# Foundation wall to drywall trim?



## intjonmiller (Jan 8, 2014)

I'm sorry if this has been covered. All the terms I could think to search on were very common, yet when used together I only got a couple of results that weren't at all related. I'm hoping "Finish Work" is the right section here. 

We finished the drywall for my brother's new automotive shop, which is in the form of a (massive) residential garage. Now we need to do some sort of trim to transition from the drywall to the foundation walls, but I've never done anything like that before. Usually it's left as-is for a residential garage, but he wants a more professional finish. 

His wife is pushing for the rubber "baseboard" material (not sure what it's called) that is common in commercial buildings, especially offices. He wants something nicer. We're doing stainless steel trim in a couple areas, like an oversize backsplash around his hand wash station, but that seems like overkill for this. But that's about all I can think of from my experience in drywall and architectural sheet metal. Just a different custom-bent profile for the different wall sections. 

So what other options do we have? Note that in most areas the foundation wall is wider than the drywall, but in one area around a bathroom there is a narrow concrete section (footer? sorry I don't know the terminology here), so a different profile is probably appropriate. And I don't think regular baseboard materials will be durable enough for this situation. 

Thank you!


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## intjonmiller (Jan 8, 2014)

Incidentally the ragged drywall corner pictured will be covered with a piece of stainless steel trim. It's the only exterior corner at man-height.


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## mako1 (Sep 1, 2013)

To begin with you should never have drywall in close of proximity to block or concrete ..It will wick moisture.In pic2 your drywall is overlapping the concrete.Your corner is against it.
What is production process improvement?Sounds kind of like me beating up a laborer.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

mako1 said:


> To begin with you should never have drywall in close of proximity to block or concrete ..It will wick moisture.In pic2 your drywall is overlapping the concrete.Your corner is against it.
> What is production process improvement?Sounds kind of like me beating up a laborer.


Maybe it's designing assembly work layouts, like which station will be next to which.

Cove base is the stuff you're talking about. But I would probably install some simple baseboard. 1x4 + cap, or sanitary. Something like that.


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## slowsol (Aug 27, 2005)

He's worried about looking more professional than vinyl base and the concrete is going to be exposed like that?


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## mako1 (Sep 1, 2013)

MarkJames said:


> Maybe it's designing assembly work layouts, like which station will be next to which.
> 
> Cove base is the stuff you're talking about. But I would probably install some simple baseboard. 1x4 + cap, or sanitary. Something like that.


If in a body shop where there would be lots of liquids and pressure cleaning I would just go ahead and install vinyl base.If you're going to the trouble and have the money to install SS,I would do it all around with a backer.


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## EricBrancard (Jun 8, 2012)

You could use a tear away bead with hot mud to make a nice crisp edge and the caulk with a polyurethane sealant. That would give a clean minimalist look.


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## intjonmiller (Jan 8, 2014)

Sorry I didn't see these responses before now. I somehow didn't get any email updates as I had selected when I posted it. Odd. 

Anyway, the drywall is all at least 1/2" away from the foundation wall. I often do 1", but in this case we were running vertical panels that were just the right length to not need to be cut. You can see in one of the shots where the pry bar we used to lift the panel marred the end of the board. 

I like the tearaway bead idea for the sake of a clean look, but I think we want something that will provide more protection for the bottom of the boards. 

The concrete will be exposed but he has someone coming to grind and semi-polish it this week.


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## intjonmiller (Jan 8, 2014)

Production process improvement is the practice of making changes to how things are done to improve quality, reduce rework, increase throughput, etc. It's typically a matter of minor changes that only make a difference of a second or two per operation, repeated countless times per job, per year, and so on. Sometimes it's much larger when I find something being done in a completely ridiculous way. 

There are a number of disciplines for this. The most common are "Lean" and "Six Sigma". Personally I like the "2 Second Lean" concept promoted by Paul Akers of FastCap, but my formal training is in The Theory of Constraints. ANYONE in any form of management (and really anyone at any level of business) should read The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt to better understand how a business should operate. It's the easiest business book read ever, because it's a novel. You just follow the work of a guy trying to fix a failing manufacturing plant. It's a brilliant way to teach some brilliant business principles. 

I'm actually no longer working in construction. I now develop processes for the in-house vehicle photographers for a large, regional dealership chain. One recent example of my work is that the photographers were hiking the lot to check stock numbers against actual vehicles because the online listing management software we use lacked a record of the interior color of the vehicles. So they would actually have to find the vehicle to figure out the interior color, then go back to their workstation to determine if that is a model/trim/color configuration that they had already previously photographed, then if they hadn't they would have to go back out and find the keys and find the vehicle again and then photograph it. I knew there had to be a better way, so I learned about the manufacturer's inventory management system, separate from the online listing system, and got the photographers access to that site so they could look up the VIN and discover the interior color and any special features. Now they can look up in a few seconds what used to take multiple minutes per vehicle. Unphotographed inventory is down from around 50-100 vehicles per lot to typically under 10 - just the vehicles we are waiting to be delivered because we have never photographed that configuration. 

Before I stepped in no one had thought to connect those two systems because photographers weren't expected to need access to anything but the online listing system and photographers didn't know the other system even existed. 

The next step is to work with the manufacturer's site people and the online listing site people to correct for the missing field in the way their databases are syncing so that the extra step is eliminated entirely. 

That's production process improvement.


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## Caslon (Dec 15, 2007)

Your paint related whatever is...what?


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## mako1 (Sep 1, 2013)

Caslon said:


> Your paint related whatever is...what?


I think you've been sniffing to much thinner.I didn't see a question in this post related to paint other than his last which was totally irrelevant to the OP.

:laughing:


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