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When choosing wallboard, remember the difference between drywall and blue board. Drywall panels are covered with paper that will take paint directly once they've been taped and the joints and fasteners have been covered with compound. Blue board's more absorbent paper layer is designed to bond with a veneer plaster coating before it is painted.

Wood decks can weather, crack and splinter. Use these steps to replace a damaged deck board.

Tim Berky is creating new frieze board to match the existing frieze board and molding on the 1890 Rowley Victorian. Berky is building an 1 1/2-inch frieze board to build out the surface of the new addition to the appropriate depth. Berky is creating custom detailing by gluing two boards together and facing the ends with a filler piece that covers the end grain and provides a smooth corner face. Berky uses Bavarian timber wood, an engineered product with no finger joints. The strength is built in because the wood direction varies from piece to piece. Berky hand nails the end, then shoots the backerboard in place with a nail gun. The frieze board brings the appropriate thickness to the face above the clapboards. Finally a bed molding is applied to transition the clapboard face from the vertical frieze board to the horizontal planchard that follows the roofline.

Bob meets up with Bill Reid of US Gypsum in the barn of the Medford project. Bill differentiates imperial board (blue board) which is skim coated from drywall (gypsum panels) where the joints are taped. In 2000 US Gypsum developed a new core technology that makes the boards stronger and lighter - for easier handling, cutting, and scoring. The screw spacing is 12 inches on center with the screws flush with the paper providing a good, solid adherence to the wall with the screws. The face paper is treated and absorbent to take the veneer plaster and create the bond. These new boards snap cleanly on the ends. The installer puts a back cut on the edge so that the back of the sheet doesn't hit before the front does. The blue board and skimcoat application is typically not a do-it-yourself project. Traditional plaster jobs were very cost prohibitive so, when veneer plasters came along, they became very popular as they give a much more monolithic look than gypsum panels while providing an abuse resistant finish. Upstairs in the studio the homeowner has specified blue board with veneer plaster and downstairs, where he wants the option to tack artwork to the wall, he has specified a traditional drywall and tape application.

Richard Roomey and the crew from Roomey Drywall are hanging blue board in the great room. An alternative to drywall, blue board has a paper facing that is specifically designed to receive a skim coat of plaster. Roomey's crew makes quick work of the job, and Bob learns the pro's techniques for hanging drywall in tricky corners, like the room's cathedral ceiling.

The plaster board is in place in the Rowley Victorian. The crew selected GP veneer plaster board, or blue board, rather than traditional paper-faced wallboard because it is meant to take a skim coat of plaster. The resulting finish is a hard, elegant surface coat, well-suited to a period home like this Queen Anne Victorian.