferred to the framing lumber in the roof, exterior walls, and deck structure. If you pay attention in the late morning, you might also hear cracking and popping as the lumber is expanding.

When the sun is setting the house material starts to cool down and it contracts. This movement can create a cracking sound much like when you crack a knuckle or an ankle tendon. It’s normal and not a reason for concern.

I’d only start to be concerned if I saw cracks in the interior finishes that started growing in size. If you are extremely concerned, you can hire a residential structural engineer to inspect your home and confirm all is well.

The post Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from builders feed https://www.askthebuilder.com/drywall-requires-muscle-and-house-cracking-noises/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thegregorybruce]

Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises

Large sheets of drywall are very heavy. You can rent machines that hold the sheets up against the ceiling. (C) Copyright 2019 Tim Carter

Drywall Requires Muscle

QUESTION #1: Tim, I need your honest advice. I’m seriously pondering installing new drywall in a room addition while I’m on vacation. I’ve watched cable TV shows, numerous online videos and read a few articles. It really doesn’t appear to be that hard. I’ve got a few helpers so I’m convinced we can install the material and finish it. Is drywall work harder than it looks? What are a few tips you can offer to help me complete this with a minimal amount of work and frustration? Mike M., Tyler, TX

Have you been on the receiving end of some of the digital courage that fueling Mike’s positive attitude? It’s easy to get intoxicated by what you see on shows and such. All too often the producers tend to gloss over the hard stuff. After all, if you walked away from a few TV shows thinking everything was too hard to do, you’d probably stop watching. I can tell you that’s the last thing the cable TV channel and producers want you to do!

It’s important to realize lots of books have been written about the craft of drywall installation and finishing. One of the best is the Gypsum Construction Handbook published by one of the top manufacturers of the drywall and finishing compounds - USG Corporation. I highly recommend reading the chapters about drywall so you make sure you’re installing it correctly.

Another key point is the weight of the material. You can now purchase drywall or sheetrock that weighs less than its predecessors, but even the lightweight material’s weight might stun you. Lifting and hold a 4x12 sheet of 1/2-inch drywall over your head while trying to monkey around with the screws and screw gun might extract all the strength and skill you have. I guarantee you’ll be sore the second day.

Installing drywall can be nasty dusty work. Razor knives are used to score, snap and cut the large sheets. Professionals use handy small hand-held routers with special bits to make the cutouts for electrical boxes and other fixtures. You might use a traditional punch saw made for drywall. By all means, do not use a circular saw to cut drywall like you might plywood or OSB!

Be sure you use the correct length screw and recess it just enough so it doesn’t tear the paper facing. Screw guns have precision depth adjustments so you get the screws just right. On ceilings, place the screws on 12-inch centers. On walls, the screws can be 16 inches on center.

Finishing drywall is an art. It requires significant hand-eye coordination. You need to mix the finishing compound so it’s the correct consistency. I prefer to have mine like moist mashed potatoes or warm cake icing. Put too much compound under the tape and you’ll have humps in your walls. Put too little under the tape and you’ll end up with blisters when you second coat.

I recommend that you build a test wall and practice finishing it before you ruin your new room addition. You’ll be stunned how hard it is to get professional finishing results if you’ve never done it before.

House-Cracking Noises

QUESTION #2: Hey Tim, it’s been really hot here the past few weeks. In the evening while watching TV with my husband, all of a sudden our deck and our house makes a cracking or popping noise. Sometimes I hear it up in the roof, but it’s often a noise in a wall. I’m worried that our house is going to fall apart and collapse. What’s causing the cracking and popping and should I be concerned? Elizabeth B., Knoxville, TN

Elizabeth would hear the same sound if she came to my own home. She’s hearing the lumber and decking moving as they cool down from the extreme temperature swings that happen on brilliant sunny days.

The sun can and does heat up roofs and walls. Here at my own home, my roof temperature gets close to 160 F. The wall siding is just a little below that and my composite decking gets so hot you can’t walk on it with bare feet. Composite decking that’s got lots of plastic in it expands quite a bit when heated.

This heat is transferred to the framing lumber in the roof, exterior walls, and deck structure. If you pay attention in the late morning, you might also hear cracking and popping as the lumber is expanding.

When the sun is setting the house material starts to cool down and it contracts. This movement can create a cracking sound much like when you crack a knuckle or an ankle tendon. It’s normal and not a reason for concern.

I’d only start to be concerned if I saw cracks in the interior finishes that started growing in size. If you are extremely concerned, you can hire a residential structural engineer to inspect your home and confirm all is well.

The post Drywall Requires Muscle and House-Cracking Noises appeared first on Ask the Builder.

from Home https://www.askthebuilder.com/drywall-requires-muscle-and-house-cracking-noises/ via http://www.rssmix.com/