Doing Some Drywall Walls and Celings - Any Tips?

home depot

and a handful of mexicans standing outside

300 bucks

#1 - Learn how to build a house, not a pile of glued carton
#2 - If you don't follow the rule #1, do it.

Less is better. Keep your joints tight. No gaps.
Thick seams means more sanding.
Do skim coats.. light sanding in between..

Enjoy.

Leave gaps of an inch at the ceiling and the floor for expansion. Which will be covered by skirting board and coving.

Cheers buddy!

YOU know about this stuff :) Been watching some cool videos at youtube, and taking notes, especially about the joints and install procedures. Americans ROCK with Drywall. And there are p'lenty of good videos to follow, and tutorials form PLADUR, the brand we have in Portugal/Europa.

Mud/tape/light sand/
Mud/light sand
Skim coating to finish + sanding.

I look a crazy bricolage guy, all these materials in my office. :)

Yep, 0,5cm gap, so if anything happens (water or drywall/wall movement, it gets tight and doesn't break the joints.

Gotcha! Cheers!

The best tip I could provide (after building my home, ground up) is to HIRE someone to do your drywall.. LOL

IF you are determined to do it, I have a few tips that may help..

1. ALWAYS leave 1/8 gap on the seams.. This allows for expansion/contraction in temp changes, and workable room for your finish work (mud and tape work)..

2. Be sure you seams are ALWAYS perpendicular to your wall/ceiling studs.. And when matching seams, put factory edges with factory edges, and cut edges with cut edges.. Makes for much less finish work..

3. Use a dremel tool for cutting wall/light sockets.. Basically, measure and mark the center of your socket, hang the sheet, then use a dremel (or drywall handsaw) to cut out the hole.. Much easier than measuring and cutting.. IMO

4. Did I mention HIRE SOMEONE.. It sucks.. LOL

For the ceilings, rent or buy a drywall jack.. It will reduce your work load by 90% if you're working alone...

Oh yah, HIRE SOMEONE.. Ugh, drywall is tedious work man..

:) Cheers bro, but these are new walls for interior walls and ceilings.

My house is concrete made and it's 12 years old. It's a normal apartment.

I hate sanding that shit! You end up looking like a snow man and it can't be good on the lungs.

Dawn dish liquid mixed in your drywall mud makes it smooth and silky. about half a cup for 5 gallon bucket plus a dash of water..... good luck!

Thanks buddy!

Drywall doom on the go! And yeah, I need a drywall jack. Even for 2 guys it's a mess to put the drywall up there in correct position.

Access door to any plumbing areas..
You'll thank yourself, later..

Hang all the Drywall as good as you can. Use Dura-bond 60 for your first tape skim coat but make sure you don't lay it on thick( bitch to sand). switch to normal joint compound for your second and third coats sanding each time to feather it out. The joint compound should extend about 8 to 10 inches on either side of the joints to make it invisible when done and paint is on.. Less is more so don't play with it all day, imperfections can be filled easily just make sure you sink all screws a touch below the face of the drywall so they dont pop later.

:) So true.

I use a mask and some weird glasses, but sanding it's awful. I did buy a machine to help me, you can use it with a vacuum cleaner... but it's a pain.

No jacking off for 3 weeks. lol

Is there anything Dawn dishwashing liquid doesn't do? Great stuff!

Like 99%

for the ceiling make a "T" out of some extra wood that is taller then your room .. have a guy wedge the T under one side of the drywall sheet while the other guy holds the side your screwing in place. mark out where your studs are on the drywall before you put it in place so you can screw it in easier. good luck

Thanks mate.

Hanging it it's not a problem, just follow the official books/tutorials, and it's easy/fast. I have a machine for screws, it gets them perfectly in place, no screw heads outside :)

Problem is sanding... sometimes I get too much mud outside the edges, and you know, it's a pain to sand it off. ahahha

Been following tutorials form the drywall bran I use (really awesome tutorials, they teach every little thing) and when in doubt, or need to view a video, I usually check these guys: [link to www.youtube.com]

Do you guys do your own stuff, especially in the US?

use perforated joining tape
use premixed finishing coat
scrape / smooth / feather off ALL excess as you go
almost nil sanding needed
put sand paper on a T pole to do ceilings
good music & beer

dont fuck up.

Yes, get a professional.

use lots of glue big dobs to stick drywall to cement walls
use a strait stud 4"x2" thin side to "smack" the drywall flat
have a few 4" square ply plaques to screw into cement to hold drywall in place while setting

just make the screws that u use for the ceilings are 2"

you cant fuck it up man, everything can be fixed with sandpaper & compound.

personally, i'd go one room at a time, make it all perfect before moving on.
you'll gain experience as you go & the project wont over-whelm you.

best of luck.

go MUCh wider on your joints with compound than you think

Thank YOU :)

Just took some minutes out of the world to skimcoat my WC ceiling and it's going fine. This last skim was very thin, with a large 30" "knife" (??) and the mix had more water then previous one. It was really smooth to apply and the large knife helped a lot.

Tomorrow I'll be sanding this last one!!

yay!!!!!!

Thanks so much for all tips and positive feedback!

Drywall doom!

Do drywall when it's hot and dry, not when the weather is wet and cold.

Hire or buy a plaster board lift

like this

[link to news.plumbingpages.com]

once it has dried out, paint it all to seal then wait for it all to settle.

edit to add

I am sure there must be some good video clips on youtube to help you

Last Edited by lightchild_uk on 12/26/2012 03:56 PM