Putting up drywall and insulation

At the beginning of July we were finally ready to put in the insulation and the drywall. Our stud walls are 15 cm wide. Here in Andalusia they don’t sell rock wool of 15 cm thickness. The thickest you can find is 5 cm. Actually I had a few funny conversations about why I want that much of insulation. Most homes in the area have no insulation at all. They are built out of stone, concrete, blocks - all cold materials. Then in winter when the temperature drops to something between 0º C and 5º C all that stone and concrete radiates the cold from the walls. People say they can easily dress warmer and these materials keep the house cool during the summer heat. While that might be true it’s really bad if you happen to spend a lot of time inside such a cold space. We don’t want that! And we know that insulation is easily available and how it works. So let’s put it in. In our case it means we have to stack three pieces to get up to our desired 15 cm.

After the insulation we put up drywall sheets.

We got a lift to hold the sheets in place while they are screwed on. The sheets are 2,6m long and 1,25m wide. They are not particularly heavy but without the lift putting them up overhead would be a challenge.

With more and more drywall up the whole inside gets a different feel once again. It becomes lighter and really does feel like a modern house. I can see us living there soon.

The gaps between the sheets are sealed with paper and a paste. This particular wall is in the office. It will be painted white with a special paint that has metal particles in so that it serves as a magnetic whiteboard.

I went to the building supplies store to get more insulation. Every time I do a material run with the pickup truck people make comments. Here in Europe pickup trucks are the size of a regular passenger vehicle. The Ford F-150, although pretty common in USA, stands out and draws a lot of positive comments for it’s ability to carry material.

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