"On a scale of one to 10, it's a '10' just on size and volume," says Mark Volk, owner of Volk Drywall. "If you take the volume out, it's a 'five' - a relatively easy house. As they get bigger, normally they do get harder but this one wasn't too hard - just a lot of work!"

Volk is talking about his company's labor on a recent custom-home project. The drywall contractor, of Covina, Calif., only works on high-end residences. The house required 150,000 sq. ft. of wallboard. The house has a floor footage of about 40,000 sq. ft. Not included in the footage is the 6,300 sq. ft. 18-car garage that took 13,000 sq. ft. of wallboard to complete. (Volk didn't do the drywall in the garage). A playhouse on a hill required 6,000 sq. ft. of drywall. The guesthouses aren't built yet. They are said to be about 6,000 sq. ft each and will take about 22,000 sq. ft of wall-board a piece to complete. There is a 14,000 sq. ft recreation room that will take about 42,000 sq. ft of wallboard. The property is located on 25 acres of land in Beverly Hills (90210) just off of Coldwater Canyon. The job was contracted in November, 2002. Volk's crew included Shannon Volk, general supervisor, Tim Todd and Mike St.Pierre, taping foremen and Jose Reyes, hanging forman.

The general contractor was someone whom Volk worked for in the past, and that helped, he says. Volk credits his 23 years of experience as a taper for the ability to spot flaws before the GC.

"It helps the direction my company's gone because most of the time, when custom homes require a higher amount of quality, I am able to see problems that others might not recognize," he says.

"For example, if a painter was to roll a primer on the walls and rolled some edges, across the wall, the contractor might look at that and say you have lines going up and down and might think it's the drywaller," Volk continues. "But I can tell if it's the painter because of the pattern that a taper would use to finish the walls. In my experience, when painters spray on primer, it can leave bits of trash on walls. If we spray a Prepcoat, we sand it down. Painters, when they spray primer, they spray it and leave it. We ask our painters to roll on the primer. This way we know who's responsible for what. Also, by rolling the primer instead of simply spraying, it helps impregnate the paper of the board with more material. Spraying the primer simply leaves a coat on top of the board and on top of the dust from sanding the mud. Rolling the primer is very important in my opinion. This is why all my contracts state that 'the painter must roll primer before painting.' This helps the end product a lot."

As if the hanging the board wasn't enough, the whole house has a 1/32- to 1/16-inch coat of mud on all drywall surfaces.

"On our proposal says 'Level 5 Finish,' which we applied to all the walls and ceilings," Volk says. "We don't want it too thick because of pock marks. We keep it thin and light enough not to have additional problems."

This process involves thinning of the mud to the same consistency of taping mud, if slightly thicker. It is then rolled on and smoothed over with large blade right away. A worker with a blade follows the roller to give the immediate smoothing treatment. He wipes it down with the blade, leaving a thin layer of mud. The wall surfaces are then sanded and touched up. This is the skim coat.