DIY Life

When a home is built, the architect and builder should always make provisions for future maintenance. Unfortunately, altogether too often, this is one place where corners are cut. One of these details is access to plumbing components. This means plumbing access panels in the walls.

These panels allow the homeowner to get to the tub water supply and drain, and the manifold (hot/cold water mixer). The access panel is generally located on the other side of the wall in a closet. But what if you have to do a repair and you search high and low for a panel and find nothing?

Well, you're just going to have to cut into the drywall -- but plan in advance. Before doing a thing, head out to the local home improvement store and pick up a plastic snap-in access panel. This type needs no framing and will only set you back about $12.00. Just cut the hole in the drywall and it snaps in!

You'll need to locate the spot in the closet where you need to cut. Then locate the studs with a stud-finder closest to the cut-point between adjacent studs. Mark the wall, open it up with a drywall saw, make the repair, and snap in the plastic access panel. Easy as pie!

Installing corner bead is one of the last things you do after hanging drywall, and one of the first things you do before you begin to tape and float (also known as drywall finishing). The purpose for using corner bead is two-fold; first, it gives wall's external corners a nice straight vertical line, and second, it provides a bit of protection from bumps.

Types of corner bead

Corner bead is manufactured out of two different materials. Both are widely available. The older, more traditional corner bead is made of light-gauge, galvanized steel.

Why galvanized? As you might expect, it's to inhibit rust. It stands a good chance of rusting in the long run, and the drywall compound (or mud) is water based. Without a galvanized coating, it would start rusting right out of the starting gate.

The key part of basement remodeling happens before you ever even touch a tool. I'm talking about design, of course. What you intend to use your basement for will move your design ideas in the right direction. A great method is to brainstorm with your spouse and kids with notebook and pencil in hand.

Plan, plan, and plan some more

Throw out the ideas willy-nilly and discuss them. You'll be surprised at what you find! Once you've got all your "wants" nailed down, take a look at your budget and identify your "needs." There's bound to be some chaff there somewhere.

Are you going to use the basement as a home office? Then plan on Internet, phone, and fax connections. Will it be a game room, family room, or something along that line? You'll probably want to install plumbing for a wet bar as well as cable or satellite TV connections.

One of the first things you need to assure yourself of is whether your entire basement space, walls and floors, are properly sealed against moisture. This is the perfect time to take care of it -- before it can become a problem.

Stud finders are one of the best, but most unappreciated tools in a DIYer's toolbox. The real benefit of them is that they can find studs in your wall for hanging pictures, shelves, or light sconces.

This is a great step forward from the old method of rapping the skin off your knuckles, and then when you think you found a stud, drive in a finish nail to be sure.

The first generation of stud finders used magnets to detect drywall screws or nails. The next generation relied on checking the density in the wall (this is the kind I use since I use it quite often). The newer ones use radar technology to work their magic. How cool is that?

But if you're not going to use one often, make your own for just a few bucks. All you need is some mono-filament fishing line, a magnet, and a dab of hot glue or piece of tape. Just glue a length of mono to the magnet. Then, holding the end of the string, move it horizontally across the wall (and maybe a bit up and down) and the magnet will alert on a screw. Check out this magnet stud finder video.

The only caution is to make sure you found a stud, not a metal pipe or conduit. Just check up and down to be sure you intermittently find "positives." A pipe won't be discontinuous. Check horizontally as well, just for good measure.

When I was in high school, I had some friends that had a rock band... a very loud rock band. I liked to hang out at their practice sessions. To sound-proof their "studio" (spare bedroom) and avoid parental wrath, they did some pretty crazy things... things like stapling egg cartons to the walls.

Later, when I was a commercial carpenter, we had contracts to install fabric-covered architectural acoustic panels in churches, school gyms, and the like. Now there's a better solution for sound studios, workshops, or anywhere else sound-proofing is called for – sound-proof acoustical-grade drywall.

It's made by Quiet Solution, and it works just like dressing for cold weather: by layering as the panels are assembled. It installs and is taped-and-floated just like regular drywall, and comes in a variety of STC ratings. It's not cheap -- the cheapest panel is $39.95 -- but if sound-proofing is needed, it's an all-in-one solution that may be more economical in the long run.

I've given you some hints on cutting batt insulation and cement backer board, so let's move on to sheet rock (or dry wall), the staple of many home wall coverings. It's made of gypsum, has various qualities (e. g. mold resistance, flexible rigidity) and is manufactured in various sizes and thicknesses, the most common being 1/2" x 4' x 8'. On a vertical surface, it goes up pretty quickly and is fairly easily installed by two folks, and with some increased exertion, by one.

I want to show you how to hang sheet rock overhead. It requires tools similar to those needed for cutting backer board plus two very important extra items -- an extra pair of hands (preferably attached to an extra person) and a sheet rock lift. If you can hang sheet rock overhead, you can easily handle vertical surfaces, save a tool rental, and allow your significant other to do something other than muck about with gyp board.

Check out the gallery to get a feel for the process, then read on.

A cold thrill of fear still runs through me when I prepare to drill holes in a new part of the house. It brings back memories of my disastrous early DIY attempts in our first house, a 1920s bungalow. The project was shelving installation. I carefully marked out where the holes should go, got my cordless drill in position and - CRUNCH! Instead of cutting through the wall, the drill bit spun and screeched. Instead of a clean hole, I got a big, dusty crater. Oops. I knew I'd done something wrong...but what?! Friends, it was my first close encounter with a masonry wall.

It happens in every home. Some time or another someone is going to hit a wall with something that is harder than the drywall and the drywall is going to lose the battle.

When that happens you have two choices. You can either hang a picture over the damaged spot where it will remain to snicker at you every time you walk by or you can fix the damage and sleep better at night. I suggest that you fix the hole.

Begin by assessing the damage. Do you have a wall injury that is just a tear through the outer layer of the drywall facing paper or is the drywall fractured on both the inner and outer faces? Even worse, did you actually punch a hole all the way through?