How to Properly Install Drywall in Your Home

Installed by pros, an entire house can be installed or “hung” in one day. Taping, spackling and sanding will take on average four to five more work days until it is ready for painting. With a little practice, any homeowner can install drywall and achieve an acceptable end product.

If you have a chance to watch someone either hanging the drywall or actually do the taping and spackle work it can be a great help in seeing how they do it. Drywall comes in several different thicknesses and there a several different types for special applications. The most commonly seen drywall is one half inch thick and is used in most areas of any home. Walls and ceilings both use half inch material. In my state, five eighths inch thick drywall or half inch fire code drywall is required in attached garages and over a house boiler or furnace located in a basement. Garages and boiler room drywall requires only a single coat of tape and spackle called a fire coat, to prevent a fire from penetrating the Drywall Quote at the seams and screws.

Bathrooms are generally considered wet areas and therefore special green or water resistant drywall is used in any wet area. If ceramic tile is going to be applied then the drywall is a special coarse rough surface cement drywall board. Drywall is available with lead linings for X-ray rooms, special insulation paper backing, printed decoration faces, and a myriad of other special applications.

Standard sheets of drywall come in four foot widths but lengths vary from eight feet to sixteen feet as common sizes. Longer special order lengths are available. Many box stores and lumber yards carry lengths up to twelve feet with fourteen and sixteen foot sheets being ordered. Homeowners typically will choose eight foot lengths due to the ease of handling the material but on a twelve foot wall, that causes an extra vertical four foot joint that must be taped and spackled. A twelve foot sheet would reach corner to corner. Do that in an entire house and you are looking at hundreds of feet of extra work taping and sanding. That converts into many extra hours of work.

Installing drywall is usually a two person job simply because handling the sheets is quite cumbersome. When installing drywall on a ceiling even a two person crew is not sufficient. With one person holding each end of the sheet the third installing either the nails or screws to fasten it to the studs or rafters, keeping the sheet tight to the wall and inline with the other sheets is a chore. I have seen experienced installers hang five eighths inch twelve foot sheets by themselves but this but it takes many years of practice. Renting a drywall lift that can raise and hold a sheet in place will allow you to work alone.