Sheetrock Or Drywall?

That is the question. Not really. I've just heard it called many different things. I've been calling it sheetrock and wanted to see if I was calling it the correct name. So I did quick google search and turns out that drywall or gypsum board is the generic name for it. And if you're super cool and with the in crowd you can just call it "rock". Sheetrock is actually a brand of drywall. We didn't buy Sheetrock and we're not that cool so I guess I'll just call it drywall from now on.

Anyway, we wanted to save some moolah and decided to put up our own drywall. How hard could it be right? Famous. Last. Words.

The actual fastening it to the wall studs wasn't difficult. It was cutting it exactly right to fit. The biggest obstacles for us were lots of electrical boxes, oddly shaped holes in the ceiling where we had to rip out the old drywall, and the fact that the walls in our old home aren't square.

I won't go into too much detail about how to hang drywall in general. We learned about it from our friends at This Old House! This step-by-step was really helpful (http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,217215,00.html). My hyperlink thing still isn't working in Blogger so you'll have to copy/paste the URL. Anyone have any idea how to troubleshoot that? Sorry, technical difficulties. Moving on.

We purchased 4' x 8' drywall from Home Depot and used a box cutter to cut the pieces down to size where needed. You can cut through the paper on one side and then just snap the board on your line. Then just cut through the paper on the other side of the board. Easy peasy.

We used 1 5/8" drywall screws to attach it to the wall studs. An impact drill makes this process go a lot faster and makes it easier to countersink the screws (i.e. drive them slightly below the surface of the drywall to cover them up later with drywall mud). However, if you're screwing in the corners, sometimes the impact drill caused the drywall to crack which isn't good. It happened to us quite a few times. We learned just to use a regular drill for the corner screws.

So in case you guys ever decide to put up your own drywall, I wanted to share our trick for cutting around electrical boxes since that is more likely a common issue than the wonky walls and oddly shaped holes in the ceiling.

Once you've cut your drywall to size, follow these steps to cut around electrical boxes and get it right on the first try every time.

1. Grab some bright nail polish.

 2. Paint the corners of the electrical box with the nail polish. 

 

3. Line up your piece of drywall in the correct position and press the backside against the electrical box. You'll get an impression of the corners of the box. 

  

4. Connect the dots, grab your jab saw, and have at it.  

  

5. Fits like a glove. Attach your drywall to the wall studs as usual. 

Additional helpful tips:

- Each drywall board is marked with small x's. The x side should be the side that you see.
- Buy a jab saw! It's totally worth the 5 bucks. Doesn't have to be anything fancy but it will make the process a hundred times easier.
- Make straight cuts (i.e. use a T square) as best you can because if your first cut isn't straight, then cutting the piece that goes next to it will be difficult. You'll likely end up going through the process of cut, test fit, take down, trim, test fit again, curse words, take down, trim some more, and repeat. It's a pain in the butt. Save yourself some time.
- Drywall dust gets everywhere and is hard to vaccuum up. Buy those cheap plastic covers for painting and cover what you don't want to get dusty.

We decided to hire professionals to tape, float, and texture the drywall. That is beyond the DIY comfort zone for us newbies. We're also hoping the professionals can hide some of our mistakes learning curve in hanging the drywall.