My very patient wife recently described the drywalling portion of our barn construction as my period of “purgatory and solitude.” I’m not sure what I was being punished for, but after 92-1/2 hours of slinging, sanding, and sweeping up mud, I think the comparison is legit.
Fortunately, the drywall turned out pretty well, especially the field seams. The many inside corners could use some improvement, but it’s nothing a couple coats of flat paint won’t hide. With the drywall finished, I spent another 10 hours cleaning up the dust with a shop vac and wiping down the walls with a damp towel. The whole family spent much of the past weekend priming the walls and ceiling with PVA primer. It was the first time in months that we’ve been able to work on the barn as a family, which was a welcome change.
The space now looks so much better, and it’s really nice not to have drywall dust covering everything. The next step is to paint the top coat. At first, we planned on white ceilings with some version of off-white walls, but not having to cut in a different color is much easier and saves a lot of time. So now we’re considering painting everything the same color. We may even rent a sprayer. Do you think that’s a good idea? I’d like to hear your opinions.
You can read more about my barn here.
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This is the first floor of the main barn after a coat of primer. We wrapped the beams and windows with drywall to save money, using up scraps that would otherwise go to the landfill. I'm sure this added several hours to the finishing time, however.
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After hanging and finishing 70 sheets of drywall over several months, it was great to finally be priming walls and ceilings. We used PVA primer, which I'm told is the preferred product for new drywall.
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This is the loft space in the main barn. Once again, I wrapped the half-walls on all sides to save money. The open space near the stair opening is for a built-in. I imagine shelves with baskets for small items and deeper shelves for books. Our hope is to use this space as a guest room.
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My son helped my wife and me prime for a little bit, but he spent most of the time building with Legos on the floor. It was nice to finally have the space clean enough for him to play safely.
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This is the lean-to section of the barn without primer. In addition to being a space for our lawn tractor and bikes, this will be my man cave. I hope to have a laptop and a TV in there so I can listen to music or watch NASCAR while working on projects.
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I think the extra time required for different colored walls is well worth it, especially where you have done drywall returns instead of trim. I wouldn't bother with spraying now due to all the masking required. I like to mask and spray primer and finish all in one go,due to the large amount of waste masking generates. You will find that the finish paint goes much easier now that the drywall is coated. My preferred interior painting setup is a brush and mini-roller system such as Wooster Pelican bucket combined with an 18" roller. You can also use a cut-in pad applicator (the type with wheels that ride against the ceiling) they don't get right into the corner, but will give you a straight line that is certainly close enough.
Thanks for the comments Northeastbuilder.