Month: August 2018

I need to frame a closet around the water and sewer entrances. This is where the water main comes into the house. It includes a shutoff valve and a meter. The sewer clean out access is in the floor. I won’t need to access these very often, so I want them out of sight. The technique of using wash down paneling on treated plywood worked well in the mechanical room, so I decide to do the same here.

It’s my first time using metal studs, but I’m getting the hang of it. I’m also intentionally leaving an air gap between the outer stud wall and the insulation. This is because basements need to breathe, and you don’t want any possible moisture or condensation right up against the drywall.

The 3″ gap at the bottom of the drywall is intentional. A carpenter taught me a good trick for attaching baseboards to metal studs. Typically drywall is installed floor to ceiling. Instead, use 1/2″ plywood ripped into 2 7/8″ strips. If it’s a basement, use treated plywood. Attach the plywood strips to the bottom of the metal studs. Then, hang drywall the rest of the way up. This makes it easy to attach baseboards with a finishing nailer.

Harry helped me install this new soffit in the laundry room today.

The state inspector signed off on these new service panels today! They’re hooked up to the duplex meters outside.

Later, I added some more framing around the service panels. These will be used for hanging drywall in the future.