I worked about 6 hours on Sunday but accomplished very little. I cut loose or excess sheetrock around the electrical boxes, then applied acoustical caulk to each of the 5 outlet boxes. Sealing remains to be done for the two electrical switch boxes, the electrical panel, and the ceiling fan box.
This was the first time I worked on the ceiling box (thanks to new ladder) and electrical panel, though all I did was trimming sheetrock. The ceiling job was particularly messy as loose sheetrock dust fell on ladder and floor and needed to be cleaned up afterwards. I've been waiting to do this job to do second complete disassembly and cleaning and replacement of HEPA filter in vacuum. I had been wondering if I would need to vacuum up more than a trace amount of sheetrock dust for this job, but in fact I needed to vacuum up quite a bit of sheetrock dust. I also vacuumed up bugs that had gotten stuck to white painted walls.
I imagine my billable rate on this trimming and sealing as about 1 hour per electrical box. But actually, I had previously worked on all the outlet boxes before, this week I was simply sealing to perfection around all 4 sides of each box. Previously I had only sealed in the bigger gaps, and some of the sealing was a bit rough. Now it's virtually beveled. My actual total time spent may be more like 2 hours per box.
Sealing around the ceiling box is going to be especially difficult because there are large holes around the box that go straight to the attic space. The largest hole, about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, is too big to be caulked and will need to have some harder kind of sealer or backing rod added first. Then caulk can be added as the final layer. I've been thinking of using mortite as the backing. Possibly a piece of wood, sheetrock, or plastic can be put into the hole so it is supported by sheetrock. That forms a non-sagging barrier to which mortite or caulk could be applied.
My thinking was also that the attic airspace could be acting like a reservoir for VOC's, such as after the paining. Air only exchanges with the attic through the 3/4 inch hole very slowly. So the longer I put that job off, the lower the VOC level in the attic will be, and better for the final VOC level. There was still some smell of oil paint on Saturday (even after having door open for days) so I was thinking it would be better to seal attic next week. Anyway, I didn't get close to that part of the job anyway. I might finish the electrical box sealing this weekend. It might not hurt to work on boxes during daylight before going to work when possible.
This was the first time I worked on the ceiling box (thanks to new ladder) and electrical panel, though all I did was trimming sheetrock. The ceiling job was particularly messy as loose sheetrock dust fell on ladder and floor and needed to be cleaned up afterwards. I've been waiting to do this job to do second complete disassembly and cleaning and replacement of HEPA filter in vacuum. I had been wondering if I would need to vacuum up more than a trace amount of sheetrock dust for this job, but in fact I needed to vacuum up quite a bit of sheetrock dust. I also vacuumed up bugs that had gotten stuck to white painted walls.
I imagine my billable rate on this trimming and sealing as about 1 hour per electrical box. But actually, I had previously worked on all the outlet boxes before, this week I was simply sealing to perfection around all 4 sides of each box. Previously I had only sealed in the bigger gaps, and some of the sealing was a bit rough. Now it's virtually beveled. My actual total time spent may be more like 2 hours per box.
Sealing around the ceiling box is going to be especially difficult because there are large holes around the box that go straight to the attic space. The largest hole, about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, is too big to be caulked and will need to have some harder kind of sealer or backing rod added first. Then caulk can be added as the final layer. I've been thinking of using mortite as the backing. Possibly a piece of wood, sheetrock, or plastic can be put into the hole so it is supported by sheetrock. That forms a non-sagging barrier to which mortite or caulk could be applied.
My thinking was also that the attic airspace could be acting like a reservoir for VOC's, such as after the paining. Air only exchanges with the attic through the 3/4 inch hole very slowly. So the longer I put that job off, the lower the VOC level in the attic will be, and better for the final VOC level. There was still some smell of oil paint on Saturday (even after having door open for days) so I was thinking it would be better to seal attic next week. Anyway, I didn't get close to that part of the job anyway. I might finish the electrical box sealing this weekend. It might not hurt to work on boxes during daylight before going to work when possible.
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