One of the problems we were trying to solve as part of this project was a ridiculously wavy ceiling. We had removed all of the ceiling drywall, installed the wiring for the lights, but now we had some levelling to do. Justin knew that the cause of the ripples was that the floor joists were not level with each other. Some were slightly higher, some lower, so that when the drywall was fastened to them the ripples were produced. There [...]
Many homeowners are terrified of opening walls and ceilings, and I can definitely sympathize. The old cliché “you always find problems when you open things up” turned out to be very true in our case. In the end, however, I am glad we took the drywall off the ceiling, because the problem we found could have worsened over the years. “Well, at least we know what was causing that bump in the ceiling,” Justin noted after the dust has settled [...]
One of the most tempting options in home renovations is to remove an entire wall. The advantages are manifold: Simplify the floor plan to create a more spacious feeling to the area, Open the layout to light from more directions, Increase traffic flow options. You are limited by whether or not the wall is structural (or “load bearing”) or not. In a nutshell, if a wall is holding up the floor above it, or the roof, you can’t remove it [...]