Blog Comments

The garage was better before I had to tear down a 280g reef with all of its gear, AND make room for a bigger fishroom. I'm itching to put up the second wall so I can put up two sets of permanent shelves on that wall and the one adjacent to hold stuff, but the stand and tank have to go in through that gap for now.

There's a pallet of stuff for the new tank eating up another chunk of garage real estate.

so, I realized that you really need to organize that garage of yours Marc, there are tons of pictures of your garage being a lot more tidy.

Sisterlimonpot - Because of the intersection of lumber that you see in the third picture above. It wouldn't work at all. I'm trying to find a spot that when you come up, you have some headroom to get over to whatever needs doing. I've been in the attic many times, as have various companies, so I know access is important. Maybe once I have the ceiling down, I'll see something doable.

Lyfey - I just pulled out the rickety pull down attic stair in three or four pieces. The biggest chunk, when it hit the ground, sounded like a giant rat trap.

Trido - the sheetrock will be off the concrete for that very reason. Green or white, I'll decide later.

DensArmor has fiberglass matting on it... Lowes does sell it, but it might be a special order in your area. Whatever the case, it's not a lot of sheets. Regarding the walls...I did the PVC base trim siliconed to the floor and there are downsides:

1. Silicone does not stand up well to a variety of conditions and doesn't stick well to concrete.
2. When you have to pull it out (like I did), WHOA MOMMA! It will take half your wall with it.

I would say, much better than nothing, but ultimately, wrapping vinyl up the wall is the BEST way to keep from damaging your walls. Also regarding concrete, I know you know a lot about the topic, but I still had issues. Even though I used several "coats" of sealer, the saltwater still ate the floor. My concrete wasn't the best so that was an added problem. If you leave it bare concrete, the only sealing system I could recommend is from Tennant. I used Eco-Hard-N-Sealer after I took down my tank. This is a Zero VOC product that is simply amazing. Very easy to apply, water cleanup, and keeps the chalk down. 1 x 5 gal. bucket would be more than enough for your tank room.

Food for thought...

Definitely a good idea Marc. Why can't you move the dropdown attic access over to the left (standing at the garage door looking in) of the fish room?

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but you could make a pull down stairway into the attic and have a nice big surge tank in the attic! That would be awesome! And you could even hide all of you ballasts and electrical work up in the attic.

-Chris

Wow!! Alot of chatter on a sheetrock celing............I fully understand budget restaints but I'd recommend tearing the old sheetrock down regardless of how you deal with the insulation. Taping and mudding new joints is far easier than patching five holes and having it turn out nice. A bit more work but that ceiling is a mess. Blown in insulation is quite common now days and 18" is about equivelant to an R-30 bat. Two bundle of new R-30 should be about all you need to redo the ceiling. You can broom the insulation aside and respread it but it'll be a nasty job. either way, I'm sure it'll turn out real nice for a tank room. It is a utilty room afterall, there won't (shouldn't) be a TV and recliner itn it.

Oh, BTW. I personally wouldnt use green board in there. A nice primer and two coats of a quality satin paint along with a nice quiet 110+ CFM bath fan should be all of the protection you need for the life of those walls. At a minimum hold the sheetrock an inch off the concrete so your spills dont directly contact it, or some PVC base trim siliconed to the floor. I can take a garden hose to rinse out my tank room when needed.

Nice to see you on the board here Jonathan.

I looked it up with my zipcode, and the local Lowes carries it according to that site, Bradley. However, Lowes' website doesn't list it for some reason. I'll have to go in person. There are a lot of types, more than I expected.

http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pid=4684

Dense shield isn't cheap Marc. But it's very good. Just like sheetrock, but has a vinyl coating outside. Fire rated and somewhat water resistant. It's pretty much the standard for new restrooms where tile is installed.

I've never heard of that one. Who sells it, and more importantly what does it cost? The sheetrock I tore out wasn't bad at all, and held up well all these years. I used greenboard around and above the tank, but the walls away from the tank were standard sheetrock.

I know you guys want the best, but my wallet can only take so much.

More discussion...

I don't buy the whole thing about green rock at all. If you want to get serious, I would recommend DensArmor.

Okay, that makes sense. I'll find out more tomorrow probably.

Pushing it over isn't a bad idea at all actually. It would reduce the rainfall for sure. There are a LOT of wires, cables and more under that stuff. It would be nice to have a couple of walkboards to traverse when having to work up there. Also, I'm trying to come up with a new location for attic stairs, but not coming up with a lot of options yet.

Here in Texas, we definitely insulate as much as possible. The insulation is probably 18" tall measuring from the sheetrock ceiling to the top of the drifts.

I plan to use green sheetrock all around the tank. Possibly the entire room.

+3 for nightshade, broom insulation from area and replace drywall then re-spread insulation to desired areas.

+1 on the roll insulation with desired R=Value. Hate to suggest more work, but if you redo the ceiling, opportunity for a few recessed light fixtures? I did my living room ceiling as it was over inch out of level from the floor, etc.. I pulled the old down, did the plumb line from end-end of the room to level to then lay the furring strips perpendicular to the joists and shimming at each screw to joist point to match the plumb line kind of thing. New sheet rock. Got the compressor and hopper out to shoot some thinned out joint compound and finally did the knockdown approach.

Word.

BTW are you using greenboard or durock rather than regular sheetrock? I know that the greenboard is a lot better than regular sheetrock but I had a friend who had a basement that was semi flood prone and the bottom 4 feet of the wall was durock and the rest was greenboard with the ceiling being regular sheetrock so if it did flood the durock would take most of the water and abuse.

Plus you are going to have a pretty humid environment back there, and the old sheetrock probably isn't rated for the high humidity. And I agree that rolls would be much easier to work with but you could take a push broom up and push the old insulation over to one area and then replace the sheet under the cleared part then move the insulation back over the new piece and replace the next section. After it is all done even it out as best as possible and add what you want/need after.