Every building project starts with a foundation, and a home is no exception. Whether you’re framing out a new build, renovating an existing home or making repairs, using drywall for interior walls and ceilings is a must.

What Is Drywall?

Drywall, also known as plasterboard, wallboard, gypsum board and Sheetrock forms the walls and ceilings of many homes, which it is consists of gypsum wrapped with a paper facing. The panels are cut to size and designed to be fastened to wall studs or ceiling joists.

Drywall thicknesses range from 0.25 inch to 5/8 inch. Building codes may specify a thickness for a specific application, but here are some common uses.

And 0.25inch drywall isn't strong enough to provide good support alone, but you can install it over a surface that's already in place, such as for a repair. It's thin enough to bend so it works in arches or curved walls. Double it up to create a 0.5-inch-thick surface.

3/8-inch drywall was common in interior walls at one time but is no longer the standard. Like 0.25-inch panels, it can be used over existing panels for repair and in some curved applications but doesn't offer the strength of 0.5-inch panels.

0.5-inch drywall is the most versatile board and common thickness for the 16-inch on-center interior walls in most homes. It offers a good balance between strength and weight. 5/8-inch drywall is a heavier product that resists sagging in ceilings and in 24-inch on-center walls. The-added-thickness also improves soundproofing.

You’ll often find fire-rated drywall in 5/8-inch panels. Because of its excellent soundproofing qualities, 5/8-inch works well in bedrooms and living areas, however, it’s costlier than drywall that's 0.5-inch thick and smaller. The standard size for drywall panels is 4 feet wide by 8 feet long, and usually you won't find panels that are longer.

Some DIY drywall tools you need to have in your collection

The right DIY drywall tools can make the difference between an easy, successful drywall project and a frustrating, error-filled train-wreck. Knowing which tools to add to your collection and understanding how to use them properly are both components of becoming a better home improver.

Here are some must-have DIY drywall tools that can help equip you for anything your next project throws at you.

1.Jab saw:

The jab saw noticed is essentially solely beneficial for slicing drywall and is consequently relatively specialised inside your series – however when you want it, you truly want it.

It is surely a serrated knife with a tip sharp ample to effortlessly penetrate drywall however no longer so sharp that it will reduce your finger when you practice mild pressure. The jab noticed is made for slicing holes in drywall and for cuts from six to eight inches in length.

2.Electric drywall saw:

This is certainly not possible to exchange the effectivity of an electric powered drywall saw. It’s capacity to without problems reduce via a sheet of drywall makes it priceless on large-scale projects. It may also now not constantly be needed, however when it is, its velocity and precision make an extremely good difference.

Some suppose a jab noticed can replacement for an electric powered drywall noticed on most occasions, however that’s genuinely no longer the case. When you want a fast, clean, effective cut, you want an electric powered drywall saw.

3.Drywall knives:

We all know that, drywall knives are a distinctly specialised item, so other sorts of putty knives sincerely won’t work as a replacement. These are as a substitute cheaper and consequently can be without difficulty changed when worn or damaged. The shorter 4- and 6-inch sizes are best for slopping mud into location and for taping, whilst the longer 12-inch measurement is used for feathering and ultimate coats.

4.Cordless drill:

Drywall used to be fixed nearly completely with a hammer and nail. Today, screw weapons supply tons larger effectivity and are in a position to mechanically load up the subsequent screw when the job is equipped for it.

The multiplied energy of an 18-volt drill (versus 12-volt) effortlessly attracts screws into wooden studs barring any subject of durability. A drill with a take hold of helps the bit cease turning when screws are totally pushed in and prevents stripping of the screw head. Cordless drills grant a torque-control gain over their corded counterparts, as well.

5.Utility knife:

There is a properly danger a utility knife is already a staple inside your device series and can be a extremely good asset to drywall work. Be positive to now not use a utility knife with snap-off blades, however as a substitute use one with interchangeable blades that set into a screw-down handle. This offers larger balance and protection during the job.

6.Drywall screws:

Drywall screws are now the fastener of desire – no longer nails – and come in each coarse-thread and fine-thread varieties. Coarse-thread screws draw without problems into timber studs and are usable for a vast vary of different domestic improvement projects, whilst fine-thread screws are best-suited for steel framing.

Some people are going to use the best drywall sander for DIY, drywall lift homemade or DIY drywall lift, tape buddy drywall taping tool or buddy tools tape-buddy drywall taping tool, DIY drywall sander and DIY pole sander.

Guide to Drywall Sizes

Drywall modified the constructing enterprise when it got here on the scene about a century ago. While it took a few many years for drywall to entirely take root in domestic construction, this pre-sized wallboard ultimately supposed no extra nailing of thousands of lath boards and troweling of moist plaster.

Along with its many advantages, fashionable sizing is one of drywall's nice features. With every sheet of drywall, you understand in enhance its specific size, down to the millimeter. Predictable sizing approves builders and house owners to diagram their initiatives with entire accuracy.

The most common size of drywall is 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. Since 0.5-inch-thick sheets of 4- by way of 8-foot drywall tip the scales at fifty-seven pounds, this measurement tends to be the largest sheet that most do-it-yourselfers can raise and elevate into place.

The 4-foot by 8-foot size allows for either vertical or horizontal installation. Typically 4 by 8-foot panels come attached in pairs—two sheets face to face, with paper strips binding the two sheets. Most people find it extremely difficult to carry these sandwiched panels by themselves. For solo transport, you can pull off the binding paper to separate the panels.

For tall or long walls, drywall is available in lengths of 12 or 16 feet. One advantage of these longer sheets is that you can create a smooth vertical surface to meet higher ceilings, creating a smooth surface that is completely unbroken from floor to ceiling.

16-foot-long drywall, when installed horizontally on a wall, produces fewer butt joints than with 8-foot-long sheets. If you are intending to work with 16-foot lengths of drywall, you need to have several people on hand to help you with the installation.

The 2-foot by 2-foot square of drywall is not a stock sheet size. However, cut-down pieces of drywall are often available at most home centers and especially at smaller local hardware stores. These small sheets can be useful for patching jobs or wall-boarding small nooks and alcoves.

When wall panels come in lengths and widths other than these multiples of 4 feet, they are usually not drywall panels but are instead cement board or a drywall alternative. While not common on the consumer market, 4-1/2-foot-wide drywall sheets can be special-ordered. They are not stocked in home improvement centers and are rarely used except by professionals.

Common drywall thicknesses are 1/4-inch, 1/2-inch, and 5/8-inch. Building codes do have some requirements when it comes to the thickness of drywall panels. The thickness required for each application is dictated by the building code.

Not a common thickness, 1/4-inch-thick drywall is used as a skimming (or double-wall) material for placing over an existing surface. These thin drywall sheets are also valuable when you need to install drywall on slightly curved surfaces. If the drywall is not quite meeting the curve, you can slightly dampen the drywall to make it more flexible.

Half-inch drywall panels are the standard thickness for interior walls, as well as ceilings. These panels are easy to carry and hang. Even easier to carry are ultra-light 1/2-inch panels, which are 13 pounds lighter than conventional 1/2-inch drywall. Thicker drywall may be required by code for any wall or ceiling covered with a texture or skim coat where studs or joists are spaced 24 inches on-center rather than 16 inches.

This thicker drywall is frequently known as fire-resistant drywall. Common partitions between residential residing areas and connected garages, for example, require a fire-resistant construction, as do furnace rooms. This furnace resistance can additionally be accomplished via putting in a couple of layers of thinner drywall panels.

The Solutions of Drywall Problems

Drywall finishing—including DIY drywall—is by far the most challenging part of drywall installation. And it is where some do-it-yourselfers run into the most problems. While the ability of best ending comes solely via practice, there are quite a few frequent problems that are without difficulty corrected with a higher approach or materials, or both.

Instead of creasing the all-paper tape that you might be used to, try metal-reinforced corner tape. Metal-reinforced tape combines a metal angle with paper flanges for a perfectly shaped and smooth inside corner: The tape does the creasing for you. The metal also gives your drywall knife a smooth, rigid surface to ride along when taping the corner.

Instead of using standard paper tape on outside corners, use metal or plastic outside corner bead. The best practice is to use corner bead because it is more durable and easier to install than paper-only corners. Save the paper tape for outside corners that never receive any traffic, such as bulkheads or skylight shafts. Any outside corner within reach should use a rigid bead.

Before you apply the joint compound or mud, cut your paper tape to length and pre-crease it. You'll save yourself a crucial-few-seconds. If you're using metal-reinforced tape, cut it to length and have it at the ready before mudding the corner. In either case, it's also easier to measure for your tape length before there's mud on the wall.

Use three layers: tape coat, filler coat, and final coat. The tape actually should show through the filler coat. If it doesn't, your filler coat is too thick. Covering the tape comes only with the final coat or coats. If your initial final coat doesn't cover the tape, apply more coats, but keep them thin.

Mesh tape shows through butt joints, which it is can be hard to fix and it's why a lot of drywall workers prefer paper tape on butt joints. Butt joints are seams where two panels meet at their square (not tapered) edges, so there's no recess for the tape and mud.

If you've already used mesh tape and mudded over it and it's still showing, keep applying thin final coats with a 10- or 12-inch drywall knife. Gradually build up the joint in the middle—to cover the tape—and feather it at both sides to make it all look flat.

Butt joints are difficult to cover, even with paper tape. Since you have no edge tapers creating a recess, the tape and mud are riding on top of the drywall.

Carefully apply the final coat or coats and feather it out well with the 10- or 12-inch knife. One error with butt joints is to use too much mud under the tape, creating a hump that is hard to hide with all of the thin final coats.

Applying some pressure to the knife when smoothing the tape over the initial layer of mud helps to squeeze out excess mud from behind the tape. Ideally, though, don't put too much mud there to begin with.

Drywall joints crack for many extraordinary reasons. Over the door and window openings, joints can crack due to motion in the wall framing. The motion is unavoidable, so the pleasant answer is to make the taped joints as sturdy as possible.

The paper tape itself is much less robust than mesh tape, and paper is additionally much less elastic and would not stretch as mesh tape does. This is why some drywallers select paper for these high-stress joints.

If you do figure out to use mesh tape in these areas, constantly use a setting-type mud for the first coat over the tape. Setting mud is more desirable than pre-mixed all-purpose mud and helps compensate for the elasticity of mesh tape.

Any drywall joint can additionally crack if the mud is utilized too thick or too quickly. To forestall cracking, do not use greater mud than you want for any of the coats, and let every coat dry absolutely earlier than including the next. To cut down on dust, use a wet sponge—instead of sanding with sand paper—between coats.

History of Drywall

The U.S. Gypsum Company (USG) invented drywall in 1916. It used to be initially known as "Sackett Board," after the Sackett plaster company, a USG subsidiary [Source: Allen]. The cloth was once first bought in the structure of small, fireproof tiles, however inside a few years, it used to be bought in multi-layer gypsum and paper sheets. In much less then a decade, it took on the structure we know, consisting of a single layer of compressed gypsum sandwiched between two sheets of heavy paper.

While it only took a few years for this board to evolve into the material we know today, it took 25 years for builders to begin using drywall in any substantial quantity.

With all its uses and benefits, why were builders hesitant to use something as simple as drywall? At the time, drywall was thought of as a cheap fix, with none of the fine art associated with making plaster. People didn't want to live in homes that were shoddily constructed, so they stuck with the tradition and expense of plaster.

U.S. Gypsum eventually changed the brand name of the material to "Sheetrock" in an attempt to improve drywall's reputation, but builders and homeowners still paid no attention.

It wasn't until the United States became involved in World War II that builders came around to the benefits of using drywall. As the country's labor force became focused on war manufacturing and many soldiers were sent overseas to fight, quick and inexpensive building materials were needed to offset the labor shortage and war costs. 

Because the labor scarcity used to be too extreme for plastering to stay a possible constructing option, human beings started to use drywall instead. Houses and factories should be developed in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the labor in the past required. Cheap and environment friendly merchandise had been considered as patriotic due to the fact they allowed residents to spend extra time and cash aiding the struggle effort.

By the time the conflict ended in 1945, drywall had emerge as the dominant constructing cloth in the United States. During the post-war constructing boom, contractors knew they may want to assemble houses and places of work in one-tenth the time if they deserted plaster for drywall, main to greater profits. Over time, the use of plaster progressively dwindled as human beings all over the world became to drywall. With internet income of over $5 billion in 2007, the U.S. Gypsum Company is nonetheless one of the world's pinnacle producers and innovators of drywall and associated merchandise

How Drywall is Made

Drywall is made primarily of gypsum. Gypsum is a mineral usually found in massive beds that look like white sand, though impurities can cause beds to appear pink, yellow or gray. One of the most famous gypsum beds in the United States is the popular White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

Despite being used to make drywall, there's a large amount of water in gypsum. The water is in crystalline form, which is why the individual molecules of gypsum are dry. These crystalline water molecules give finished drywall its fire-resistance. As drywall gets hot, the water crystals begin to destabilize and begin vaporizing as the water reaches its boiling point. The evaporating water crystals keep the drywall cool, protecting the structure behind it.

Once gypsum has been mined, it is transported to factories for the duration of the world. There, uncooked gypsum is blended with numerous additives, which includes starch, paper pulp and an emulsifier (or thickening agent), then blended with water to structure a thick paste. The gypsum paste is unfold onto Manila paper in 3/8-inch to 3/4-inch-thick layers. Another sheet of Manila paper is then laid on top.

The entire formation passes through ovens that heat the sheet at temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This dries the material out and prepares it for cutting. Typical sheets are 4x8 feet, though 4x10 feet and 4x12 feet sheets have become popular recently, as they allow for faster installation of taller walls.

Additional additives or types of paper are used when creating more specialized forms of drywall. For more on this, and information on finding the right type of drywall to suit your needs, read on to the next section.

DIY Drywall Installation

Drywall installation is a popular DIY project for homeowners because it's easy to learn and doesn't require any expensive specialty tools.

To begin installing drywall in your home, use the chart in the previous section to determine which kind of drywall you need for your project, then estimate how many sheets you'll need based on the size of the area. 

Most home improvement stores will deliver your purchases to your home, which is useful because of the length of the drywall sheets. You can also save cash by renting many of these tools. Once you've made your purchase or rental, you can break your project down into three easy steps:

1. Cutting：

Begin by laying your drywall sheets out on a level, dry surface. Measure the length you'll need for your project, and use a pencil to mark where you'll need to cut the sheet. Using a T-square as a guide, cut the sheet along the marks using a drywall saw. You can make most of your cuts before starting the project to ready your materials, or you can cut pieces as you work. 

The latter method results in fewer mistakes and less waste, but may take more time. A keyhole saw can be helpful for cutting spaces for electrical outlets and light switches, and a circle cutter is useful if you have curved spaces to work with.

2. Hanging：

Start attaching your drywall sheets to the wood or metal studs used to frame your space. You should hang sheets horizontally when working with wood studs, while metal studs work better with vertical installations. This is because wood studs are more likely to warp and deflect over time. Hanging the sheet horizontally allows each sheet to be in contact with more studs and helps minimize deflection. Generally speaking, it can be more difficult to screw into metal studs. 

When using wood studs, you should also apply a drywall adhesive to the face of the studs before hanging your drywall in order to further minimize deflection. To attach the drywall to the studs, use a screw gun and drywall screws, making sure you hit the studs. Screws should be placed about every four inches.

3. Finishing：

Finally, you'll tape, sand and finish the drywall. This involves applying three layers of mud, one layer of drywall tape, and a whole lot of sandpaper. First, use a 6-inch finishing knife to spread joint compound along each seam. This first layer is called the tape coat, and should be about four inches wide, centered on the joints in your drywall sheets.

Next, apply drywall tape along the joints. The mud you applied will hold it in place. Your second coat of mud is called your block coat. Use your 6-inch finish knife to apply a second coat of mud on top of your drywall tape. Use just enough to seal the drywall tape in place. The final coat is called the skim coat. A 10-or 12-inch knife should be used to apply a third coat of mud. Take your time on this coat to spread the mud thinly away from the seams to provide a smooth, level surface.

Now, the waiting game begins. Allow 24 hours for the mud to dry to begin sanding.Use a pole sander and 120-grit sandpaper to lightly sand the mud you applied earlier. You've finished sanding when you can't see any tape or mud bulges on the walls' surface, and when a level applied to the wall shows it is smooth and even. Wear a mask and goggles while sanding to prevent damage to eyes and lungs.

Sometimes drywall will emerge as broken due to have an effect on from human beings or objects. This injury is easy to repair, and definitely includes filling any holes, then overlaying them with mud and sanding them so they are easy and flush with the relaxation of the wall. For large holes, reduce out a piece of drywall that will roughly fill the hole, then fill the relaxation of the area with mud. For smaller holes or dings, mud can be used on its personal to fill in the broken area. After you have crammed the hole, use a single coat of mud and sand as usual.

2022 Guides: How to Hand Drywall and Finish Drywall for Beginners

Beginner's Guide to Hand Drywall

Your storage isn’t simply an area to keep your car. It can be the whole lot from a mudroom, a laundry room, or if you’re like us, a workplace and workspace! You can also spend a ton of time in there or you may additionally not, regardless, the fee of your property will extend if you have a completed garage.

Step 1: Prep-Space

As tempting as it is to simply slap the drywall up and name it quits, make certain that you take a look at the partitions for something that would poke via and reason bumps in the finish.

That skill pulling out historical nails too–you don’t prefer to see any nail pops. Additionally, what correct are partitions if there is nothing at the back of them to assist you hold heat in the iciness and cool in the summer? Check out your neighborhood code to see what R-value insulation you’ll want for your garage. Installing is easy.

Simply measure the dimension of your bay and reduce the insulation the usage of an insulation knife. Once the room is ready, make sure that you have all the tools you need. Always make sure your surface is level before you start hanging!

Step 2: Start with the Ceiling

The great exercise is to deploy the ceiling first. Make sure you buy the proper kind and thickness of drywall for your project. For us, we’re the use of ⅝” drywall on the ceiling and ½” mildew protection drywall for the walls.

First aspect is first, you’ve got to determine out what dimension piece you’re hanging. The first piece is most probable a full-sheet. But as you cross-on you’ll have specific measurements.

You constantly favor to “break” on the stud. What this skill is each the ends of your drywall piece wishes to be secured to a stud. So, most studs will share two portions of drywall: the stop of one piece of drywall and the opening of some other piece of drywall. This is known as a butt-joint!

To decide the dimension of your drywall piece measure from the center of one stud to the center of every other stud. When it comes time to reduce the sheet to measurement use a drywall T-Square and a utility knife. It’s as handy as scoring it and hitting it. This will smash the sheet of drywall. Then, reduce the undesirable piece and toss to the side.

Finally, earlier than you hang, smooth up that reduce by using the use of your rasp! Ok, focusing…Now you can hang! We recommend screwing the drywall in rather than nailing–it might be more expensive, but it gives you a smoother and stronger finish and will almost guarantee you no nail pops down the road!

Remember those butt-joints from earlier? The end of one piece of drywall and the beginning of another piece of drywall? Here’s where they come into play. You always want to “break” on the stud. What this means is both ends of your drywall piece need to be attached to a stud. So, most studs will share two pieces of drywall.

Butt-joints should be the last things you screw when affixing the drywall to the stud. Screw the field in first and then when both pieces are nestled perfectly on a stud then screw them down. If you don’t do it this way, the middle section of the drywall sheet could “blow out”.

If you run into lights in your ceiling don’t fret! You just want to mark where those lights are as you install–that way, you can find them easily when it’s time to cut them out of the drywall. It’s probably easier to understand this by watching the video but if you have a stud or another piece of drywall adjacent to the area that you’re working in draw an arrow directing you to the center of the light box.

Then measure from that point to the center of the light box. You’ll now be able to find your starting point for the cut out when the box is covered with your hung drywall.

Step 3: Install Walls

Compared to the ceiling, the walls are a breeze! ½” drywall is so much lighter! Before you get started with the walls, make sure you aren’t covering up any outlets.

If you’re working in new construction, the electrician will probably wait to install the outlets until the drywall is up and just leave you with the box. But, if you already have your outlets in place, no worries here either. Turn off the power at the breaker. Safety first!

Then unscrew the outlet if it’s screwed in place. Gently pull the outlet barely out of the container and tilt it forward. Measure the place this outlet container will fall on your drywall and reduce it out with your drywall knife. One closing wall putting tip, get your-self a drywall lifter. This will assist you create a tight seam between the pinnacle and backside layers of your wall.

Beginner's Guide to Finish Drywall

Step 1: Protect yourself and the Floor

Mudding can get messy! After you have hung all your drywall you need to not only protect the floors but also yourself. If we’re being honest, we don’t ALWAYS protect the floors. It can be tempting especially if the current floors are subfloors or floors that have yet to be finished.

But, when splatters of mud end up on the floor it will be a pain in the you-know-what to get it cleaned up. If nothing else, it’ll be a pain to get your floor smooth again so, if they’re not finished, they’re ready to be finished.

So, do as we say -maybe not as we do all the time. All you need to do to protect your floors is lay down a paint cloth, plastic, or cardboard around your work area. To protect yourself, wearing eye protection will go a long way.

Step 2: PREP Your MUD

If you want a beautiful finishing job you need to start with beautiful mud. When it comes to prepping your mud is to add a bit of soap to the bucket. This smooths out any air bubbles and makes your mud peanut butter perfect. It’ll be easier to work with and look great on the wall. Mud can be beautiful.

Step 3: Taping

Using a taping knife, grab as much mud as you’re comfortable working with. You’ll start by mudding the entire length of a wallYou don’t want to stop and start in random places. Apply mud to the factory seams first. Run your 6” knife sideways all the way down the wall. This gets the mud into the ravine of the seam. Using the mud as your “adhesive” simply apply the tape to your run of mud along the seams.

Apply a decent amount of pressure using your knife to clear out the excess mud from under the tape. This will also fill the seam. Do your best not to crease the tape.

Then attack the butt joints. Finally, apply tape to your corners. With corners, there is one extra step. You have to go on both sides of the corner. So, positioning your knife sideways, go all the way down on one side of the corner with mud, and then repeat on the other side.

Then crease the tape down the center and apply it to your corner. Clear out the excess mud from under the tape. Do a second or third pass and make sure your tape doesn’t have any creases. Corners are a bit more fragile than the flat seams and joints so be extra gentle.

The last process in this first step is to hit the screws in the field of your drywall with mud. You’ll eventually give the screws three coats, going wider with each coat. This prevents unnecessary sanding.

For the first coat, put your knife at an angle and do one-thin run of mud. Remove all excess mud. Now, wait for this first coat to dry before you continue to step four!

Step 4: Second Coat

For this step, usually use lightweight mud instead of the all-purpose compound. That is a heck of a lot easier to work with and goes on quicker. We still add dish soap and this time also a little water. Check for a peanut butter consistency. Don’t want it too runny.

And then, uses knife for this step. Cover more than you did in your previous layer. Apply the mud to both the seams and the butt joints. If you’re using a knife too you can just center the knife over the seams. This should give you the coverage you need. For the butt joints, you need to create a wider coat. We have to go 10” to each side of the joint to create a smooth finish and minimize sanding.

That’ ok---now for the fancy part. Once your second coat is on the wall you need to create a nice smooth edge. Using your index finger apply pressure to your knife on the side that you’re cutting. This means there is pressure to the outside of your knife and therefore the outermost edge of your coat. The inside of the knife has less pressure leaving the right amount of mud over both joints.

After you cut both edges on your coat go down the center lightly. Just to smooth out the top. Continue this step for your corners. Also, hit up the row of screws in the field of your drywall panel. Remember to go wider than your previous coat and to just add a super-thin second coat.

Step 5: Skim Coat

Whoo-hoo! We’re at the closing coat! Grab that 12” knife and let’s get to it! Start with the aid of gently casting off any lips in the mud. Remember, the mud from step two must be absolutely dry at this point.

This is your closing coat and additionally the thinnest coat. You prefer to go wider than your 2d coat and cowl any air bubbles that popped up previously. The purpose of this coat is now not to construct up the mud greater however rather to ideal the 2nd coat.

Don’t practice a whole lot strain to your knife and don’t use too lots mud. Wipe on and wipe off. Apply this last coat to the seams, butt joints, corners, and screws. Also, hit up any small repairs that you would possibly discover round stores and switches too.

Step 6: Sand your Walls to Perfection

Start sanding at the top and work your way down. When you’re sanding-corners you’ve got to be super gentle. I recommend keeping the sanding screen away from the corners and using your sanding block in those tight spaces. You’ll have more control and Finished Drywall.

Work the sand block around outlets and switches too! Everything should be as smooth as a baby’s bottom! Then make sure to end your project by giving your partner a solid high five! You’re now ready to prime and paint!