The Process of Hanging Drywall
You are going to need some tools for this job no doubt. Now our business isn’t commercial so the tools we use might be different than the tools a bigger company might use. I will just do a quick run down of the basic tools needed; drills, box knife or something you could use to smoothly cut the drywall, screws, tape measure, a large T-square, and a rasp. If you have never heard of it is pretty much like a sander. If you make a cut and it looks a little rough or not straight, you can use a rasp to smooth it down and make it straighter. Also, depending on how high the wall is, a scaffold might be a good investment. They allow you to reach high places with ease instead of trying to keep from falling off of a ladder.
I would like to go over the process of hanging drywall in your house or whatever it may be. Your first step is to measure the area that so you know how much drywall you need. You don’t want to order way more than you need, it becomes a hassle later on. Ok, let’s say you have the drywall and you are ready to begin.
Find out where your studs are on the wall or the place you tend to start hanging drywall. Studs are the two by fours in the wall running up and down. From the center of one stud to the center of the next stud should be 16 inches. Every stud after that should be 16 inches on center. Now you got your tool belts on and you’re measuring your first piece. The drywall should start at one end of the wall and stop at the center of one of your studs so many feet away from you. You hang drywall from the top of the ceiling down, working from left to right. That way any mistakes or gaps will be at the bottom and a lot easier to take care of and a lot less noticeable. Also the studs are running up and down so you hang the drywall horizontally.
Now when you actually hang the drywall you will need help. You get it up in place where it is suppose to go and put screws on the edges of the drywall but on all of the studs it sits on. After those screws are in you can fill in the ones in the middle of the drywall. All screws should be screwed straight through the drywall and into the stud. After that first piece is up the hard part is done. Now all you have to do is measure your next piece from the end of the drywall you put up to the center of the stud down so many feet to the right of you. Also one thing to remember is when hanging drywall there might be a thin paper like material along the long edge of the drywall; this is what you call the factory edge. When hanging drywall the factory edge of one piece is suppose to be against the factory edge of another piece. This is to ensure that things stay straight and square.
After you get the first top row of the wall hung you will begin on the row beneath it. Now one thing you don’t want to do is line up your drywall from top to bottom. What I’m saying is on the first row of drywall you just hung you can see where each piece ends and each piece begins. There is that vertical line where they end and begin. The next row of drywall can’t end or begin in the same place as the row above it. Try to make the second row of dry wall you hang end in the middle of the row above it. Now if the room is small and there are door ways and things like that to worry about then don’t worry where each piece ends.
As long as you hang from top to bottom and left to right with factory edge against factory edge you will have done a great job. After all the drywall is hung you will have to go through and mud all of the screws and cracks or lines and gaps in the wall. I won’t go into that. Well the process of hanging drywall is simple. Follow the above directions and you will have no problems. People ask, “What’s the secret to hanging drywall”. I tell them the secret to hanging drywall is knowing how to do it.
