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Interior shop building wall finish thoughts/pics

viper

Titanium
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May 18, 2007
Location
nowhereville
We are finishing up design of an interior floor plan for a new building but still need to make a decision on interior wall finish. The building will be a pretty standard free span, tapered I beam building with horizontal perlins.

I am to to concerned about covering 100% of the I beams and they can stay partially exposed but the problem is we need a plum and square wall to build away from. All interior build out will be wood construction and we do have windows in the building so we are looking for an aesthetically pleasing way to tie the interior walls in with the interior build out. I think we would prefer to just have drywall.

All our builder friends have recommended metal sheeting on the interior but I do not really want to do that. I am not as much looking for wall material ideas as much as maybe pics of an interior to figure out how we might want to approach this. We may be able to just attach drywall right to the perlins too but worried about the large span on them and I do not want to buy extra perlins just to attach drywall to.

Thoughts? am I over complicating this matter?
 
What about a plumb wall to about 8' or 10', then go with the taper the rest of the way up? This would reduce the amount of stuff needed to get from the beams to the wall, as you really only need a header at the break point and the bottom stringer can be bolted to the floor. This way you just have essentially a (mostly) free standing interior wall with some room behind it for utilities and good insulation.
 
I have used drywall and metal interior walls. I'll never use drywall again, metal is the only way to go. goes up fast, already painted, no dust from sanding. no painting, wash it down with a hose if you want.
 
I should have specified that this will be an office environment so wash down is of no concern and the rest of the walls will be drywall so we would prefer to keep things consistent if possible.
 
You could consider those "Kemlite" fiberglass panels available at Home Depot, etc. Same stuff as used inside refrigerated semi-trailers.

Crane Composites, Inc. || Trailer and Truck Body Products

One side is pebble, other side is smooth.

About $30 a sheet.

There are variations of gypsum panels, that provide greater impact resistance.

Shaft liner is one of these, some are fiberglass lined, one inch thick (but not four feet wide).
http://products.construction.com/ma...berglass-faced-gypsum-liner-panels-nst35725-p

The fiberglass covering makes the wall so tough, it's a challenge to emergency responders:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/firerescue/psta/inservice/inservicetrainingminutes0612.pdf
 
I currently have at least 5 different buildings which I have had to fur out and install interior walls in- each different.

For clean, interior spaces like offices, drywall is the best way to go, even if its messy to install.
But you ALWAYS have to fur it out-
I have wood frame buildings, concrete block buildings, metal pole barns- and in every case, there was no way around putting in the required number of studs, on 16" centers.
Anything else just doesnt work well, and looks cruddy.

In my concrete block building, I had to use anchor bolts and powder fasteners to fasten 2x4's to the concrete, then sheetrock that.
In my pole barns, I have one with a whole new, vertical stud wall that floats in front of the horizontal purlins- this works the best, but is the most work and money.
I have one where I have horizontal purlins that are installed flat- that is, they are the 1 1/2" way in the thickness of the wall- and that one also required a lot of additional framing. I ended up only framing that one up to 8 feet, and then, above that, its just exposed white vinyl faced insulation.
For the last one, I specified that the purlins be 2x6's, with the wall the full width or the "6" dimension. So on that one, I could go in and airnail vertical studs between the horizontal purlins, and then insulate and sheetrock.

I have used metal studs- and I wont, again. Dont like em. They are more work the first time, to install, and harder to attach anything to. I know crews on really big sites like em, but I sure dont.

I also have some interior walls that are just plywood, or OSB- but these are rough storage and work spaces- they will never look as good, or be as clean as sheetrock.

So- my opinion- bite the bullet, and fur out the walls to be right and proper for real drywall, and then hire a crew to hang and mud the stuff.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I agree that studding out the walls seems the only real option for a drywall build out but my concern right now is how to tie in the windows so it looks good. One option that may likely be the way we go is laying the 2x4 flat against the perlin vertically on centers to create the stud wall we need. This would pull us back another 1.5" from the purlin face which is usually 6". So we would have about 9-11" from outtside of window faces to interior walls. Probably will look just fine and not sure if I would finish with Oak or drywall.

By doing this, I would still have exposed I beam in the room. I am not opposed to that because it is maximizing the floor space. This building is an 18' sidewall and we are setting a 9' ceiling on the main floor with a simple unfinished mezanine up top. If I run with this setup, I would not be able to run horizontal utilites in the exterior walls due to the main beams being in the way but I think I can work around that.

One issue I see with this is it will be difficult to design a good top plate that is stiff because it will be interupted at every I beam. I will be running 2x4 floor joists on top.

I too have worked with metal studs and hate them. they are not structural and harder to notch into tight spots. Wood is the only way I will go.
 
My shop is in drywall painted with gloss white. If it gets dirty it wipes off pretty well. I like the sound absorption of drywall....it never sounds like I'm in a tin can.

I didn't use any fur in the contruction of my building. I might decide someday to hand a bearskin over one of the doorways, though.
 

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Due to a quirk in our zoning rules, I ended up with plywood on the interior walls of a home shop. Turns out that I could leave studs bare or cover them in most anything but drywall; or get assessed at about double the rate. More than a hundred thousand dollars of difference. Surprisingly, the rules allowed interior partitions to be drywall and demanded double layer drywall on ceilings.

Also happened to find a good deal on paper faced structural ply; and it has turned out to be a terrific wall material. With the exception of a seam every 4' and tiny torx head screw heads showing, it looks much like drywall; including at doors and windows. The pluses are that it adds structural integrity, won't dent, is actually semi-fire resistant (especially compared to open studs), is quiet, and anything can be attached to the walls anywhere I like. Since just about every square inch of wall space has a bench or cabinet or tool peg attached to it, this has been a plus. The main point: you can mix drywall and paper-faced drywall where it makes sense; and still have a clean and consistent look.
 
Why couldn't you mount the paperfaced plywood with drywall screws and mud the screws and joints?
 
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If I understand the question right, you are concerned about bridging the space between the inside wall (which has to be set in because of the taper) and the window in the outside wall. If so, how about making a window seat at each window? A bit more work, but could be a nice look. If you want to get fancy, you could make the "ceiling" above each window into an arch or a gable.
 
I have actually run into your situation a few times- and what we usually do is use MDF, not drywall, for the window well.
Drywall is just too flimsy for the horizontal surface at the bottom of the window- especially when, like you say, it gets to be 6" to 9" deep. I make up a frame of 1/2" or 3/4" MDF, screwed and glued together on the outside, and screw that to the framing around the window. MDF, when painted out, is just as smooth as drywall, no grain. Takes paint really well.

Another trick I have done, in my office, is to trim out that opening in sheet metal- but, as a metal artist, thats sort of part of my whole look- I trimmed out the windows right in front of me with Galvanized 20 gage, bent on the brake into L shapes, which actually folds out onto the wall, and back into the window frame. I hit it with a random orbit sander with 150 grit or so, and screwed it in with decorative screws. Each window looks like it has a metal picture frame around it, about 3" wide. But thats probably not a look you would want.

There are some commercially available metal sheetrock trims that are for trimming out windows like this, but I dont think any of em are deep enough for your application.
 
Why couldn't mount the paperfaced plywood with drywall screws and mud the screws and joints?

You could; and it would look just like drywall. I ended up two sheets short of the paper-faced stuff while finishing a small room. After a skim coat, the crummy B-C ply I used still looks like a drywall finish several years later.

In my case, there were two reasons for the exposed torx screws and vertical joints. First, the zoning code issue -- I wanted to keep things simple for final approval. Second, because I wanted easy access to the 6" stud space in case I ever wanted access to anything.
 
I also have plywood walls in my shop. They are a little more expensive that drywall, but much better IMHO. I did use drywall for the ceiling and I would do that again.
 
Plywood

My shop has unstained plywood finished with clear polyurethane. Hang anything you want wherever you want! I think it looks great! Take a look.
Don101_0844.jpg

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Due to the sq area and desired finish, I think drywall is the right choice for us on this one.

Another issue we still need to hash out is the floor heat. It is pretty much understood that you need to insulate under the floor tubing to reflect the heat up into the concrete but My concern is the stiffness of the concrete with this insulation layer. machines needs a strong base and high quality concrete and the insulation could be a serious problem down the road.

Do they have a structural insulation layer for this issue?
 
If you put any wood that's not fire treated in the shop area of a pre engineered steel building you will near double the cost of your fire insurance on that building. To use untreated wood in an office area of the same building requires a UL listed firewall assembly between the office and shop area else the wood in the office will be considered to be in the shop area for insurance purposes.
 
We certainly plan to firewall the office space and are actively planning fire suppression in the build out. Due to our zoning, we should not be forced to have sprinklers but I am strongly considering it anyway. If I add sprinklers, I would just do it myself because I know install costs are high but I am not sure if the insurance will bite on it.

i am also looking for smart ideas regarding fire suppression in the building materials. Obviously a fire represents more than just a financial loss for us so it is our ultimate goal to realize that fire would be our most likely loss and plan around that.
 








 
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