Original subtitles

In this video, I'll show you how we

install the slatted wood

acoustic wall using panels like this.

So, we'll show you all the tricks we

learned to measure, cut, glue, staple,

and install these panels on the wall,

>> including around outlets.

Here's a box of six acoustic slat wall

panels, and this is what one looks like.

And you can actually buy a sample pack

and see which one you want to use in

your room.

Here are the main tools that we used on

this project.

And you can see my fingers are getting

all banged up, just getting cut on these

edges. And if you want to avoid a lot of

nicks and cuts, some thin gloves like

this might be really handy. And if

you're going to be cutting inside, I

really recommend getting a box fan,

putting a house filter on the back with

the arrow pointing in the correct

direction, as this really helps filter

out the dust in the room.

So, unfortunately,

this window ledge sticks out, and

obviously that gets in the way of

running this up to the window edge. So,

we're going to have to cut this out. And

we're going to use this router with this

flush cut bit to take that off, and it's

going to make an awful mess. So,

obviously, you may not have the same

issue to deal with, but if you do, a

router works really well, even though I

think I was pushing it in the wrong

direction here along this bottom sill.

And I'd recommend following it with a

vacuum, cuz otherwise this throws

sawdust everywhere.

And the router can't reach all the way

to the end, so I had to use a pull saw

to finish off that little cut. That was

nice and easy. So, this is pretty flush,

but not perfect, but that's okay. And

after a quick vacuum, we'll paint it.

And Steve was quite clever here and

painted around the outlets all black, so

that in case there's any, you know,

misalignment or gaps between this wall

and outlets, you won't even be able to

tell.

So, I think that's a really good tip.

Steve used his dark paint for the

ceiling and the trim around the room.

So, here we're painting any bare wood

and anywhere where the acoustic panels

end, so that any gaps will be less

noticeable. And we also painted here

along the wall at the corner of the

window, in case the acoustic panels

don't meet up as perfectly as we'd like.

So, we were debating whether or not to

leave this molding down here, but in the

end Steve decided to paint it dark and

keep it, which means we're going to have

to cut every single panel because

they're all exactly the right height for

this room. Whether you keep the molding

or not, there are going to be these

little grooves here, whether it's on the

carpet or on top of the molding, that

end up getting dusty over time and will

be pretty hard to clean, but you

probably won't notice it that much. So,

the directions say that the appearance

of the side cuts here, that's kind of

MDF, can vary depending on the

orientation of this panel. So, let's try

and see what it looks like. Here's it

going in one direction, and let's flip

it over.

And here it's going in the other. I

think you can see the one on the left is

darker than the one on the right.

So, once you pick a direction and the

felt tab is going to the right or the

left, you need to stick with that

because the felt of one panel meets up

with the slat of the next.

Before we made any final cuts on

our panels, we wanted to do a little bit

of testing.

So, I have a really high tooth count

saw, ultra finish, that will hopefully

give a really nice cut on this slat.

We're just going to cut an arbitrary

amount off just to test. Here it goes.

And as you can see, I'm using a speed

square to guide the saw in a nice

straight cut.

So, these first ones look pretty good.

And then there we can see a little bit

of chipping,

and on that one as well, but I'm not

sure that's going to be noticeable when

it's all the way down on the floor.

Okay, now we're going to try flipping it

over cuz they say yes, and sometimes the

saws cut better when they're going up

and it won't chip off the material, so

that the saw blades will be going like

that.

That sounded like chunks broke off. I

think this might be the way to go cuz

all these cuts look perfect. There's no

chipping at all, even though it felt

like it took a chunk off at the end.

We wanted to try a jigsaw anyway, even

though starting it with the speed square

was pretty much impossible. Maybe I'll

start it and then move it up to it,

which is already a bad mark against it.

There we go. Now it's on there.

And we're using this laminate blade for

the test cuts, and just for comparison,

here's a regular wood blade.

Did it staple? I don't know. It feels

like I'm stuck on something.

>> a staple. Yep.

Exactly on a staple. Okay.

So, we moved over a little bit and tried

again. And with this cut, we were

actually removing all the staples

supporting the ends of the slats, and

you'll see what effect that has.

So, here's the jigsaw cut, and it's

actually quite a bit rougher than the

circular saw. You can see a lot of

chipping there

and there. And one thing I noticed as I

was trying to hold the speed square on

there is that these really moved around

a lot because we just happened to cut

the staple off on the other side of this

cut. So, that meant that these are very

free to move around, which would really

affect your ability to make a straight

cut. And even as I was pushing the

jigsaw through, you know, it would kind

of push the one that it was going

through up a bit. So, on my first

attempt at that cut with the jigsaw, it

hit the staple exactly on the edge and I

couldn't go any further. So, we're not

going to use a jigsaw.

So, we want to test cutting these with

an oscillating tool, and we have this

piece of wood clamped here so that we

can make sure to get a nice

perpendicular cut. So, here it goes,

nothing.

So, the oscillating tool ended up

working really well, and we'll need to

use this when we have to cut slats away

to make room for outlets. That looks

like it worked. Yeah.

And it also cut through the felt easily

as well, but sometimes you need to to

support the piece a little.

It gets a little bit of the black from

the tool on there, but maybe that'll go

away as we use it.

But here's one lesson from our first

real cut for an outlet.

So, we had clamped the board on here

like this, and we didn't really think

through that that meant that we're

cutting on the side that we want to

keep, which means we could err on that

side.

And as you can see, this cut went a

little wide,

but had we clamped the board on the

other side, that cut, no matter which

one it is, looked really good.

So, lesson learned. Make sure to clamp

over the parts of the slats that you

want to keep and cut towards the parts

of the slats that you're going to

remove, and that should help get nice

clean cuts like these.

So, we're going to use a staple gun and

some T50 1/2 in staples

to secure those on the felt. So, after

we saw how much those slats wiggled on

the felt, we thought we should add extra

staples before any cut. So, here we're

using a combination square to make sure

that the staple gun is lined up with the

slats and doesn't send a staple through

the side.

If any staples stick out a bit, you can

just pound them down with a hammer.

They still wiggle, but not as much.

In the end, we found that this was a bit

of overkill, so we'd just make the cut

and put the staples in after.

Here's a good illustration of why you

want to add staples when you cut the

boards a little shorter

cuz that wiggles quite a bit.

And over here, where we put staples,

it's quite solid. Another good reason to

staple. Sometimes we forget to do this

before we do the cut, but especially on

this end that's so short cuz we probably

only staple here. We would also add

staples around any holes that we cut for

outlets.

Problem solved.

And these staples are different on this

one.

So, making precise measurements with a

tape measure can be really hard in the

corner. So, to avoid that, we're going

to do a little trick. So, just measure

some offset, and in this case we're

doing 4 in. So, now we see that's 87 and

yeah, 9/16 + 4, so that's 91 and 9/16.

And this is best done with two people,

so the other can hold the tape measure

straight up and down using a level.

We're going to start here and do the

wall both directions. And our thinking

is we start clean so that when we get to

the other side of the window, we can

manage this if we had to cut a little

bit off or or something for the window

itself. So, this is going to be our

first slat running along the side of the

window.

It looks like we avoid the outlet and

the speaker post systems. So, our first

slat should be pretty easy. So, we've

drawn our cut line right there, and

we'll make sure the saw blade lines up

with that line

before we start cutting. And as with any

cuts where you want a precise fit, it's

better to cut a little wide, do a test

fit, and shave a little bit more off if

you need to.

Yep, that's a little tight. Yeah, that's

like almost an eighth. And luckily,

that's really easy to do with the

circular saw.

Does it fit? Nope. Okay, so we actually

have a little bit of wiggle room in this

piece, but we think if anything, it

should be tighter to the ceiling cuz

you'll see that. But way down here,

you're not going to notice if it's not

hanging over the molding exactly right,

and this is going to be behind the TV

anyway. So, it's time to glue in our

first panel.

We decided to use liquid nails cuz it

was the cheapest. So, we cut a bit off

the tip there, and there's a foil inside

that we have to pierce, and then really

it's nice to wipe that down before

folding it against the caulking gun

again.

There we go.

And now it's stuck in there. Whoa, it's

already coming out. All right, Steve,

you want to do the honors?

So, the instructions say to make a nice

Z pattern with the adhesive on the back.

One of the tubes said it could do 30

linear feet, but of course that depends

on how much you're squeezing out. We

ended up using eight tubes to put up 27

panels, so about three and a third

panels per tube.

Another reason we chose this Liquid

Nails is because it had a longer working

time. Many of the glues said they had

instant grab, which scared us a little.

All right. Boom.

All right. I'd go from the top if I were

you. What do you think? So we're being

very careful with this first panel to

align it with the side of the window and

make sure it is perfectly straight up

and down because that will impact all

the rest of the panels that you put up.

Each pack

>> of six slats came with about 66 screws,

so we're going to put 10 screws in each

slat. And I think the main function of

these screws is to hold the slat on the

wall while the adhesive dries. You might

have been going into wood there, huh?

Because obviously you're not going to be

hitting a stud with every single one of

these screws.

So we worked our way down the panel,

putting two screws about every 21 in.

And this we're just using as a handy

spacer for the screws. And you can see

the screws when they catch reflections,

but really from far away it just all

blends in.

So our first board.

And look, there's a gap here where it's

just the paint and you can hardly tell.

And here are some tips about screwing

these in from further on in the project.

Okay, so as we screw these onto the

wall, remember we're just going into

drywall. So when you screw

Um

you don't want to go too far because

you'll dimple in. But at some point

you're also just going to be chewing

into drywall and you'll just bore it up.

If you happen to hit a stud or

something, that's where you really need

to be careful that you don't go too far

in cuz you'll dimple the whole thing.

So there's something to keep in mind.

It's really hard to tell where one panel

begins and the other ends. So it's the

first and two, three, fourth gap that

you want to put screws in or at least

that we're putting screws in. To figure

out where to cut the panel to fit around

the speaker terminals, I'm holding a

combination square just above the top

edge of the wall plate while Steve puts

a piece of masking tape.

And we do the same thing again for the

bottom edge.

1 and 1/4 gives us a teeny bit of

clearance. And we're cutting right in

there. All right, so we need to cut out

this green square right here because

this width right here

goes between these two pieces of the

felt, which is very conveniently. So

this is the cut that we messed up by

putting the board and clamps in the

wrong position, but once we did it

right, the cuts came out really well.

After a quick vacuum,

we put some tape down to guide our cuts,

made lots of downward passes with the

oscillating tool,

and removed that square of felt. There's

our first hole. And watch it not fit the

outlet at all.

It's going to be like an inch short. An

inch too high.

Precision fit.

That looks great.

Yeah.

So even though we cut the felt a little

wide on that one, you can hardly tell.

Steve, can you point to where we have a

gap? And it's very hard to tell because

of the wall being painted black. Look at

that beautiful S pattern.

I want to be careful around the outlet

not get it too close lest it squeeze

out.

You can see here we did put some extra

staples on those slats cuz those are

likely to be bumped into if anyone's

messing with those speaker posts.

Then we stuck it up on the wall, being

very careful not to smear that glue over

the speaker posts or the other panel,

and made sure that it was firm up

against that first panel.

Finally, it was the usual screws.

So that wiggles a bit, so we're going to

put a screw there. Plus a few extras

around the hole. So this is our first

board that actually intersects outlet

like this.

And the outlet edge goes right halfway

down this board. It seems like most

people just cut the whole board out

right there, so it'll be a slightly

bigger gap to the left. So we'll

probably just do that. So we've cut this

part away, but since the outlet wasn't

that full width, we're only going to cut

part of this felt backing away. And so

I've marked the line with the tape and

we'll use the oscillating tool to do it.

So on this one you can see it took out

three slats for that outlet.

But over here we only had to cut two and

we only had to cut two here as well. So

three is the most you'll ever have to do

for a single gang outlet. And we just

happened to get really lucky with this

two gang box cuz it fit almost perfectly

in these three slats.

So we kept putting up more panels as we

moved leftward on the wall and had to

cut out holes for another outlet till we

got to the panel that would reach the

corner. All right, this gap is 7 and 3/8

wide.

Which over here means we have to cut the

felt off of this side, so all of this

felt. So I put a wider blade on cuz I'm

going to try and go through it at an

angle like this rather than trying to

cut a million times like that.

And this edge is going to be against the

wall. We're never going to see it. So

even if I scruff it up a little bit, as

long as I don't nick that part. This

technique worked relatively well, but

I'll show you later how we used a

circular saw, which I don't think I

would have done in this case being so

close to the edge of the slat. And this

corner we have this funny little thing

we need to work around. That looks like

it works.

So in our case this was pretty simple

cuz we just had to cut a little bit of

felt off, but you may have to remove one

or more slats for your last piece.

So from here you can see these last two

panels are slightly lighter color. But

as you move to this side, they blend in

a lot better.

And these were actually from a four pack

and not a six pack. And these are the

ones that had the different kind of

staples on the back.

So maybe these came from a different

factory and that's what accounts for the

slight difference.

From this view it looks like we're done.

Oh, no.

All right, so as we measure

across the top section here,

over here on the left side of the

window, we're about 10 and 3/4.

In the middle,

we're more like 10 and 1/2.

And over here on the right, we're about

10 and 11/16.

So we're just going to run 10 and 11/16

across the entire window.

It'll

be sticking down a little bit in the

middle, but you you'll never see it. So

we can actually get a factory cut on

both this side and this side from one

board. We can use this as the top,

measure down 62.

And then for the top part, we can

measure up from the bottom

our 10 and 11/16.

So we'll have a factory cut facing down

and a factory cut facing up. Once we

figured out that the top isn't

completely even, we figured we better

measure this bottom as well. So we had

62 and an eighth across most of the

window. Here we're about 1/16 shy of

that. So we will stick up just a tiny

bit down here, but again we want a

smooth edge on the slats, otherwise

you'd just see a step down. So we'd

rather have it stick up just a tiny bit

on the end. So we cut our first board to

62 and you definitely want to support

that end with another sawhorse or a

friend to make sure that your cut comes

out well. It's so cool how as soon as

you put it against the other one it's

just like you can't even tell that it's

a separate piece.

Boom. It's a little proud of the lip up

here just by like what, a 32nd of an

inch? Maybe. But it looks super clean.

So we kept cutting pieces to height and

placing them on the wall using a level

with each one and trimming it if

necessary to make sure that we're

getting a straight line across the top.

And we stopped once we hit the edge of

the window.

Then from the remnants of each panel, we

cut the upper pieces and glued and

screwed them into place. And we were

aiming to have a factory edge around the

perimeter of the window,

but in the end the cuts with the

circular saw were so good that I don't

think it really would have mattered.

Before gluing in this last top piece, we

decided to put the next panel up to make

sure that it was all lining up correctly

and that this next panel would be

straight up and down.

Luckily it was, so we glued them in.

>> Got it? Yep.

So we kept installing more panels as we

worked our way down the wall,

and then we just noticed some damage on

the edge of this one, which we already

put up. So we're going to unscrew it and

take it off the wall.

And this is the advantage of using

non-instant stick glue.

All right, that wasn't so bad, was it?

All right, so replacing that wasn't too

bad.

And after a couple more panels that

spanned an outlet,

we were down to the very last piece in

the corner.

So we think we might just be able to fit

one slat alone with felt on either side

for this very last piece. And we'll

leave the felt to be a bit wider up top.

For this last piece, we want this slat

with felt there coming all the way under

here. So we're going to remove this

slat. So we're going to have to flip

this over

and remove all these little staples. So

what you want to do is open up the

pliers, push the felt down away from it,

grab the top of the staple,

and then pull out. And once you remove

them all, There we go. So be careful

this one cuz it still has staples

sticking out.

Now we just need to cut down the felt.

So we tried scissors quickly instead of

the oscillating tool, but that didn't

work very well. So instead we drew a

line with permanent marker down the felt

and used a circular saw.

And this worked really well actually,

even when the piece didn't fit quite

right and we had to trim a bit more off.

But in that case we had to use the

scissors to clean up the cut. Then some

glue. Okay, it's the last piece. And no

screws for this last piece in the wall.

And how beautiful and satisfying is

that?

In total, this took us about 12 hours

over 2 days.

So, if you like videos like this, you

might like this one here.

Steve, you were born for this. You did

that in one take.

I'm telling you. Look at you. I should

get another 2%. Holy smokes! Save you

time.