Santa Ana, CA · Member since 2016 · 29 posts · 19 votes
Good morning BiggerPocketers,
I have a degree in construction management and currently a construction Project Manager for a drywall company. I have done projects anywhere from a 42 stories luxury high rise, luxury retails, hospitals, school, and to smaller tenant improvements.
Please feel free to ask away any questions you guys have regarding to construction such as rehabilitation, scheduling, framing, drywall, taping, ceilings, soffits, material prices, budgeting, and/or anything. I will answer your questions to my best knowledge and if I do not know the answer, I will find out.
This is my attempt in giving back to the BiggerPockets community since I have learned so much from here. Hopefully I be able to help this community out in answering questions.
Feel free to connect with me and ask private questions if you don't like to post your questions here.
Investor · Riverside, CA · Member since 2014 · 239 posts · 177 votes
9y
Julie Marquez sorry to poke my nose into your question, but as for drywall, honestly you might run into a bit of trouble with a dry waller not wanting to mud the walls/ceiling for as cheap as you'd like purely based off the reason that they didn't install it, but there definitely is the exception. One reason I say that is, if you install it with many dips, bumps, holes etc, they will have to come back and do multiple coats of mud, thus taking away from their profit. Once again though, there's definitelyyyy the exception. As for "green board", you always hang a sheet behind kitchen/bath vanities, and in showers, the preferred method is to use Hardi backer or mud float, not drywall. But that's just my opinion. All of our showers are with Hardi backer which is readily available at Lowes, Home Depot etc. Back to drywall though, I never deter anatomy from attempting drywall themselves at some point, because it's SUCH a good lesson and trade to know. But if it's on a large scale, sub it out. Hope that helps
Thank you for such a generous offer. I do have a question about roof replacement. I currently live in Sydney, Australia (I am an architect) and I am surprised to hear all the time from US property investors that they need to replace a roof. Here in Sydney it's not such a necessity as roofs are either terracotta tiles or metal and they get replaced maybe once in a lifetime (local metal roof manufacturer gives 30 years warranty). Why do you have to replace roofs so often in the US?
Residential home builders don't want to spend the extra $$ for a better product, cuts into profits. Home owners dont know product info or want to spend the money. A metal roof is considered a premium here. Due to the earths rotation angle we see more product break down due to uv light then the southern hemisphere. If companies made forever products they would be out of business, hence why we have decome a disposable society.
@Darren D. Ngo Hello from a fellow CM major and employed for a large general contractor in the Seattle area. We are about to close on our first be rehab project house. I've never done drywall work before, but my husband and I are am handy. How much do you think I could do, versus hire it out. I was thinking that I could hang all the drywall, and hire out the taping, mudding, sanding? What level do they use in residential (3 or 4?). And what extent do you use green board in wet areas - just in the shower? How often do you have to use screws? Thanks for being a resource!
I would use a level 4 finish unless you texture the wall. Then may level 3 but read what level covers. I only use 4 and 5 for commerical work. Read the product data sheet on yhe drywall for screw pattern. This depends on stud spacing and gyp thickness. Drywallers wont warranty there work if they just mud.
Thank you Jim for the insight! It is interesting to know that metal is considered premium. A few comments above a member mentioned that metal only cost a few thousands more.
I don't know about the rest of southern hemisphere but here over Australia there is a huge hole in ozone layer, so UV here is a big big trouble.