Double wide remodel. Have some ?'s
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 7:24 pm
Going to finally start my 1988 Norris Parkland remodel here in the next couple weeks and have a few questions for all you guru's.
My first series of questions relate to drywalling the home.
1. How can I check if the home would support 1/2 or even 3/8 drywall? The current walls are covered in a kind of wood fiber paneling (almost cardboard like) and the ceiling has the usual textured drywall panels (so I'm guessing the ceiling will have no issues supporting 1/2 gypsum board, right?). The home is sitting on traditional piers (about 14-20 of 'em) poured 30 inches below grade, home located in Southern Illinois.
2. Install wall board vertically or horizontally and staggered as I would in a stick frame house? But before you answer this one read 3.
3. What is my most cost effective method to cover the seams? I thought about hanging the walls vertically and putting battens on each seam as well as the ceiling joints but this may end up costing me more than mud and taping.
My next series of questions is plumbing related.
My current hot / cold lines are a grey type of PEX line. Now whenever I have left the water off for a few weeks while I'm out of town and come back and turn the water back on I get a black soot that comes out of the pipes (both hot and cold) so I did some research and apparently the material is breaking down (if I did my research right).
SO.... I figured since I'm redoing most of the home anyways, why not redo the water lines with some blue and red PEX. So my ?'s.
1. Instead of disturbing the belly insulation can I just run the pex through an exterior wall as long as I keep the insulation between the pipes and the OSB?
2. With 2 baths and a kitchen, should I go 1/2 or 3/4? My main runs to the water heater closet which is in the master bath then leads to kitchen then to second bath? So my thoughts were to use 1/2 to supply the master bath and use 3/4 to run to kitchen then from kitchen to second bath with 1/2". Or should I just save money and use 1/2" everywhere?
3. Should I use an expansion tank even though my current water heater doesn't have one?
My first series of questions relate to drywalling the home.
1. How can I check if the home would support 1/2 or even 3/8 drywall? The current walls are covered in a kind of wood fiber paneling (almost cardboard like) and the ceiling has the usual textured drywall panels (so I'm guessing the ceiling will have no issues supporting 1/2 gypsum board, right?). The home is sitting on traditional piers (about 14-20 of 'em) poured 30 inches below grade, home located in Southern Illinois.
2. Install wall board vertically or horizontally and staggered as I would in a stick frame house? But before you answer this one read 3.
3. What is my most cost effective method to cover the seams? I thought about hanging the walls vertically and putting battens on each seam as well as the ceiling joints but this may end up costing me more than mud and taping.
My next series of questions is plumbing related.
My current hot / cold lines are a grey type of PEX line. Now whenever I have left the water off for a few weeks while I'm out of town and come back and turn the water back on I get a black soot that comes out of the pipes (both hot and cold) so I did some research and apparently the material is breaking down (if I did my research right).
SO.... I figured since I'm redoing most of the home anyways, why not redo the water lines with some blue and red PEX. So my ?'s.
1. Instead of disturbing the belly insulation can I just run the pex through an exterior wall as long as I keep the insulation between the pipes and the OSB?
2. With 2 baths and a kitchen, should I go 1/2 or 3/4? My main runs to the water heater closet which is in the master bath then leads to kitchen then to second bath? So my thoughts were to use 1/2 to supply the master bath and use 3/4 to run to kitchen then from kitchen to second bath with 1/2". Or should I just save money and use 1/2" everywhere?
3. Should I use an expansion tank even though my current water heater doesn't have one?