After spray foam insulation, plumbing disasters, HVAC complications, and window decisions I’d come to regret for the next fifteen years, we finally got to something relatively straightforward: drywall.
Spoiler alert: this was one of the easier parts of the build. Which means it’s also one of the less interesting blog posts. But there are still a few lessons worth sharing, particularly about moisture and forward-thinking decisions that actually paid off.
Hiring a Subcontractor (The Right Call)
My friend who was acting as our general contractor took one look at the scope of drywalling our entire house and said, “Yeah, I’m hiring someone for this.”
Smart man.
Hanging and finishing drywall in a 2,000+ square foot house with 27-29 windows, vaulted ceilings, and all the complexity that comes with a real house is not a two-person job. It’s not even a four-person job. It requires a crew who does this for a living, has the right equipment, and can move fast.
So we hired a drywall subcontractor. I don’t remember the name of the company (this was 2010 and apparently I didn’t keep that paperwork), but they came recommended and they did good work.
Cost: $9,500 for the whole house.
The Basement Decision (Or: Lack Thereof)
We didn’t drywall the basement ceiling at this time for a few reasons:
The Budget Reason: We were out of money. Completely tapped. The basement ceiling was going to cost a few thousand more dollars we didn’t have.
The Jennifer Reason: Jennifer hated basements. Still does. She knew from day one she’d never want to finish it, never want to use it as living space, and would happily pretend it didn’t exist for the rest of her life.
She was right. Fifteen years later, the basement is still unfinished, still used only for storage and mechanical systems, and Jennifer still doesn’t go down there unless absolutely necessary.
The Kids Reason: We didn’t have kids yet. We weren’t thinking about needing finished basement space. The whole house felt enormous to us coming from NYC apartments. Why would we need MORE space?
(Future us, with two kids and all their stuff, would have a different opinion. But that’s a problem for Future Thomas.)
What This Meant: The basement has exposed floor joists, exposed plumbing, exposed wiring, and easy access to everything. Which has been incredibly useful for all the plumbing fixes, water filtration work, and other repairs we’ve had to do over the years.
So accidentally, by not finishing it, we maintained access to our systems. That’s worked out better than the alternative, even if it wasn’t an intentional design choice.
The Attic Decision (Actually Smart)
Here’s something we DID do right: we had them drywall the attic space immediately, even though we weren’t using it yet.
The attic is a big open space under the roof, now inside our conditioned envelope thanks to the spray foam on the roof deck. At the time, it was just empty space. We had no immediate plans for it.
But Jennifer had the foresight to say, “Let’s drywall it now while the crew is here and we’re already spending money.”
This turned out to be brilliant.
A few years later, when we needed more space, we added flooring to the attic and turned it into usable storage and, eventually, a play area for the kids. Because the walls and ceiling were already finished, all we had to do was put down flooring and move stuff up there.
If we’d left it unfinished, going back to drywall it later would have meant: – Hiring a drywall crew again (more expensive as a standalone job) – Dealing with dust and mess in an occupied house – Working around whatever we’d already stored up there – Making a simple project complicated
Instead, we spent the money upfront when it was cheap and easy, and it paid off years later.
Sometimes forward-thinking actually works out.
The Work Itself (Fast and Good)
The drywall crew showed up, hung everything, taped, and finished in what felt like record time. Maybe two weeks total? I wasn’t there every day (still working in the city during the week), but every time I came up on the weekend, huge amounts of progress had been made.
The quality was good. The walls were straight, the corners were clean, the finish was smooth. The subcontractor we’d used for framing had told us, “You guys have one of the straightest houses I’ve worked on,” and the drywall crew confirmed it. Everything went up easily because the framing was solid.
The Quality Check Challenge: Here’s the thing about checking drywall quality: it’s really hard to see imperfections until you paint it. And even then, you need the right lighting.
I walked through after they finished and everything looked fine. Smooth. Professional. But I’m not a drywall expert. I don’t know what I’m looking for. Small imperfections, slight waves in the finish, minor inconsistencies — I couldn’t see them.
Later, after we painted, a few spots showed up where the finish wasn’t quite perfect. Nothing major. Nothing that affected the function of the walls. Just… not quite perfect.
But by then, what were we going to do? Call them back months later to fix a few spots? We lived with it. And honestly, after fifteen years, I couldn’t tell you where those spots are even if I tried.
The lesson: inspect drywall carefully before the crew leaves. But also accept that you’re probably not going to catch everything, and minor imperfections are normal.
The Moisture Disaster (Part Two)
Remember how in Part 12, I talked about the spray foam installation happening in the middle of winter and filling the house with moisture that had nowhere to go?
Well, the drywall taping and finishing happened in March 2010. Still cold. Still winter in upstate New York.
And the taping compound — the “mud” they use to finish drywall joints — is basically wet plaster. Gallons and gallons of wet plaster, spread all over your house, slowly drying.
Except it wasn’t drying. It was just sitting there, adding MORE moisture to a house that was already saturated from the spray foam curing process.
The house felt damp. Everything felt damp. The air was heavy. I’d come up on weekends and the windows would be covered in condensation. The whole place felt like a greenhouse.
What I Should Have Done: Run dehumidifiers. Multiple dehumidifiers. 24/7. From the moment the taping started until weeks after it finished.
What I Actually Did: Nothing. I didn’t even think about it.
I couldn’t keep the windows open because it was too cold outside. I didn’t run the HRV because the house was full of drywall dust and I didn’t want to pull all that through the system. So the moisture just… stayed there.
The Collateral Damage: We had materials stored in the basement: hardwood flooring, trim, doors. All sitting in a damp environment, absorbing moisture.
This came back to bite us later during installation. The flooring had absorbed so much moisture that it needed extra time to acclimate. The trim had minor warping. Nothing catastrophic, but preventable problems.
The Lesson: When you’re doing major wet work in a house (drywall, painting, concrete, anything that releases moisture), you need active moisture management. Run dehumidifiers. Monitor humidity levels. Don’t just assume it’ll dry out on its own, especially in cold weather.
This was such an obvious thing in hindsight. But at the time, I was focused on a thousand other details and didn’t even think about the moisture content of taping compound.
What We Got Right
Despite the moisture issue, we actually made some good decisions with drywall:
1. Hired Professionals This wasn’t a DIY job. This wasn’t a “let’s help our friend” job. This was a “hire people who do this every day” job, and it worked out great.
2. Did the Attic Right Away That forward-thinking decision saved us thousands of dollars and weeks of hassle later.
3. Skipped the Basement This was accidental wisdom, but it worked out. Having easy access to plumbing, wiring, and ductwork has been invaluable.
4. Didn’t Overthink It Drywall is drywall. We didn’t need special textures, fancy finishes, or complex designs. Smooth walls, white ceiling, move on. Sometimes simple is the right answer.
What We Got Wrong
1. The Moisture Management Should have run dehumidifiers. Should have monitored humidity. Should have protected stored materials.
2. Didn’t Think About Access Panels We should have planned better for access panels to mechanical systems, even in finished spaces. Cutting holes in drywall later is possible (my friend’s recommendation was literally “just cut holes when you need them”), but it’s not ideal.
In the basement, exposed joists give us access to everything. In the finished living spaces, we occasionally need to access wiring or plumbing and have to cut into finished walls.
Better planning would have meant access panels in strategic locations. But that would have required knowing WHERE we’d need access in the future, which is hard when you’re building for the first time.
Overall Assessment
Drywall was straightforward. The crew did good work, it happened fast, it came in on budget, and we’ve had no problems with it in fifteen years.
The moisture issue was our fault, not the drywall crew’s fault. They did their job. We failed to manage the environment properly.
The smart decision to drywall the attic paid off years later. The decision to skip the basement also worked out, even though it wasn’t really a “decision” so much as “we ran out of money.”
This is what I imagine most of homebuilding is like for people who aren’t documenting every disaster: things happen, professionals do their jobs, you make a few decisions, and it all works out reasonably well.
Of course, we had plenty of OTHER parts of the build that didn’t go smoothly. But drywall? Drywall was fine.
Grade: B+
Good quality work, completed on schedule, reasonable cost, no long-term problems. Loses points for the moisture management failure (our fault, not theirs) and for not thinking about access panels.
But honestly, in a build that included septic disasters, well problems, HVAC complications, and Pella windows, having drywall be boring and successful feels like a win.
Sometimes the best outcome is when nothing interesting happens.
Next up: Part 14 – Painting (Or: Why I’ll Never Use a Paint Sprayer Again)
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