Last Plywood and Visqueen in the Back Basement
Today, Liz and I spent the day downstairs, working on finishing up the back basement area. I had cut most of the plywood for the back area. and had just one last piece left (in the top left corner).
Unfortunately, it took me a while to fine-tune the cuts. Eventually, we got it fitted into place… and went about finalizing things: liquid nails along the studs, and screwing each piece into place.
The finished drywall, glued and screwed and officially installed. I’m delighted to say that I was able to use my “shame piece” for the last board.
Rolling out the Visqueen, to use as a vapor barrier between the plywood and the (eventual) drywall.
Per Bob’s instructions, we first stapled the Visqueen below the joists. And then made our marks for where we needed to cut for the joists.
It was helpful to know that this wasn’t necessarily a “precision” task. We weren’t trying to make things waterproof, and so some margin of error was acceptable.
For our part, we just marked where the Visqueen met the joists, and then cut about 10 1/2″ down in a straight line.
The mixture of tools at work: staple gun, scissors, markers, pliers, and (not pictured) some new utility knives.
Random thing I learned at Home Depot: one has to show ID to buy a utility knife? Kind of dumb, but I guess it’s a thing. Like having to show ID for spray paint, in the suburbs.
Liz, cutting through the Visqueen.
Hello, outlet!
The whole Visqueen process was way, way easier than I thought it would be. Though it took a while for us to get the plywood installed officially, the Visqueen part went by super quick.
I’m now much less daunted about applying Visqueen and dry wall across the entire basement. I think with a full day, Liz and I could likely power through the rest of the basement.
That said – there’s a ton of stuff still in the way in the basement, preventing us from doing so. We’ll be looking to throw out a lot of things, and relocate supplies up to the second floor (now that it’s clear).
But having done this small stretch, I feel much more confident about our pacing and timing. Liz had blocked off a large chunk of time in our “house calendar,” and it looks like we’ll only be using a fraction of that. Which feels pretty great.
The next challenge for us (tomorrow): drywall!
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A Day in the Basement
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