Woodworking 102

Having seen Phil's forecast for more winter, I shuffled off to the workshop to do a little fixing up of the joint.

I mentioned previously that there were three exposed stud walls that I felt needed attention. One was the back of the basement bathroom and the fiberglass shower surround was exposed. Another was the short wall for the utility room. It wasn't in much danger of being damaged as the inside of the utility room was sheathed in plywood but it was a tad unsightly. The third was the wall that formed the stairwell from the first floor. It was sheathed in sheetrock and could easily suffer damage should I lean a 2 x 4 against it or make a quick move with any piece of lumber. Besides, the back side of the sheetrock is black and dark gray sucks the light right out of the workshop.

I actually started on Saturday to put up a tongue and groove wall on the studs behind the bathroom and nearly finished that job before taking Sunday off. It took just a few minutes to cut the last two rows to fit around the drain pipes from the upstairs baths and install them to finish the wall this morning.

The bathroom wall. Several courses of T & G had to be shaped to fit the pipes.
The light wood is a big improvement over the dark black
of the rear of the shower and the sheetrock.

Then it was on to the very rectangular utility room wall. This was the easiest of all since it was a rectangle and every piece of T & G was exactly the same length. I only had one electrical outlet and the thermostat to worry about. A couple of drilled holes and some work with the jigsaw and I was in like Flynn.

The utility room wall (center) was nice and rectangular,
which made installation a snap.

The stairway wall was a bit trickier because of the angle required on one end. (I wanted to leave the area under the stairs open. If I had enclosed them to make a closet or storage area, the job would have been as easy as the utility room wall.) Even so, it took very little time to get everything cut and installed. The angle required was a 45 degree one and that made using the chop saw and its fixed stops much easier than some random angle might have.

The stair wall had to have a 45 degree angle cut on one end.
The top two rows were installed after the picture was taken.
You can see the difference the light wood makes versus
the dark, dark backside of the sheetrock.

I can already see the difference in the amount of light in the workshop and the walls aren't even finished. If I paint them with a white enamel or simply verathane them, the amount of light reflected off the walls will make the room considerably less dungeon-like. I still need to get some dust control machinery for in there. Something to collect the sawdust at the tools and an air filter to help me breathe a little more comfortably when I'm working.