Bob & Ellen's Excellent Adventure

Black Sheep Tower House

Drywall, or is it Sheetrock?

January 28, 2022 The drywall arrives on one of the coldest days yet. The truck navigates the snowy, iced over driveway and declines to drive further, where the ground slightly falls away, for fear of getting stuck. I guess they know what they are doing, because the boom just reaches the “deck door”. As it turns out, there are no suitable windows or other entry points except this one door. (Although the basement level drywall can come in through the garage doors.) This means that drywall sheets will have to be carried up to the 2nd level, but luckily there are already some left on the 3rd floor from the original construction in 2007.

Sheetrock is a trade name for drywall, and they are often used interchangeably, however a friend who works for US Gypsum tells me they have a special department that goes after “Sheetrock” trademark offenders, including requiring TV shows and movies to re-shoot scenes where generic drywall is referred to as Sheetrock. Who knew?

Looking over the situation. No one is happy with the weather!

Some of the sheets are 14′ long, and everyone of them is taken off individually by these guys and leaned against the walls in an appropriate spot – Scott had cleared things out of the way in advance.

So, turns out we have purchased USG drywall – the real sheetrock! These guys worked very hard, and it was very cold. It seems that frequently the size of the task is inversely proportional to the size of the guys actually doing the job!

Drywall waiting and ready for installation! Meanwhile, the HVAC guys are fabricating and installing the ducting for both of the bedrooms’ forced air mini-split units. These need to be in place prior to drywall, obviously.

This house is an HVAC installer’s nightmare… the bedrooms and tower have no physical relationship to the main space, at least in terms of duct placement! The joists and beams present complete barriers, so all the rooms in the tower need to be heated/cooled by mini-splits. Did you know that there is a limit to how high you can install a line set to one of these units? (For us, it is the 4th floor, which is actually 5 floors up from the backyard.) The main space in the house will be heated by radiant flooring, and cooled using floor ducting from the basement, augmented by yet another mini-split in the 3rd floor “train room”, and the installation of industrial strength ceiling fans!

There are also bathroom vents, and lighting in the ceilings, all fighting for space of course. We are disappointed to have ducting chases in both bathrooms, but hey, being the correct temperature in the bedrooms is a high priority! The oddball twist and turn is because I am unwilling to give up the “niche” of the doorway to our bedroom as seen from across the bridge or “catwalk”. I don’t have a photo at this moment, but one coming soon. I have cool lighting plans for that space! Things are definitely happening. 🙂

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