Drywall has been around since the 1800s and unfortunately was made at one time with asbestos. According to this website if your house was built from the 50s to the 80s there is a strong likelihood that the drywall was made with asbestos. The reason why asbestos was added to drywall was to make it stronger and more fire resistant. Naturally I discovered that drywall could have asbestos in it, after I had ripped all the old drywall down coating myself from head to toe with dust and having neglected to wear a dust mask. Luckily I didn't have to rip down much.
I do not actually know if my drywall has asbestos in it. Professionals can tell if the drywall has asbestos by removing one sheet and look at the markings on the back to determine who made it. From this information they know if contains asbestos. With markings missing then a lab test can be done. One of these days I will crawl up in the attic and see if I can find out this information.
Drywall again had issues from 2006 to 2007 and was found to have high sulfur content if it came from China which resulted in complaints of corrosion of pipes and wiring , odors and health problems. See this link for more info.
To get the rafters ready for the drywall, I put up the 16" spaced wood lath which helps provide a more distributed support for the drywall then the 2' spaced rafters. For the lath I used 1" x 3" wood available from Lowes and used 1.25" drywall screws to fasten it to the rafters. Since the lath is actually 3/4": the holding power of the screw comes from about 1/2" of penetration into the rafter. To provide extra holding power I used two screws per rafter intersection. Perhaps longer screws or nails should have been used. In my case the rafters changed directions so my lath did as well.
One tip that is very helpful for putting screws in lath and drywall without sinking them to far thus splitting the wood or making its holding ability in drywall worthless is to use a drywall screw setter available at Lowes. Basically its a Philips head screw bit with a metal cylinder tube around it that stops the bit from sinking the screw once the cylinder runs into the material that is being screwed.
After the lath was put up I was ready to install the drywall. In a previous inspection I told the inspector I wasn't going to install drywall on the ceiling in the garage because it was just a garage. But the inspector said I had to install it to meet code requirements to provide a fire proof barrier. I don't know if he was correct in this but after consulting the Florida Building Code online and not really coming up with any clear answers to the validity of his request I chose to use 5/8" classification X (fire resistant) drywall which I obtained from Home Depot.
Once I obtained the drywall, I was now faced with a problem. How do I put this stuff up all by myself? Some of the youtube videos show some clever and ingenious methods of installing drywall yourself like this low cost method, but I chose the method that looked the easiest. It was using a drywall lift which I obtained from harbor freight for $180. It is also possible to rent them from Homedepot as well. If you have a lot of drywall to do this ends up being a pretty cheap helper.
The drywall went up so easily. But during the last sheet of drywall the lift wheel slipped out of my hand and the drywall lift came down fast which broke the leather brake. There was a safety stop on the lift which prevented the drywall from hitting my head. Although, I have a hard head and my brain wouldn't have been any worse off then it already is, the drywall would have suffered. So Lucky for the drywall! I manged to finish the job off making use of a rope to hold the lift in its extended position. Even though the lift broke, I was actually happy because now I was on ethical ground to return the lift to harbor freight and get my money back but on the other hand I was sad because it would of made a really good coat rack. boohoo.....not!.
In the code there are spacing requirements for the screws in the drywall which I followed and then proceeded to put the mud and tape on the joints. I didn't have to do a good job with the mud since eventually a skip trowel finish would go over it and hide everything. This also meant there was no sanding needed. Sanding sucks and the dust is hazardous as reported by the CDC.
This was really my first attempt at this kind of work and I'm satisfied at the results. But the professional who display there work on youtube are artists. Its amazing to watch them work and make very large seams to hide the bump that the mud makes.
Now that the drywall was done I called the inspector. When he looked at my work he told me I wasn't supposed to put the mud on and he wasn't able to inspect the screw spacing. Luckily I had not put mud on the screws that were not on edges so at least he could see the spacing there. He deemed my work acceptable with an expression on his face that he had seen better and passed the work. Wohoo!
The 220 sq ft job took me 21 hours total and actually it is probably preferable that my mud job was not at the level of the legendary Pablo Picasso as it is all covered up in the end with the final skip trowel finish.
So the question is, how much did I save?
My cost was:
drywall $100
tape and mud $20
screws $21
lath 1"x3" $51
Total $192
A contractors cost according to homewyse would have been:
Drywall installation $400
Lath 2 hours $100
Demolition 1 hour $50
Total $550
This means a whopping $358 or 65% was saved. Cue cash register sound.
Happy Building!
The Dr.
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