Dave Morrison of Dave and Eileen fame and friendship came down today to help me continue my adventures in remodeling. He works at Home Depot. He runs the lumber and drywall sections there. He knows a heckuva lot more about this stuff than I do.
So we made good progress. He showed me Dave’s Magic Insulation Slice™, a process that simultaneously increases the R-value of the insulation, fits insulation into the wall better, and helps drywall stay flush to the studs. It’s also free, easy to do, and doesn’t cause cancer in laboratory animals. Dave claims not to have invented this trick, but I’d never heard of it before (despite its obvious sense and usefulness) so I told him I’d invent a name for it and tell the world about it here. Maybe everybody already knows, but too bad.
So here you go, world: Stuff the batting of insulation between two studs. When an electrical wire runs across the stud bay and through studs, instead of just leaving the batting stuffed with a bit of bulge, peel back the insulation, look where the electrical line has imprinted on the batting, and using a utility knife, cut the insulation. You needn’t cut it much; just enough for the wire to fit. Then stuff it all back in between the studs and voila! Everything fits much more nicely.
Since Jonah had a doctor appointment, we only had a partial day to work on the sheet rocking, but we completed almost the entirety of the smaller bedroom plus took a nice break for lunch and made a quick jaunt to Home Depot. (Dave was very impressed by the Salem Home Depot in case anyone wondered.)
Dave walked me through the basics of corner bead and joint compound and a variety of other mudding/drywall related items. I think I grasped most of it, though who among us would be surprised if I needed to take that same tour again?
Regardless, good times and solid progress. Many thanks to Dave for his time, talent, and expertise.