Loftitect: Putting Up Walls

Putting up walls is relatively easy during the framing phase if you are handy with a screw gun. But the drywall phase that comes after has to be one of the hardest and time-consuming parts of DIY construction. We have erected four sectors of walls: (1) the studio restroom and broom closet (2) the office storage room which on one end forms a kitchen wall (3) the wall that forms a laundry cubby and also serves as a TV/stereo wall for the living area, and (4) the upstairs sound wall/storage closet.

During the framing and drywall phase we were lucky to have the help of a friend who is a commercial framer. We also reused all the steel studs we salvaged from demolishing the existing broom closet and bathroom. We also found surplus insulation leftover from a jobsite that we purchased at a steep discount because it was damp from being left out in the rain. We bought 3 bales for $30 dollars, which would have cost over $200 new. Because fiberglass is inherently resistant to mold, all we had to do was open the bags and let the insulation dry out. We had to make multiple trips to the building supply store to buy more studs, sheets of drywall, drywall mud and knives, sanding poles, end caps, and doors. Putting up the walls ended up being a particularly expensive phase, in part because we paid for outside labor. Commercial steel framing requires attaching a steel track to the floor and ceiling by using a special gun equipped with .27 caliber blasting caps to shoot nails through the track and into the concrete. Special laser levels, tin snips, and vise grips make the job go much faster. We decided it was worth it to hire a professional who already had all the specialty tools and who was better than we were at laying track on the ceiling and cutting drywall to fit into odd-shaped spaces.

Even with our friend's help on the weekends, the walls have taken a month and a half to be framed, covered in drywall and mudded. We are now at the end of the mudding phase, which involves sealing the seams of the drywall with mesh tape, sealing the inside corners of the walls with paper tape, sealing the outside corners with metal corner strips, covering all these with four coats of joint compound and sanding between each coat. Drywall sanding requires repeatedly sanding the walls from floor to ceiling, dispersing a fine powder that travels all over the room and settles on all surfaces. It is necessary to wear cumbersome filtration masks and sometimes eye protection.

Our hard work is finally paying off as the final layout of the loft begins to take shape. The downstairs restroom, which used to be an oddly shaped room with an maladjusted door, is now a clean cube with two extra-tall doors, the tops of which align with the adjacent windows.

Restroom Before (Trapezoidal, No Ceiling, Door on West)

Restroom After (Rectangular, Doors on South)

The area that used to be the "kitchen" in the mezzanine is now a laundry cubby. The other side of the cubby wall will house a small entertainment center. The open area between the bathroom and the closet is walled off, ensuring total privacy.

Original Upper Level "Kitchen"

Framing Going Up for Laundy Area

Laundry Nook Completed, New Privacy Door at Rt

The mess of pipes that prevented the proper placement of a bed in the sleeping area is now a sound wall that buffers noise from the adjacent loft, allows us to place a bed against it, and creates a long storage closet.