Is this a common practice with drywall?

[allinon72]

My house was built in 1948, but I'm working in the living room, which was a add on later, I'm guessing 70s. Anyway, the drywall is hung vertically, leaving a 2" gap at the bottom. They filled the space with scraps, then put the trim over the gap. Is or was this a common practice? Seems kind of half ***.

 

[jgorm]

Yup, half ***.

 

[hh76]

8' 2" walls? If so, what would be the alternative?

There's a reason that drywallers start at the top, because the bottom will be covered by trim.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Nope, typically drywall is hung horizontally. Usually the gap is smaller than 2".
If there is a wide gap filling it with scraps is common.

 

[larry4406]

Often basemolding is removed, drywall cut just below what was the top of the base, drywall strip removed, and new wires fished in low. Drywall rip then put back to act as a spacer to reinstall the base.

Easy to fish wires without drywall repairs.

 

[dfiler2]

2" seems a little odd, a standard 2x4 pre-cut stud is 92 5/8 add the bottom plate and 2 top plates add up to 4 1/2 so you normally have 1 1/8" gap at the bottom. Then depending on how the flooring was done it could be less but a gap at the bottom is normal.

 

[hh76]

2" seems a little odd, a standard 2x4 pre-cut stud is 92 5/8 add the bottom plate and 2 top plates add up to 4 1/2 so you normally have 1 1/8" gap at the bottom. Then depending on how the flooring was done it could be less but a gap at the bottom is normal.

It was an addition, so they probably were trying to match an existing height.

 

[dfiler2]

It was an addition, so they probably were trying to match an existing height.

True, I hadn't thought of that.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Often basemolding is removed, drywall cut just below what was the top of the base, drywall strip removed, and new wires fished in low. Drywall rip then put back to act as a spacer to reinstall the base.

Easy to fish wires without drywall repairs.

Never thought of that, but it's a great tip to remember.

 

[Zeke]

2" seems a little odd, a standard 2x4 pre-cut stud is 92 5/8 add the bottom plate and 2 top plates add up to 4 1/2 so you normally have 1 1/8" gap at the bottom. Then depending on how the flooring was done it could be less but a gap at the bottom is normal.

I don't think your math is right. If you hang the lid first and **** the walls up, you get 3/8ths at the bottom.

1948 called for lath and plaster. The ceiling would be 7/8ths or better and rooms were often 8'2".

 

[6768rogues]

Wallboard is usually installed horizontally so that sheets up to 16 feet can be used. Also, one horizontal seam is not as noticeable as a seam every 4 feet. Vertical installation could be a sign that a do it yourselfer did the job.

 

[BJ42LX]

Wallboard is usually installed horizontally so that sheets up to 16 feet can be used. Also, one horizontal seam is not as noticeable as a seam every 4 feet. Vertical installation could be a sign that a do it yourselfer did the job.

This is a pain in the *** for the finish carpenter. The edge of the drywall is reduced to accept the tape and mud for joining with another sheet. When the side edge is on the floor the baseboard molding rolls under when nailing it in place and it fawks up all your corner joints.

 

[brewchief]

Wallboard is usually installed horizontally so that sheets up to 16 feet can be used. Also, one horizontal seam is not as noticeable as a seam every 4 feet. Vertical installation could be a sign that a do it yourselfer did the job.

Commercial jobs are often done vertically, I've been told it's so all the joints are at tapered edges, ceilings are often drop so no upper corners.

Somebody may have been trying to match heights with other rooms or they might not known how to work a tape measure, I think everyone who has worked in older houses has run across the guy that can't read a tape.

 

[ford33]

Is it possible a previously installed carpet got soaked with water and the bottom inch or so of the drywall did as well? Someone cut-off the last 2 inches of drywall at the bottom near the carpet and then installed a taller baseboard trim.

 

[allinon72]

Thanks for the input - I think this was another DIY job. Found a lot of this kind of work around the house.

My biggest problem is that the bottom edge of the drywall isn't supported at all by the bottom plate. Besides weakening it against the occasional bump, it also makes getting the trim off a PITA.

 

[James E]

6768rogues is right. Vertical installation of sheetrock is a sure sign of a DIY'er. Do it yourselfers will do a room with 8' sheets because they can't handle longer sheets when they're buying them or installing them. Plus, they see their ceiling height and assume that it makes more sense to install vertically, and when studs are 16" on center, a 48" wide sheet looks like it should be installed that way.

Hell, I've even seen people install it upside down so that the mitred edges face the wall.

In a house built in 1948, there's no telling what kind of framing the house has.

 

[Gerald O]

8' sheets are also used when nothing longer can be gotten into the room.

 

[Gerald O]

I don't think your math is right. If you hang the lid first and **** the walls up, you get 3/8ths at the bottom.

More like 5/8" or 1/2" if you just do the math (depending on the lid thickness). But nobody gets it that tight in practice, so even 3/8 is pretty tight. A couple of ragged or un-square edges will use that up pretty quick.

If you're building with Lowes famous undersized lumber you might even end up having to cut the bottom sheet!

 

[DonPowers]

I'm currently hanging drywall in the upstairs of my garage and running the wall sheets horizontally, starting 1" above the sub floor. Couple of reasons for the starting point:

1. To keep the sheetrock dry if there is a future plumbing leak, hot water baseboard or whatever.

2. As others have mentioned, future space to fish wires through such as cable speaker wires, computer etc. Basically stuff I didn't account for during construction.

The finish floor will not go under the gap and trim will hide it.

 

[Gerald O]

You're worried about getting 1" of standing water? In your upstairs? You've got bigger problems than damp sheetrock if that happens.
Planning on cutting a 1/2" strip or more off of every sheet?

Normally the ceiling is done first and carried all the way to the walls. Then the upper wall sheet goes on horizontally tight against the ceiling. This helps support the weight of the sheets on the ceiling at the edges, lets the ceiling sheets have adequate framing area to attach to at the edges, which helps prevent future nail/screw pops, and allows fewer fasteners to be required. Of course using adhesive helps as well. Then the bottom sheet goes on up tight to the upper sheet. Whatever gap is left over at the bottom is what you get.

Leaving a 1" gap at the bottom also means you've got less room for fasteners. You'll have to be dead on for spotting them and very close to that edge you cut off, meaning breakouts. If you started at the bottom with a full sheet then you'll have to cut the top sheets at the ceiling, which means gaps, inferior support of the ceiling edges, and more work to do the mudding.

 

[Toolfool]

This is a pain in the *** for the finish carpenter. The edge of the drywall is reduced to accept the tape and mud for joining with another sheet. When the side edge is on the floor the baseboard molding rolls under when nailing it in place and it fawks up all your corner joints.

A "professional" finish carpenter deals with this every day without a problem.

 

[DonPowers]

You're worried about getting 1" of standing water? In your upstairs? You've got bigger problems than damp sheetrock if that happens.
Planning on cutting a 1/2" strip or more off of every sheet?

Normally the ceiling is done first and carried all the way to the walls. Then the upper wall sheet goes on horizontally tight against the ceiling. This helps support the weight of the sheets on the ceiling at the edges, lets the ceiling sheets have adequate framing area to attach to at the edges, which helps prevent future nail/screw pops, and allows fewer fasteners to be required. Of course using adhesive helps as well. Then the bottom sheet goes on up tight to the upper sheet. Whatever gap is left over at the bottom is what you get.

Leaving a 1" gap at the bottom also means you've got less room for fasteners. You'll have to be dead on for spotting them and very close to that edge you cut off, meaning breakouts. If you started at the bottom with a full sheet then you'll have to cut the top sheets at the ceiling, which means gaps, inferior support of the ceiling edges, and more work to do the mudding.

With the finish floor, the gap would only be a quarter inch. Also, a room or two may have carpet.

With regard to celling attachment, I have strapping attached to the roof trusses allowing for adequate support of ceiling edges.

Screws attaching the wall sheets are started 3" from the edge so they go into the studs and not the top or bottom plates. Prior to installing the walls, I marked the stud locations on both the floor and ceiling then used a laser chalk line to mark screw locations. No breakouts so far. The upstairs rooms are 7' 6" so the sheets had to be cut anyways. There is a height restriction for the building of 30' from natural grade, not finished. Wanted the ceiling height in the garage section downstairs so sacrificed a bit upstairs.

Because the building utilizes both roof and floor trusses, there will be some flexing. Also, when talking to the structural engineers, at the truss manufacturer, you don't want to transfer the roof load to the floor trusses. They recommended the use of drywall clips and slotted anchors for non-bearing walls as one method and provided details to allow movement without cracking the drywall or transferring the load. I plan on having a quarter in gap between the non bearing walls and ceiling, which will be covered with a trim strip, attached to the ceiling. The design allows the roof to flex without transferring the load to the walls or floor trusses.

Since I'm mostly retired and doing the work myself, time or labor cost are not an issue, only material cost.


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[pennsylvaniaboy]

6768rogues is right. Vertical installation of sheetrock is a sure sign of a DIY'er. Do it yourselfers will do a room with 8' sheets because they can't handle longer sheets when they're buying them or installing them. Plus, they see their ceiling height and assume that it makes more sense to install vertically, and when studs are 16" on center, a 48" wide sheet looks like it should be installed that way.

Hell, I've even seen people install it upside down so that the mitred edges face the wall.

In a house built in 1948, there's no telling what kind of framing the house has.

I did this in my first house....thinking all mud joints would be supported, making it stronger. While that is probably true, talk about a pain to mud. I would have had 1 horizontal seam, and corner/ceiling joints and been done. Plus my studs were not 16" but 18". Hindsight is always 20/20 right

 

[chamoisfive]

This is a pain in the *** for the finish carpenter. The edge of the drywall is reduced to accept the tape and mud for joining with another sheet. When the side edge is on the floor the baseboard molding rolls under when nailing it in place and it fawks up all your corner joints.

Drywall sheets are available with one edge tapered, and one edge square, thereby eliminating the roll-under you mention, and the thinking builder would plan ahead for this. Sheets also come in wider than four feet if you look around the catalogue, but are probably special order for some areas. I have installed horizontally sheets that are 1350mm wide, square edge at the bottom & top, tapered edge in the centre. Makes life easier for all & quite common around here

 

[kbs2244]

1948 was very early in the switch to "dry wall"
Plaster, trowled on on "wet" was the common pratitce.
Carpentry "squarness" was nowhere as critical as it is today since the plasters could cover a lot of mistakes by just puttting it on thicker.
And wall were often 98 inches high with 6 or 8 inch high "mop boards" as the bottom trim.
Fot the time, what you have found it not unusual.

 

[willymakeit]

Commercial drywall is hung vertically for several reasons.
1. There is a large amount of penetrations such as duct,conduits, plumbing ect. that are installed penetrating the walls. Its easier to measure and call out measurements in a 4 ft run than 12'. You then split the sheet thru each penetration creating 1 joint.
Also om metal stud wall the details call for drywall behind the intersection of walls. You stand a sheet to span studs and bring slap stud over.
Most commercial projects call for drywall to be around 1/4'' off of floor to allow sound caulking. A lot of commercial projects have vinyl base so you cannot span a gap at floor.
Its easier to run mud boxes vertically from floor when tape and finish is being done.
There's more to it than meets the eye.
That being said most residential is installed horizontally, ceiling first, then upper sheet followed by lower sheet and a foot jack is used to make sure the tapered joints are tight.

 

[dutchgray]

Over here in the UK its always installed vertically (well i have never seen it horizontal) and I have never seen a sheet bigger than 8 by 4, we also have 6 by 3 sheets and they used to do even smaller sheets. However we do normally skim coat it rather than tape and fill.

 

[Kevin54]

Wallboard is usually installed horizontally so that sheets up to 16 feet can be used. Also, one horizontal seam is not as noticeable as a seam every 4 feet. Vertical installation could be a sign that a do it yourselfer did the job.

Today, yes. But if it was done back in the '70's, chances are it was hung vertically.

Plus back then, 8' was standard stud height, and not 92 5/8", so you had 99" before any drywall added

 

[TractorJeff]

Almost everyone says horizontal? Three posters say vertical? I was taught by my Dad vertical as the joint running horizontal was easier to crack open. Running vertical means the seam is on a stud hence harder to crack. Most Handyman books from the 50's and 60's stated vertical I seem to remember(?). Do you guys remember Handyman Books, Books by Audel or Magazines like Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Mechanics?

 

[Kevin54]

Almost everyone says horizontal? Three posters say vertical? I was taught by my Dad vertical as the joint running horizontal was easier to crack open. Running vertical means the seam is on a stud hence harder to crack. Most Handyman books from the 50's and 60's stated vertical I seem to remember(?). Do you guys remember Handyman Books, Books by Audel or Magazines like Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Mechanics?

And on an 8' ceiling, I have always ran vertical as that is the way I was taught years ago. Today is a different thing. Some still run vertical, and the younger ones run horizontal.

As long as the house is structurally sound, and everything is taped and mudded correctly, both will pass. I've been through high end million dollar homes being built that have been done both ways. I've also seen the same homes not even have any subsiding except on the corners and in between was 1/2" Styrofoam.

I guess as long as it looks good, you don't see any waves, and it doesn't crack.....you're good to go.

 

[MarkG]

I've done a LOT of drywall, taping and repairs. Here's my take on this debate (for example purposes, assume a nicely-framed wall and all the joints are 16" on center lol):

Like everything, there are advantages and disadvantages to both ways. I've hung it both ways too. If you run it horizontally, (especially if you are using the longer sizes) the main benefit is that the tapered joint stays at a very convenient height for taping!! This is huge when you consider that not only will you tape this joint 3 times, you will also be sanding it between each coat, at least a little!

The main drawback of this method is that none of your ends of the sheets are tapered! This means you'd better be a top-notch taper to hide the ends-----even then, you can not avoid having a hump no matter what you do there----IT'S NOT TAPERED, so you have to 'feather' it out well and hope the light isn't raking across it the wrong way!

In contrast, hanging sheets vert., (for the most part) all joints will be tapered, but your taping job will make you reach from the ceiling to the floor at every joint, on every coat, and then you'll do it again when you sand! This is still my choice though, since I work by myself on small jobs and I can use a foot 'lift' to hold the sheet up tight to the ceiling while running in the first few screws.

 

[Norcal]

If drywall is hung vertical, a stud bowing will be more pronounced and if it happens at the joint there will be nothing to restrain it, seen it happen & the only fix is to rip out the drywall to replace the wood, a horizontal hang will stronger & if the ceiling height is greater then 8 feet, a 2 foot or whatever size belly band in the center is a lot easier to tape.

 

[checkthisout]

I've dinked around quite a few houses and watched a number of them being built, the sheetrock is always put on the ceiling first and then hung horizontally on the walls.

If a wall is 12 feet wide, and you hang vertically, you have 3 vertical seems to tape and 4 drywall edges butting together on studs. You would use way more screws, and spend way more time farting bending over stretching out taping for absolutely no good reason.

I agree that DIY'rs use 8 foot sheets and hang vertically because those 12's are a ***** to handle, impossible to fit in most minvans and short box pickup trucks and most are intimidated by drywall **** joints.

You can get sheets wider than 4' and longer than 12' from sheetrock suppliers.

 

[58Yeoman]

I had a pre-cut house built in '74, and my brother and I did the drywall hanging in all of it, a two story house. We were in our 20's. Those 12' sheets were used (I'd would have hated using anything longer) on the ceiling first, then upper wall, then lower. We used scraps of wood to jack the bottom sheets to meet the upper. The mudder we used told us this is the way that he preferred it. He was probably in his 50's or early 60's, and would come in the morning, set down his bench and open his lunch box and eat his lunch, say that lunch was out of the way, and then start work.

The outside of the house had plywood on all the corners, but celotex on all the rest of the walls. That's the way it was done at that time in my area. We used vertical groove plywood siding on top of that, which was later covered with vinyl. I left the house 21 years later, and don't remember any cracks in the walls.

 

[Trey T]

From technical standpoint, there's nothing wrong with hanging it vertically but It's common to see it hung horizontally. It's more beneficial to hang it horizontally though.

 

[icenfire01]

I was always taught to hang horizontally as well for all the same reasons listed above. Less seams to mud and I was told as the eye scans the room from left to right it is harder to notice one seam running parallel than several seems running floor to ceiling. Also it would seem that the mfr would be suggesting to hang horizontal as well, unless a lot of you have 12' walls why would 12' sheets be stocked at most home improvement stores?

 

[Trey T]

^If I understood you correctly, that's not true. When you mud-tape the horizontal-mount drywall, the vertical joints are "potentially" easier for your eyes to scan from an angle. However, with 12" wide mud knife, vertical lines appears to be flat across the wall.

For the look, hanging it vertically would make the wall completely flat, 100%, assuming the wall frame is flat.

There are several reason why ppl do hang it horizontally, but here are some primary reasons:
-cutting the drywall to width minimize the gypsum exposure
-handling drywall is easier bc it's shorter and you don't break the sandwiched gypsum with your feet trying to hold it up

 

[icenfire01]

^If I understood you correctly, that's not true. When you mud-tape the horizontal-mount drywall, the vertical joints are "potentially" easier for your eyes to scan from an angle. However, with 12" wide mud knife, vertical lines appears to be flat across the wall.

For the look, hanging it vertically would make the wall completely flat, 100%, assuming the wall frame is flat.

There are several reason why ppl do hang it horizontally, but here are some primary reasons:
-cutting the drywall to width minimize the gypsum exposure
-handling drywall is easier bc it's shorter and you don't break the sandwiched gypsum with your feet trying to hold it up

Yes the "****" joints would be easier to see but there should only be 2 or 4 in the whole length of the wall, opposed to 6+ (assuming longer than a 12' span, if less than 12 there will be no "**** joints"). I can only think of 2 walls in my house that are more than 12' straight runs of unobstructed wall.

 

[richtersrodz]

Wow.. that's a lot of sheetrock knowledge posted. I had to hire out my upstairs, because of back problems, and then had to fire the dudes half way through the job and hire another crew to finish it. The 'dad' was letting his son and friend do the job, while he watched, and took breaks to go BLOW up our toilet downstairs!!! They were trashing our wood stairs, and trashing our house.. End of them!!

 

[Trey T]

If you live in texas, just hire it out . It's a cheap health insurance.