sheet rock and extreme temp. changes?

[VT-WHEELIN]

im building a 32x x40 shop. and im wanting to sheetrock the ceiling and walls. now i live in Vermont (Cold in the winter and hot in the summer). and i would like to only heat the shop when im out working and not have it warm all the time. im insulating the ceiling with R-30 and the walls with R-19 faced batts. I was told a horror story about sheetrock sagging with extreme temp changes. Is this true? any tips

thanks

 

[Gary S]

I wouldn't worry about temperature changes messing up sheet rock. It handles the temperature changes here so you won't have problems.
Moisture will kill it really fast however. I'd never use it again in a garage. My current garage has OSB walls, and I like it much better than sheet rock.

 

[Kevin54]

You should not have any problems if it is put up properly. The way it was explained to me by my drywall guy (my ceiling in the house garage cracked) is that after it is up and if it is NOT painted to seal against moisture, then you will get problems. It will draw moisture, then when it freezes will expand. After cycling thru period after period of this, you will develop problems. If it is painted to where moisture is not absorbed, then you won't get that. Also temperature swings will be over a longer period of time and not going from 0-75-0 in a matter of minutes. It is gradual.
My house garage is not heated in the winter and has never went below freezing even though it can be -20 outside. My detached garage was not heated for a couple of seasons and I never had problems with sagging drywall, but it was painted. The house garage has developed cracks in all the seams and it was not painted.

 

[VT-WHEELIN]

i have thought about osb but like the look sheetrock much better. will i have any moisture problems or will the faced insulation take care of that.

 

[saltflatmatt]

You won't have any problems with the rock as long as you use the proper thickness for the ceiling, the taped joints will crack, I have a finished garage that is fully taped and sanded, it took about 1 year to cracks in the mud to show up. It's a garage.... I'm in Minneapolis so we also deal with extreme temp changes.

 

[StingRay]

You might get a crack here or there but I've had them in heated and unheated spaces so I don't think temp will be a big problem.

 

[RWD]

You won't have any problems with the rock as long as you use the proper thickness for the ceiling, the taped joints will crack, I have a finished garage that is fully taped and sanded, it took about 1 year to cracks in the mud to show up. It's a garage.... I'm in Minneapolis so we also deal with extreme temp changes.

Same here in Chicago. My ceiling is painted and insulated properly but it still has cracks where the sheets meet.

 

[brucebotti]

In my unheated garage in CT, I used 3/8" Texture 111 on the walls. My rationale was that it wouldn't show bangs, nicks, etc.

For the ceiling I used 1/4" plywood that was sanded on one side. I used firring strips for the joints, and painted everything white.

The garage is now 15 years old and I haven't had any issues with my choice.

Bruce

 

[neverenoughtools]

I'm up in Canada......my garage is clad with 1/2 sheetrock, taped & painted. 20 yrs and looks as good as the day I put it up!

 

[Prototyper]

My last garage was 1/2" OSB on the walls and ceiling. It was great for hanging stuff on the walls. A clock, small speakers, etc. you would just screw them straight in, no anchors needed. Was also very durable.

Then a good friend of mine stained his deck, and ran out for a couple hours with his wife and kids. He opened the door to find a billowing cloud of smoke rolling out. Spontaneous combustion nearly took down his garage, which was also attached to his house. During the cleanup effort, he found outlets that melted out of the box, and a couple of studs that charred halfway through. It was a sweet garage before the disaster, and a tremendous amount of work to restore. The fire chief was very clear that without the sheetrock, he wouldn't have a home remaining!

Learning from his mistake, I am now VERY careful with rags with anything on them, and I have 5/8" sheetrock throughout my new garage. It is mudded, taped, primed and painted with two coats of paint. I am very happy with the way it looks.

 

[buening]

Same here in Chicago. My ceiling is painted and insulated properly but it still has cracks where the sheets meet.

Same here except it has the knockdown treatment. Joints in walls have hairline cracks also. Drywall guy used the standard paper tape. I'm going with the mesh type with hopes it will hold better. He used 10' sheets and neither the walls nor the ceiling were insulated for 15 years. They are now

 

[ddawg16]

The cracking has nothing to do with temperature and the drywall or mud....it's the rest of the structure that is moving....

Drywall when kept dry is VERY stable dimensionally over a huge temp difference....just look up the expansion coefficient for gypson....

 

[Jaguar Fan]

My garage is rocked & painted, and unheated. It is insulated. The outdoor temperature swings go from about freezing (at the coldest) to about 100 F at the hottest with about 60% humidity. I've never had a crack in 17 years.

 

[FryZ]

My garage is rocked & painted, and unheated. It is insulated. The outdoor temperature swings go from about freezing (at the coldest) to about 100 F at the hottest with about 60% humidity. I've never had a crack in 17 years.

Same here (rocked, painted, unheated, insulated) but it's only been finished for about 7 years (garage is almost 50 years old) and we can go from 100 in the summer to below zero in the winter...no cracks/sagging whatsoever. FWIW I used the mesh tape when I finished the seams.