Questions about hanging drywall

Factual Questions
1

I will be hanging drywall over the next few weeks.
I’ve done this before but this time I am taking extra care so that when the mudder comes in, there will be no problems.
Here are some questions.

  1. Most videos show the drywall being glued to the studs. This is to prevent the screws from popping which I was assured in one video that they would. I can see this working for interior walls but how can this be done when there is a vapour barrier?
  2. I know there are manufactured edge and it is obviously important that they be kept together. The long edges of a sheet are tapered but the short edges are not. Or are they? They don’t seem to be. Should I worry about this?
  3. Should I always get the longest pieces of drywall possible to reduce seams?
  4. If I don’t have a rotozip, what other technique can I use to cut out holes for outlets?
  5. A part of my wall space hides the furnace. In this house, these walls are covered with foil sheeting. I have not seen anywhere that this is part of a building code. Can I just rip that foil out?

Thanks in advance

2

For Number 4, a wallboard saw https://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-6-in-Wallboard-Saw-15-556X/100197067 will work fine. They also make some that are able to cut in all directions. I’ve had one for years and it says “Stickle Back” on the handle, but a Google search mostly shows fish.

3

“1) Most videos show the drywall being glued to the studs. This is to prevent the screws from popping which I was assured in one video that they would. I can see this working for interior walls but how can this be done when there is a vapour barrier?”

I haven’t seen anyone use glue in a long time. That was to help prevent the*** nails ***from popping, not screws. It may also be required if the wall is an engineered shear wall, like for earthquake zones. I don’t think I have ever seen a screw pop loose in anything we built. My garage has a light duty floor for a ceiling. It is fairly bouncy if you walk up there, it is just for light storage. been there for 30 years and nothing popped on that ceiling.

“2) I know there are manufactured edge and it is obviously important that they be kept together. The long edges of a sheet are tapered but the short edges are not. Or are they? They don’t seem to be. Should I worry about this?”

They are not tapered. You don’t really worry about them, you just have to make a butt joint which requires a much wider band of compound to blend it in.

“3) Should I always get the longest pieces of drywall possible to reduce seams?”

I do this on ceilings to reduce the number of butt joints, since those are easier to see with ceiling lighting then if they were on the walls. For walls I hang the sheets vertically in most cases. If a wall is 8’ to 12’ long. then you can save joint length by using horizontal 12’ sheets. Figure it out both ways and see if a long sheet is worth it. For an 8+ to 12’ wall you have 16’ of vertical joints or 8’ to 12’ of horizontal.

“4) If I don’t have a rotozip, what other technique can I use to cut out holes for outlets?”

Drywall saw and a Stanley utility knife. Get the classic model 199 if you can find one. You will not regret it. It never slides the blade in when you are making a tricky cut. All sliders will eventually do this as your hand bumps the release.

http://www.jlconline.com/products-tools/classic-drywall-knife_o

“5) A part of my wall space hides the furnace. In this house, these walls are covered with foil sheeting. I have not seen anywhere that this is part of a building code. Can I just rip that foil out?”

I have not seen this before. Where is the foil, facing to furnace to reflect heat back?

Dennis

4

Make sure you figure out how a repairperson will get in there to check out the furnace annually. Many times, they need to get at both the front and the side of the furnace. You don’t want to have to tear out & repaid drywall for this.

Often a single piece of drywall, with the screws exposed on the edges, and then covered with a 2-3" wood molding piece, finished to match the rest of the room works well. That can be easily removed when needed, and replaced afterwards.

5

You guys are awesome.
Great advice!!

6

Is the foil like aluminum foil? That might be a radiant barrier. It might be used to reflect the heat back towards the furnace. It may be there to prevent that part of the wall from getting too hot.

7

Why not tape and mud yourself?

There are many videos available and articles online.

It’s time consuming but a handy person can get acceptable results.

Professionals are fast because they do it every day.

It’s my least favorite DIY task but the jobs I’ve taped, mudded and painted look no different from the rooms the builder did.

One tip. Wet sand. It keeps down the dust

8

Depending on where you live, you might be able to rent an electric drywall sander on a pole that hooks to a shop vac.

9

Smoothing drywall is definitely something a novice can do, but be sure to take your time and do it carefully. It is much more of an artistic task than most other handyman jobs. If you rush through or take shortcuts, the imperfections will often be visible.

10

I’ve tried mudding and sanding. It looked good until I painted it. I’ll think about it but I don’t want to experiment with this room.

11

That’s what the texturing is for: to hide the drywall work.

12

Good … saves me a bunch of typing … a pro can finish a seam with one swipe … it takes me at least two and then twice filling in divots … very time consuming but it saves money … the idea is it’s cleaner to have to add more mud where it’s too thin rather than sand off the mud where it’s too thick …

That was a harsh lesson I learned all those many years ago …

I disagree … a poor texturing job will hide a poor finish, simply by distraction … however, a good texturing job will expose a poor finish … screw heads, chatter marks, cat hair; all these are obvious even with the texturing …

I hate texturing because I’m more of a repair guy, and it’s near impossible to match the texture after the fact … with the smooth finish we can patch the holes and hide these holes more effectively … and if we have young children in the house, there will be holes in the walls …

13

Texture in a can is great for small repairs. HD and Lowes carry it in competing brands.

It’s too expensive to use on an entire room.

You have to buy a texture roller and mix the mud yourself.

14

An additional question.
I have pulling out all the electrical boxes 1/2 inch in anticipation of the hanging the drywall. I have also returned all the outlet and switches to these boxes so that if can still use my basement.
Will this cause me problems when I am cutting the holes for these boxes? Should I remove all the outlets and switches when I am hanging the drywall?

15

Should be no problem, even if they are all live outlets. Might want to cover the receptacles/boxes with blue painters tape, just to keep out drywall crumbs & dust. Also, when mudding, be careful not to splash onto the electrical fixtures. Again, blue painters tape is helpful.

16

Not as well as you suggest. I thought I had pretty nice seams on my first project until the primer coat showed me chimpanzees tripping acid could have done better. Orange peel splatter texture didn’t help much. Had to resort to a heavy knockdown, but even then if you knew where to look you’d see rises along the seams.

  1. is pretty well answered by mixdenny. My only addition is to consider whether a 12 foot sheet is going to be too much of a pain to work with.
17

I have done a lot of drywall work on the handyman level, not bragging but my work comes out better than most medium priced professionals do. I owned a construction company for a few years and used to watch the finishers and ask them questions. It takes zero artistic skill to finish drywall flawlessly. You simply work off of ridges until their are none left. I make not attempt to float in a nice finish ever. If necessary I build a ridge to work off of and may have to sand it level. But for the most part I load up my trowel and make one or two passes along an existing high spot. Once that dries you simply wipe another loaded trowel over it to fill up lines and small holes. No floating is needed except in cases where you need to build something up quite a bit and even in those cases I only float enough to build ridges to work off of. The trick is simply putting coat after coat till it is finished. When I first retired I solicited electrical contractors and plumbers to come in and repair the holes they cut in drywall to do their work. I had more work than I could handle after only a few hours of calling.

18

Another home handyman who’s done drywall work. For me, it’s the hanging that’s the hard part. The mudding isn’t a big deal. Just take it easy, be patient, multiple coats, etc.

The “pro” job done on our house is terrible. Lots of places where the tape has come loose or there are cracks. Also nail pops. My basement work looks great years later.

Note that I did not “sand” the joint compound. I used a slightly damp smoothing sponge. No dust and gives a really even surface. Just make sure you keep the sponge wrung out. Don’t want to get the drywall paper wet and then rub it.

Texturing is the work of the devil. Avoid at all costs.

19

I dry-sand … 4 foot pole with 120 grit sandpaper … [cough cough cough] … a dust mask and lots of fans keeps the mess down some … but it’s quick, fifteen minutes per room, per coat … this puts a premium on putting the mud on correctly the first time … keeps the other subcontractors out until I’m done …

20

All of a sudden I want to tear the walls out of the living room and give this a try. (My wife is a saint)