This post brings me current.
I am removing five valances in 3 bedrooms, the dining and living room. Valances were nice back in the 70's but they really date a house. They hide your curtain rods and also any window trim you may have. Of course back then they only used one type of trim it seems.
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| Dining Room Valance |
Removal is straight forward. The face is drywall and J channel, it is a good idea to score all the edges with a knife first as it makes for easier removal of the drywall. Under the drywall is the frame made of 2x4's and a 2x6. I use my sawzall to cut them in half and then rip everything out. This exposes the attic so blown in insulation comes down with the framing.
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| Cleaned and ready for re-assembly |
Now I had been up in my attic and I knew what was up there and it was not pretty, wasp nests galore, the kind that are encased in mud, at least I think they are wasps. Anyway a ton of mud cocoons. So in each of the four corners of the house where I removed the Valances, I was also removing mud cocoons, the ones I could reach.
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| Mud Cocoon |
While doing the Valance in one of my boys bedroom I found a huge normal 3 tier wasp nest within the wall. I can't imagine how loud the noise would have been when it was active.
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| Wasp nest behind the vapor barrier |
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3 tier wasp nest within the wall
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So my next project is to go into the attic, clear out all the wasp nests and seal all the gaps. The gaps are plenty where the siding meets the roof line, so I will just spray foam that area and that should keep the bugs out going forward.
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| Living room Valance with vapor barrier installed and ready for drywall. |
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| Drywall in place, just need to trim the plastic. |
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| Bedroom complete |
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| Other bedroom complete, bugs are gone. |
I will tape and mud later, I will have a ton of drywall work to do, so it is best to do the all the taping and mudding at the same time. Move on to another project. I will probably need to scrape the ceiling and skim coat it so my ceiling looks uniform, good and modern. This project took a fair amount of time, patch work of drywall always looks easier than it is. You need nailing edges and a lot goes into the whole process.
3 comments:
I'm so glad I found this because I want to remove my valances as well and had a feeling it was going to be more involved than it looked. Thanks!
I just want to thank you for sharing your information and your site or blog this is simple but nice Information I’ve ever seen i like it i learn something today. Swing Set Removal Arlington TX
I pulled off the front face of the valance and there's a lot more framing there than I thought there would be. Is it possible that it's supporting the wall above or is it safe to remove?
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