Thursday, July 23, 2009

My New Shop, Episode 7: Slinging Mud

Yesterday evening, Mike and Joe came over to evaluate the basement workshop space and figure out what they would need for materials to tape and mud the drywall for me. After about 15 minutes, Mike came up with a price and a material list for me to purchase. I agreed to the price and later on that evening ran over to Home Depot to pick up six 10' sections of beading and two 10' tear-away strips along with about 100 lbs of compound (some light purpose and some multi-purpose).

This evening, they came back over to start putting up the corner beading and apply the first coat of mud. They were just about dead on with the material measurements as it doesn't look like there was more than two or three feet of corner beading left over (you can see it to the right of the buckets in the second photo).

Mike said it will probably take two coats in most areas, but an additional coat might be necessary in some places (some of the ceiling joints). At the most, this looks to be a three-day job. Maybe that means I'll be able to prime walls for paint this weekend! Right. Most likely, I won't have time to do anything until some evening next week.

So far, things look good. It is nice to see it all coming together. Once the taping and mudding is done, I'll be able to prime and paint those danged purple walls! Oh, and I've already purchased my main ceiling lights, so I'll be able to install them after I'm done painting.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to do much more after that, due to low funds. And I won't really be able to get more funds until later in the fall when my Business Journal editing picks up again. In the mean time, I'll bring my bench and some of my stationary tools into the shop to get a feel for where I want them set up (well, and start using them).

In the mean time, in lieu of flooring I'll probably end up swinging by the local farm supply store and picking up some horse stall mats so I'm not standing on concrete the whole time I'm working in the shop. When I do get around to putting down a floor, I can still keep the mats to use in front of the bench and cabinets to help protect the floor from the worst of whatever I might do to it.

I'll try to take a few pictures and post an update after Mike and Joe are done and I've spent a little time cleaning up.

2 comments:

Kari Hultman said...

What kind of floor are you eventually planning to install? I worked on concrete for 12 years and it's really hard on your legs and feet (as I'm sure you know). Now I have T&G knotty pine that I bought at a builders' auction and it makes all the difference.

Your shop space is shaping up nicely!

Ethan said...

Thanks, Kari! It is exciting to see it shape up!

Since it is a sub-level concrete floor, I wouldn't easily be able to do a solid hardwood. Otherwise, I'd probably already have picked up some reclaimed flooring from some place or another.

My first thought was to use a floating engineered cork floor. It is something I'd be able to do myself, it is somewhat ecologically friendly (I think we won't fully know our impact on cork trees for several years), it would further dampen sound, and it would be the most tool edge friendly.

But even though this is a relatively small space, it still calculates out to ~300 square feet. The lowest I've ever been able to find it for is $3.49/square foot. That figures out to about $1200 all said and done - ouch.

My next thought was to use a different renewable source - bamboo. I believe I can pick it up for about $1.99/square foot, which would save me close to $450. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure if that was for a floating style, which is what I want.

My final option would be to just use engineered hardwood (oak or maple or cherry or whatever - I'm not terribly picky).

Considering how much time I'd like to spend down there and how long we'd like to continue living in our house (we hate moving, so we bought this house to live in for many, many years), maybe I should try to save up the additional money and go with what I really want.