Vapour barrier, drywall, and more

First off, let me apologize for the delay in making this post – it has, as usual, been a very busy time since we last posted, and we of course had some delays relating to the problems with the spray foam insulation that was used in our house.

We ended up getting an independent engineers report on how to best resolve the issue with the insulation, they recommended applying a vapour barrier per Ontario Building Code standards, so we had to get that completed before we could start drywalling the exterior walls.  At this point, we have the vapour barrier applied, and correctly sealed with acoustical sealant, on all exterior walls except our master bedroom, and have been approved by our building inspector to continue installing that and then go ahead with the drywall.

One of the issues we had to solve in applying the vapour barrier, was how to correctly seal around all the electrical boxes in those walls.  The building inspector recommended removing the boxes, wrapping them in plastic (same material used for the vapour barrier, 6mil poly sheeting), and sealing that to the vapour barrier.  We tried this approach on a couple of boxes and it was pretty labour intensive to get it done right.  We ended up also speaking to the electrical inspector about this, and he recommended just digging out the spray foam from around the boxes, and spraying in “Great Stuff” canned spray foam, as that is a vapour barrier…we were happy that our building inspector accepted this alternate plan as it was a lot easier to do and did not require disturbing all the electrical boxes.

In the midst of all this, I started working on roughing in the shower in our master bath, but need a few more plumbing fittings before I can finish that off.  Also, I realized I needed to add another 2×4″ in one of the walls, to support the glass shower wall/door, so I will have to get that done before I can finish out those walls.  You’ll notice in the pictures, that the drywall in the bathroom is green – this is a special mold-resistant drywall intended for use in bathrooms.  It’s about as easy to work with as regular drywall, just more expensive.  You’ll also notice  that on the lower part of the wall in the master bathroom, we have used cement board instead of the mold resistant drywall.  Cement board is just as it sounds – a 4×8′, 1/2″ sheet of reinforced cement.  It’s really heavy compared to drywall and quite difficult to work with compared to drywall, but it’s what you are supposed to use if you plan on tiling the walls (we plan to tile behind the tub and the shower walls), as drywall cannot really support the extra weight of tiles.

Finally, I plumbed up the main water line to the central water distribution manifold, and started connected the cold water to the hot water tank – but of course realized I needed a few more plumbing fittings to complete this job, so it’s on hold until I pick those up this week.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the pictures, and we’ll make an effort to post more often!  We are going to be ordering some unfinished hardwood flooring to put down, before we start installing the kitchen cabinets, hopefully we can get that underway soon.