Hello my friends,

Today I’m going to tell you about our project which was done at 10815 Bathurst St. Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9Y2 (at the corner of Elgin Mills and Bathurst):

The scope of work:

Framing
a) Slotted tracks
b) Heavy gauge steel studs
c) carrying channels
Insulation
a) sound safe
b) exterior walls insulation
c) vapor barrier
Drywall
a) fire rated
b) double drywall
c) water resistance drywall
d) brick pattern application
Taping
a) regular taping
b) fire taping
c) corner flushers
Also, I will give you some advice about purchasing materials and tools to use for drywall taping.
Ok, so let’s start with ordering the materials.

For this specific project we used Royal Building Supply. It was the only building materials supplier that I knew. He was referred to me by my colleague, who did all the brick and concrete work for this project.
Today my preferred supplier is Costa Building supply; they are always punctual and keep their promises.
If you are a contractor you probably know how to calculate your materials, but if you are a home owner and you want to do the labor part yourself, it’s better just to call the supplier and ask them to calculate materials that you will need. Home Depot, Rona, and Lowes are good for small stuff like screws, electric tools, and other things, but they have a very high price for framing, drywall, and taping materials.

Framing:

First, we mark all the layouts with spray paint on the floor. Then, we install the metal tracks on the floor and the slotted tracks on the ceiling using dewalt laser level in order to repeat the same wall direction on the ceiling.
Slotted track: we use a slotted track in order to allow for the movement of the roof in different weather conditions. For example, if there is snow on the roof, the roof bends inside the building and the drywall doesn’t break because of the flexibility of the slotted truck.
The walls are 16 feet high and there was also a fire separation, so we had to use heavy gage metal (16 gauge studs and trucks 4×8). Inside the studs we used a carrying chanell in order to support them and make the wall stronger. We used clips in order to attach the carrying chanel to the stud.
Fire separation: Because it’s two different units/owners on each side of the wall, the city requires fire separation. In addition, one of the units is a grocery store and the other is a dancing studio, so we had to install more than just fire insulation: the insulation we used was roxoull safe and sound in order to provide the most efficient sound and fire separation insulation.

Drywall:

Installation of drywall had to be done in brick style, and we had to use two layers of 5/8 inch thick fire rated drywall on each side of the wall in order to provide good fire separation. Also, the seams of the second layer of drywall cannot be in the same location as first layer.
We used blue water resistant drywall in the washrooms and denssheld in the tiled area in order to support strong base for tiles.
Reflected ceiling:
The walls were attached to reflected ceiling so there was a gap of 2.5 inches remaining. So what we did is: we filled about 7″ above the slotted truck with insulation and the rest we filled with fire calking in order to provide fire stopping in case of fire.

Taping:

In order to have a strong connection between the joints we used fiber tape: it gives the same effect as the metal grid in concrete – basically it’s a strong material that dries very fast and provides a very strong connection between the two drywall sheets (it’s called prefill or first coat).
The second layer is applied with compound in order to level the seams. Then it is sanded for a nice finish (we call it skim coat or finish coat).
On top of the walls we applied a layer of joint paper with compound in order to prevent it from smelling, just in case if we missed some spots with fire calking.
In the corners we also used joint paper in order to prevent the corners from cracking. We then applied a second layer of compound on the paper and leveled it with flashers – this is an easy to use tool in order to have your corners looks straight while using less time to sand.

Anyway, this was a good experience, but it is only one experience out of 15 years of I’m doing this every day. Every time I have new challenges; every time it’s a new project and every project is different and all of the projects have new things to learn, gain experience from, and problems to solve. I like what I’m doing and I hope you can do it yourself or call us to assist you with any task. We can also help you with some advice if you are not sure how to do something. I always have my phone on me and I’m always answering, so please don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions – I would be more than happy to assist you.

John T. Galaman DrywallTaping.ca