Drywall experts (or not) help

[68340GTS]

OK. It’s go time for the drywall finishing and I need some help here.

This subject has probably been beat to death but some basic 1,2,3, steps. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks guys.

 

[Remi]

It's a PITA. Don't do it. Hire someone to do it for you.

 

[89vert]

It's not that hard !

I've probably done the equivalent of 2 or 3 1200 sq. ft. houses over the years .
The one mistake that most novices make is the boarding .

Pros typically use bigger sheets and / or plan their jobs with the least amount of seams .

Less seams= Less taping and mudding.

Also, don't be afraid of not following the standard drywallers system of 3 coats .
I was taught to drywall by a carpenter and he used 4 coats and my jobs look the same as a pro's .

It just takes me a little longer !

 

[Speed Shop]

I actually like doing drywall work. I prefer screws to nails. Less in the way of pops later. Eliminates hammering. They make a special driver head for your drill-it countersinks the head of the screw and dimples the drywall. I keep 2 batteries handy. One in the charger and one in the drill. I also use a sanding screen attachment on my large shop vac. Makes the sanding part go easier and a lot cleaner. You don't have dust everywhere, or at least at a minimum. It doesn't suspend in the air like it would with just regular sanding. You will trash the filter so plan ahead and get a new one for when you're done. Use fresh mud. If you have old mud laying around you may have chunks that can only frustrate you when you try to smooth it out. Also get a nice wide knife for the mud. Inside and outside corner tools are a great help, as well. For tape, I like the reinforced fiberglass mesh for small jobs. It's self adhering and saves you a step with mud. It can get expensive if you have a huge job to do. All the tools listed can be picked up at Lowes or Home Depot pretty resonable. One word of caution: make sure your mud tool has a nice edge. If it's dinged, you'll gouge the wet mud everytime you make a pass.
It's really not that bad. I use to hate the sanding until I got that vac attachment.
BTW, love the GTS!!!

 

[89vert]

I agree with Speed .

Using screws is far better. A trick I learned years ago was to always put in two screws about about an inch apart , where you would normally only install one . This will give you double the holding power and still only creates one spot to fill .

Using fresh mud is always preferable , but it's almost always too thick right out of the bucket . You should thin it about 5 % with water , or you'll have some difficulty getting it to smooth out.

 

[NHCharger]

If your a rookie use the fibermesh tape. A lot of guys hate it but I haven't had a problem with seams cracking, and I've been using it for 15 years. When you have a **** joint where two non-tapered ends meet, don't screw/fasten the **** edge until both sheets are hung, that eliminates blow outs. If you don't have a corner trowel just mud one side of the corner at a time. Spend the money and rent a Portacable drywall sander with the vacuum attachment. I sanded my 30x50 shop in less than 4 hours. When applying the mud try to consume only one beer per hour

 

[the intimidator]

i agree with the above drywalling isn't very hard it just takes lots of time to do rite use screws so much easy'er then nails and the fibreglass tape is pretty good but it is expensive i have used the standerd tape with little trouble harder to use at first but it is not to bad after you get the hang of it for the roof depending on how tall it is you can get away with a few tall buddy's to hold it up there so you can get a few screws in if it is a tall roof rent the thing to hold the drywall up and a scaffold will help alot too

 

[REFLEXX]

Take a look at my shop project link below. There's a section on my drywalling adventures. After hanging 90 sheets of 4x12x5/8", I decided to let someone else do the mudding/taping/sanding/texturing. What these guys did in one week would have taken me "a month of sundays" as they say. Expensive, but I think it's worth it.

 

[6t7gto]

on ceilings, i always glue and screw the drywall.

david

 

[DXD]

Dry Wall

After my wife and I hung all the drywall in my 30 X 40 X 13 high garage addition, I managed to tape, mud, and sand all the walls, but I realized that I'd never get the ceiling done. I too called in the pros to finish. Also went the texture route with semi-gloss paint--two guys finished everything in 4 evenings.
When I was working on it I saw all the cautions about not thinning the pre-mixed mud too much, and it was really hard to "work" it. The pros thinned it much more than I did--and had to do MUCH less sanding.
I checked all over the net for info and hints, and the best I found was at http//:www.drywallschool.com/

 

[Mattlt]

Don't use little pieces of drywall to cover areas around doors, windows, and other cutout areas. This is where cracks will develop.

Cut out the openings from a full sheet. It may seem like a waste, but it's worth it. Had to do a bunch of fixing in my basement.