Tape measures are for measuring things mostly. This is a new use for one.
Hattip Kotke
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Over at One Project Closer, the lads have a list of gifts for the DIY’ers and remodelers. Some nice stuff. I would like to add to the list with a excellent plastic storage container. This is a Workforce parts container I picked up at the orange store about 3 years ago. They are around 12-15 bucks a copy. You may only think you need one, but like potato chips, that won’t fly long. These are very durable made with thick plastic. The dividers are very well made and sit in the boxes well. They are adjustable and come with the box. The lid holds them in place when transporting.
‘Modern’ platform framed houses have walls that start out being over 8′ Hanging drywall is a procedure, that goes ceiling then walls. Drywall doesn’t care which way you hang it. I do. You can hang drywall parallel to your framing, but it is not recommended as wood moves, and on ceilings if it does you will have cracks that run the entire length of the sheet, requiring you to fix over your head. Trust me, you are not going to like taping the first time around, the second time around there is more stuff to work around. If you stand the sheets up on your walls, not only do you have a crack problem, but it is a lot harder to tape. By hanging your drywall perpendicular to your framing, you will minimize cracking and being able to tape the wall seam at 4′ is a lot easier than getting up and down sawhorses and ladders. One of the lesser known drywall tools is the ‘kicker’, or floor drywall lifter. Remember the 48” tall drywall? Two sheets are 96”. Even with 5/8” drywall on your ceiling, your wall is around 96 1/2” high. the top sheet gets pressed to the ceiling and nailed off. The bottom sheet sitting on the floor has a serious gap. This is where the ‘kicker’ makes its entrance.
Better seams, better taping, better job. This is also handy for short lifts like lining up solid doors to slip in hinge pins, lining up cabinet faces. It is one of those tools that most folks do not need for small projects. Check with your neighbors. There is an alternative using a wonderbar. Cutting drywall is a simple operation in most cases. Sometime the cut edges are not clean, having bumps where the material is sticking beyond where your cut line is. In the trade these are known as ‘dogballs’.(no i have no clue either, it just is) It is important to clean them up for a clean tight drywall job. For that you need a Buffer. (another bit of salty trade terminology whose antecedents goes back to time is money. Drywall hangers for the most part are paid footage, which means that having to stop to buff off dogballs means taking time away from hanging, making the job less profitable, which is why they call this the mutherf*ucker. Professional drywall hanging is much more precise than it seems.)
Having a situation, and a buffer, a few quick strokes, and you are ready to hang your sheet. You can use the edge of your keyhole saw or the edge of a taping knife to do this, but it is more time consuming, messier and less elegant. One of the more recent trends in home design for the home remodeler is the installation of recessed can lights, and speakers. Marking and Cutting the holes for them is real easy with a It is a very simple tool. It has a cutting wheel and a movable pivot. Once you have determined your hole center, by measuring the center of your light/hole from the edges of the sheets or walls, and transferred these to your drywall, you loosen the pivot and move it to the size you need, remembering that your measurement is at the front edge of the pivot. The photo below shows us we are making a 2 /3/4'' diameter hole. Note: You may want to make your hole a bit larger than your fixture diameter. A 6'' hole you may want to cut 6 1/4'' to allow for any imperfections in fixture or measurements. Care needs to be taken here, especially if using narrow trim rings.
Note that the pivot point is lower than the cutting wheel to allow you to get a solid pivot point. You press the pivot into the center of your marks and rotate the tool around, maintaining pressure on the cutter to cut through the paper.
Once you have completed your circle, depending on the size and location, either carefully hammer inside the circle to break the drywall,(you will need to use your utility knife to clean up the edges if you hammer) or use your keyhole saw to cut it out. This can also be used for the holes for the waste lines in your kitchen/bath/laundry rooms. The Cats Paw. This is a standard cats paw. About 12 ” with two claws to allow you to hammer below nails to pry them up, so you can remove nails and separate the studs and stuff that you are demoing. This is an Orphan Tool. Really doesn’t do anything else. This is a great tool when you are doing a partial wall demo for loosening bottom and top plates as well as corner and wall studs. But if you are doing a lot of demo, this is a great addition to your tool collection. Japanese Cat’s Paw
Lighter, a little more elegant but the same tool. Carpenter hammers come in a huge variety of sizes, shapes, handles, and weights. Back in the day wood handles were your only choice. Today they come in all sorts of varieties. Here in the Southwest wood handled tools are a bad choice due to the climate. They dryout with the desert heat sucking the moisture out of the handles, causing them to crack and the heads to loosen. The Worst choice are cheap hammers that have hollow tubular handles. You miss the target once, kink the tube and your hammer is scrap. Note: Wear safety glasses when hammering. Here are my current carpenter hammers. They are 20oz hammers which are probably the best all around hammer for the home remodeler. They are ’straight’ claw hammers. They also have smooth faces. Hammers in this category are usually around 13” tall. They all have bulges along the handle that the manufacturer considers the balance ’sweet spot’ for holding them. Trust me your mileage and grip will vary. The hammer on the right is a solid steel hammer. Both of them have rubber grips and are comfortable to hold and use. The down side to an all steel hammer in the southwest is it gets hot. Using any hammer is easy, Grip it firmly,(Not the Vulcan Death Grip),Do not choke up on the handle thinking that you will get more precision,(you won’t, and your arm and hand will get tired real fast and it won’t be any fun.) Swing easily and let the weight of the hammer do the work. Framing Hammer Drywall Hammers Notice that the face is taller than the top of the axe. This allows nailing in corners without tearing up the sheet next to it. This shape also produces the dimple putting the top of the nail below the surface so, drywall mud covers it, and your walls are smooth. The axe head is useful for trimming off crap left from bad cuts on drywall as well as acting as a prybar if you need to move a sheet over a little bit. The hammer on the right is one I have had for around 30 years, and is on its (hell i don’t remember how many handles). It has a 16” long handle as i am 5′8” and a standard handle had me on my tiptoes nailing off the top sheets. This head has a clip front, to be able to get into the corners. The problem with this, is chewing up the sheet on the other wall if you miss your swing. Unique Hammers My favorite demo hammers are left over from my days as a dismantler in auto wrecking yards. This is my junkyard ball peen. Made from a 4 pound ball peen head welded on a volkswagen torsion bar.
The utility knife is a very important tool for the home remodeler. There are two types. The bottom knife is a fixed blade. Notice the large thumbscrew for opening and closing? One of the design triumphs of the 20th century! This is a Grabber, made by the folks who make a large percentage of drywall screws on the planet. Found in Drywall Speciality stores. It has checkering(that diamond pattern on the handle),so that it does not slip easily, is hinged on the backside with a spring inside to pop the case open, and not fly apart like other knives. Note: Always try to cut away from your body, as utility blades are quite sharp and can cut quite fast and deep. If you can’t take your time and be careful. In our previous episode I explained some basic details about tape measures. There is more. Tape Measure Symbols
On the left is the foot guide, with a black arrow and reversed lettering to see at a glance how many feet you are at. In the center is the standard 16'' O.C. (on center layout/framing guide) On Almost everything written, designed and built uses 16'' on center On the right is one of the weirdest things found on tape measures. On the right is a little diamond at 19 1/4'' which is a little used measuring system called Optimum Value Engineering. OVE was a framing system developed by the Forest Products Laboratory about 20 years ago. The theory was that you could design on a 2 foot module scheme, using studs at 24'' and floor joists and roofing at 19 1/4''. This does save on structure materials like studs, joists and rafters, but because of spacing and other engineering issues, sheathing materials and drywall needed to be thicker resulting in higher sheathing material costs. It was pretty much a wash, and in the two projects that I worked on years ago, it didn't seem to be all that optimum. Even with today's drive toward a greener building style, OVE is not ready for prime time, and the average houseblogger and remodeler, will not find it useful. Here are some resources if you want to know more. Sustainable Building Sourcebook The tape measure is the most important tool in remodeling. With the big box stores you can buy and use the same tools the pros use. They come in various lengths and blade widths. The dumb end
This is the dumb end. All tape measures have a hook on the end. This one has three rivets holding the hook in place. All of the hooks move. Your tape is not broken! This is deliberate. The hook has thickness and the movement is to allow you to measure inside or outside with the same tool. You want to check that the tapes you buy have the same movement. While you are at the store making your choices pull out 4 or 5 feet and put two tapes side by side to insure that they read the same. Early in my drywall days, my partner and I were dry walling an apartment building. He was measuring, I was cutting. I kept missing the boxes and my lengths were off. I had just bought my new tape the day before. It started getting heated between us, until we put our tapes side by side and checked them. Buy buying 2 at a time, your partner can be marking while you are measuring, and you don't have to fight over who has the dumb end:) First Look at the Blade
What the marks mean
Talking Numbers Now that you can read the tape, let's get comfortable talking numbers. Your partner is in front of a wall measuring for the sheetrock/plywood/paneling that you are standing in front of, waiting for her to call out measurements. For example you have a 13' wall and there is a 36'' doorway centered 8 feet from the corner. Approx. 10'' (65 3/8 – 65 5/8'') from the left side of the door opening is a plastic romex outlet box for a light switch. The box is 2 1/4'' wide x 3 3/4'' deep centered at 48''. 1/8'' Shorthand – Strong and Even When measuring using an 1/8'' shorthand is quicker and easier, resulting in fewer mistakes. Here is a quick example. You are hanging your drywall horizontally, and measuring from the left. First you do your horizontal measurements, then you do your verticals. Measuring from the left your partner calls out 65 and 2, 67 and 5 strong, 77 even. You mark your sheet, from the left as she calls out the numbers. 65 and 2, is the left side of the outlet box, 67 and 5 strong, is the right side of the box and 77 even is the left side of the door opening. When you add the outlet numbers it comes out to 2 11/16'' which is 3/16'' larger giving you a bit of room in case the box isn't square or the corner is not plumb. If everything works, you will not need a drywall repair guide. 65 and 2 is actually 65 and 1/4'' or 65 and 2 eighths. Why would you say that? You only need 7 numbers to call instead of 16. Less confusion. 65 and 5 strong is actually 65 and 11/16'' which is 65 and 5 eighth and 1/16th. the 1/16th inch being the strong. Using Strong indicates that you need a 1/16th more than the 5/8ths. 77 even means 77'' and no bits. Then your partner starts from the right measuring down from the ceiling. 13 and 6, 46 even. You mark you sheet from the right as she reads her numbers. 13 and 6, is the depth of the top of your door frame. 46 even is the top of the electric box. You now have 1/16'' precision with 7 numbers and 2 words that do not sound even close reducing confusion and speeding up production.
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The tighter your joints, the easier to tape, the cleaner and better job you will produce.
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This has a straight claw and a checkered face. The checkered face helps
Here is a standard blade that is marked in inches, with 1/16'' precision. For remodeling or rough carpentry this is as precise as you will need. 
The graduations on this tape have consistent spacing but different heights. The shortest lines denote a 1/16''. the next taller set are 1/8'' marks, next are the 1/4'' and finally the 1/2''marks. You will pick this up quickly and be measuring with confidence in no time at all.
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