I have a small extension (1.5x2.5 m) that was mostly done by a former, often drunk owner of the house. None of the walls are at right angles, and none are level in any direction. Now I'm working on some other projects in that part of the house and thought I’d do something about this. I'm going to remove the drywall and expose the studs. Now to my question: I'm planning to add to the studs at selected points to level these points, put up plywood over the whole thing, and finally finish with drywall to get my straight walls. Does this work? What should I use to add to the studs that can easily vary in thickness? Do you have any other suggestions?
I don't think the previous owner of my house had alcohol problems, however, he seems to have been quite quick to say "ah, it's good enough"... and in the extension he built, I built our new kitchen. The long wall that most of the cabinet fixtures would hang on was not only crooked, it also leaned outward in varying degrees (differed from stud to stud).
I ripped off the drywall from the entire wall. Sawed a lot of strips of thin masonite (3.5 mm). Glued strips in several layers on the studs to get them plumb and in line with each other. A stud could, for example, have two strips running from floor to ceiling, then one going from floor to halfway up, then one from floor to half a meter up...
It becomes a bit patchy, but with the panel material on top, it became even enough.
The hardest part was actually measuring how off the studs were. I set up a laser level at one end and let it draw a plumb line (it's actually a vertical plane of laser light) in front of the wall, parallel to how the wall should be to be perpendicular to the short wall. Then I measured the distance between the stud and the "laser plane" at several points (at different heights, that is) per stud and noted down the measurement on the side of the stud at each measuring point.
I ripped off the drywall from the entire wall. Sawed a lot of strips of thin masonite (3.5 mm). Glued strips in several layers on the studs to get them plumb and in line with each other. A stud could, for example, have two strips running from floor to ceiling, then one going from floor to halfway up, then one from floor to half a meter up...
It becomes a bit patchy, but with the panel material on top, it became even enough.
The hardest part was actually measuring how off the studs were. I set up a laser level at one end and let it draw a plumb line (it's actually a vertical plane of laser light) in front of the wall, parallel to how the wall should be to be perpendicular to the short wall. Then I measured the distance between the stud and the "laser plane" at several points (at different heights, that is) per stud and noted down the measurement on the side of the stud at each measuring point.