Dallas & Chantale’s Photo Blog » Construction Hints

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When framing, what are some important things to keep in mind?
Ensure your spacing is optimal, keeping in mind you WILL be hanging drywall on your framing! Most importantly, if hanging sheets vertically, plan for your studs to end at 4 foot intervals.
Check your corners! Anywhere two sheets of drywall might meet, you will have the potential to run out of room to screw the sheets down. Add extra studs if necessary to make sure the edge of every sheet has at least 3/4 of an inch to support it.
If you are installing drywall on the cieling, plan to put blocking in while framing to support the edges of the drywall near walls. It's possible that you will build walls that fall between overhead joists, which potentially could leave drywall overhanging. Blocking nailed between the joists every 18 inches is a good way to solve this problem, just make sure it's flush with the joists.
Nailing in a warped or twisted stud? Think again. That stud will cause nightmares when you try to hang sheets on it... The bottom or top may not be flush, or if the board is bowed, you could have a space behind the drywall. If you force screws into it, you will either pop them right through, or cause the drywall to bend there. A slight bend can be hidden, but a major bend could be very noticable!
As in all things, the right tools make a huge difference. If you have a lot of framing to do, make sure you have a miter saw, an air powered framing nailer, and a good powder actuated nailer. In addition, a good tape measure, pencil, and square are essential for framing.
Follow the local building codes. Doing this will save you time later when the building inspector has you tearing down walls to put in vapour barrier. Visit city hall, and find out what is required for vapour barrier, insulation, and whether floating walls are necessary in your area.
Floating walls are a requirement in locations where ground water can cause your cement slab to shift. Although not necessary on outside walls, it's still not a bad idea to build them floating anyways. There are two methods to building floating walls. Be sure to follow local building code, and study the method you will be using to ensure you build the walls properly to protect your home!
Build walls flat on the ground, then lift them in to place. This can't be stressed enough... Putting walls together piece by piece while they are standing takes a lot more time, and is not worth the hassle. Not only that, if you are building floating walls for all of them, it's just easier to build them on the ground.
KNOW your door sizes, and what's required for rough openings. Build your framing around doors as true as possible. Untrue framing around a door can create a headache when you are shimming the door jambs.
Sometimes basement framing can be complicated as you work around obstacles... Take it slow, and plan your framing carefully to make drywall that much easier to hang. In my case, we were hanging drywall as we were framing, so we would draw diagrams of a section of wall on the previous section of drywall, as a cutting reference for all the studs.

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When hanging drywall, what are some important things to keep in mind?

Hang vertically to make mudding easier! The long edges of a sheet of drywall are slightly tapered to make mudding easier... Take advantage of this by hanging them vertically. You will have lots of vertical seams to mud, but it will be easy because every seam will have these tapered edges! Avoid butting the ends of two sheets together if at all possible.

When hanging sheets around doors, avoid having seams that extend from the corner of the door in any direction. These locations are the worst for cracking, and adding a weak link here just makes it that much more likely to happen.

Use screws, not nails, and get a good drywall screw bit. The bits for about $12 at Home Depot work ok, and have a magnet to hold the screw. The best bits I found were much simpler... I found them at Canadian Tire for about $4. They have no moving parts, and dimple the drywall much nicer than the $12 Home Depot bits.

Tape all of your joints. I used fiberglass mesh tape with a sticky backside... This makes it that much easier to apply. I also used a special taping gun to apply the mesh tape... It resembles a packing tape dispenser, and has a flat and corner roller to smooth the tape down. Using mesh tape in corners could cause problems, as the tape seems to be more visible there. Using paper tape might be a better option.

Odd angles look great, but they are hard to mud (Especially inside angles). I did four 45 degree corners... the outside corners aren't bad, but the insides take a lot of mud to fill and look smooth. Would I do them again? Probably, just because they do look good.

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How can I achieve good mudding results?

Mudding is like black magic... You need a very special touch to get it to look just right. Practice, practice practice!

Start in an inconspicuous area, and work from there. That way you can practice before you get to the more noticeable areas.

Put mud on, and take most of it off. When mudding screw holes, you should fill them over three or four passes, allowing it to dry between each application.

For screw holes that are lined up, try to mud across all of them at the same time. A single large patch of mud is easier to blend in than several small patches.

When sanding, watch out for small pock-marks and lines... Make a mental note to come back and put some mud into them later.

When filling a seam, instinctively you will want to hold the knife flat, and pull it down the seam... Unfortunately, this tends to bend the knife, creating a valley effect in the seam. To get better results, try holding the knife at 90 degrees to the wall, or close to it. This is especially important when mudding corner beads!

For the first pass at the screw holes, fill the mud in one direction, but take it out in another direction. This will cause the holes to fill more evenly, and you'll be less likely to remove the mud you just put in.