New home construction. Taping

ryanh

Good day.

On new home's when the you tapers work is the homes furance hooked up? especially for people who work in the northern parts.

I'm working on a home, and HVAC refuses to hook up furance (homeowner which has paid for it already has even asked) until after all the sanding is done due to dust getting into the system. He has provided a temp furance that we have hooked up (100amp) but its only got 1 spot it blows and in the 1400sq house does not bring up the temp all through the house. Where we are, on a average winter day outside temps are -20C(-4F) and the mud not drying is a huge concern. Especially in corners in rooms where its an outside corner. Have tried using a propane heater in a room but it just creates alot of moisure and even after drying a corner when the temp drops the bottoms of the corners seem to get wet again.


I'm getting really frustrated and this all could be avoided if the HVAC was on!@

D's

You can pretty much count on the mechanical guys not wanting to fire anything up these days to protect their warranty. You can sometimes convince them to wire it up if you promise to only have it on at night once all the dust has settled. Propane heaters create a nice working temperature but do nothing to help drying. You can rent/buy 240V electric heaters that plug into oven and dryer receptacles and they work great especially if their on long extensions for moving around. I always put it in my quote that the builder is to supply heat - I'd supply but I don't want the potential liability of anything catching fire.

Good luck,
D'S

Darren@Partners

Gotta crack the windows when running temp heat. We have all this on another thread here, but the propane or kero/deisel temp heaters simply will not dry a house if you shut al the windows tight. Open them wide several times daily, you can see a fog exit carrying the moisture once the fog subsides, close it back up, leaving them cracked an inch or so, even at night. Otherwise the next day, it'll be a hot swamp inside and nothing is dry. Dehumidifiers also help, but are costly.

And yep, the builder pays for the temp heat. Oh yeah, your HVAC guy is a woosy.

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joepro0000

tell them your going to sand with a PC hooked up to a vacuum, and your going to mask off all ac vents, and turn off the furnace the day of sanding. The best solution for drying mud is - WIND! The more wind the faster it drys.

rhardman

Alright, who's taping their job with electrical tape????
KG...is that you???

McDusty

almost never is the furnace hooked up before I sand. the contractor supplies the box heaters and they are hooked up to the dryer outlet & oven outlet. that and a huge fan dries out almost any house overnight.

ryanh

Ya I have a Construction heater. But they we have directly hooked to the panel doesn't really push air around all the corners into the backrooms and closets. I picked up some spare heaters.

Ya i made the mistake of blasting my propane heater with the windows cracked, it was like a swamp in there, opened the front door and it looked like a fire with all the moisure exit LOL

Darren@Partners

Thing is, they'll need the heat for the painter and trim etc anyways. Why not put it on as soon as we hang it( and get attic blown). Sure there's dust, call the whambulance for the HVAC guy and turn on the friggin heat.

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taper71

I have the furnaces running in all the homes I tape . The builders I work for just want the job done and with the furnace running it gets done . Construction heaters work ok if you got a long enough cord to have 1 on both floors , but if the home were to burn down insurance would not cover it.
I personally take on more work when no furnace is hooked up because I will not waste my time going back everyday on a chance that it will be dry... with a furnace running it is dry.
I will not work in homes with propane, gas or natural gas heaters. there is not enough ventilation for the fumes that it produces period ask your local OH & S it is a major safety issue .

wnybassman

It used to be common practice around here to let the house "cook" for a week straight with the permanent heat source, mainly to dry out lumber that may have got wet during the building process. During that time, it was also good to get the drywall in the house to let it acclimate to the temperature.

It is not so common practice anymore. Temp heat, opening windows to flush moisture and high velocity fans are common practice now.

PrairrieDogExpress

I'm in Wpg as well. Only one builder that we work for connects furnace before we are in and the only reason he does is to save on heating cost. My guess is that you started taping that house one or 2 days after the attic was insulated and the temp heat turned on? I know its not always possible but ideally in a house that size you need at least 2 or three days of 220v construction heaters (that are still working well) to really dry things out before starting. I've had alot of guys not allow me to crack windows when the temp dips because of thick ice forming and blocking windows from closing afterward. Just one of the joys of the north!
Always a tendency for problems down the road when humidity is that high.

Wallers

WTF? Don't furnaces elsewhere take a filter? Here the contractor comes by, sometimes twice, and changes filters as we are finishing new homes. Some contractors use those gay yellow vent covers, but they usually "accidentally" get knocked off because we don't get much air flow through them. And as wnybassman also said, the smarter builders around here will let the furnace run for a week before they will let us start. That is the best practice.

mudslingercor

The builder supplies heat ( proper heat ) It's not your job to get the HVAC guy to do anything. That is how trade fights start. Same with water if it isn't hooked up and you have to haul it per bucket charge. If they don't comply them tell them you'll rent buy heaters and supply for $$. House's should be at temp and stay at temp. Don't forget the words " VOID warranty " tends to work well to get your point across. I myself use fans as well as proper heat. NOT using proper heat also voids mud manufactures warranty...That's more ammo. In a Canadian winter when temps really drop it is also very important to have the ceilings insulated before taping. Moisture get caught between drywall and vapor barrier freezes then tapes may even freeze. Also when they finally insulate...well have you ever seen it rain indoor.. not cool.

Whitey97

usually in my parts they have paper over the vents, pull a few back. Try using a fan to push air up. It's a sucky situation, but it's what we're given. You just have to make it work.

Wallers

When you see this I am assuming its always on exterior walls? That's because the mud was frozen. It looks dry, but then thaws eventually. Explain that to the builder. Also, we leave a couple of windows cracked overnight to let the moisture escape, and use alot of fans to move the heat to where we need it.

And if the house (lid) is not insulated, REFUSE to start. Temp heat can be managed, but if it's not insulated you are looking at alot of trouble in the future, when the mud thaws and cracks, and the glue separates, and then it dries. funfun!

Whitey97

a lot = two words

Wallers

Thanks ALOT, Whitey.

ryanh

Some people are just pricks and dont want furance heat when tapers are in. They are really just screwing themselfs not allowing the mudding process to run its corse. I ain't using propane heaters ever again. too much moisture, can't really push warm air into all rooms if you don't have a whack of heaters. consent propane refills, and if i wanted to get high id smoke a joint not enhale propane :/

turn the heat on. tape. cover the vents, sand. turn heat on..

McDusty

i've heard that turning on the furnace before hand can void furnace warranty. just what i've heard. not sure if there is any merit to it.

roominaday

Interesting topic today...I was floating out all the bevel joints in a living room that I taped last December when it was -25 that week with those 220v heaters. I had to haul my own water for this job as well!

I came back in the spring to tape the basement and saw the painted ceilings (HO used paint, no primer - looked like #%$), all the bevel joints had crowned and a few butts were cracked! It turned out there was no insulation in the living room ceiling until later.

So today I repaired around 70 screw pops, taped the cracked butts and coated all the bevel joints. Tomorrow I will paint with a self priming paint from BM - I will post the details of this on PT tomorrow!

Oh well - Billing by the hour on this one to fix it for him and he gave me word today I will be doing his new 10,000 bd ft shop. Board, Tape and Paint!

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