# Sheetrock 101



## ChuckDiamond (May 29, 2006)

I have a lot of wood paneling.

I have to either put sheetrock over it or take it down and replace the sheetrock. Either way, sheetrock is in my future.

I have never dealt with it before so a breakdown on the how-tos or a link to a website with a tutorial would be a great source of information to have.

Thanks!


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## Square Eye (May 29, 2006)

Pull it down. You'll be glad you did.

I did this in my own home. I pulled the paneling down and there was drywall behind it. In one room, I pulled the drywall down and started over. It went well and looks great. In the other room, I tried to refinish the existing drywall. It's been trouble.

In my house and in most of the remodels I have done, I put the wall boards up vertical 8' high and 4' wide, this makes it much easier to get a good baseboard fit later. Most of them had to be cut for length. I rested the wall boards on 1/2" plywood or drywall scraps to keep it off of the floor. This keeps the drywall from getting wet from spills on the floor. Fasten the wall board to the studs with 1 5/8" screws, I put them 8" apart on the edge and no more than 1ft apart in the field. Often, I put 2 screws 2" apart every foot up the studs. This makes it _very_ strong. Use a dimpler attachment on your drill to set the depth of the screws. Put the screws in as straight and square to the surface as possible. This makes them stronger and easier to finish. 

After you get all of the drywall up, then you install the outside corner metal, if you have any outside corners. Then you can tape the joints. I use mesh tape in the tapered joints, paper tape on the flat joints. There's no need to tape all of the screws. After you get the taping done, Start spreading the joint compound. The general purpose compound will work fine. Use a 6" taping knife to start. Put it on thick, not too thick, but don't scrape it all off until the tape is visible through the compound. I only do one side of all of my inside corners now. After it dries, I scrape the ridges off with the 6" knife and cover the other side of my inside corners. Then I pick up my wider 10" taping knife or trowel and spread a good coat of compound over the joints and screw heads. 

When that dries, I knock down ridges again with the 6" knife and start sanding the rough spots. After some spot sanding, I get out the 12" trowel. I do the corners first and get them feathered out as even as I can. Then I run the joints again and hit the rough spots where it had bubbles or lumps in the previous coat. 

Sanding sanding sanding, then cleaning, then primer. The primer will show all of your flaws very well. Touch them up with compound, sand again and touch up the primer.

Ta-da! Make somebody else paint it and trim it and you're done. OR, do what I do and don't let anybody help,, never get done.


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## TxBuilder (May 31, 2006)

What substance do you use to texture the sheet rock?


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## Square Eye (May 31, 2006)

For ceilings, I thin general purpose just enough to get it loose enough to apply with a paint roller. It's too thick straight out of the bucket.

There is also a texture available for ceilings. It looks like it has sand in it. The ceiling dries out to more of a grainy texture. There are other types of texture compound out there, but I only use what my customers have requested.

I haven't textured any walls. Around here though, the popular wall texture is called "knock down", it's applied with a special texture roller, then as it's just about to set, they trowel it down just enough to flatten the tops of the texture even. I like it, but it's hard to paint because it tends to hold paint in the texture and then run when you turn your back. The guys who do this texture on the walls use a bag mix, powder form. I suppose general purpose would work.


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## glennjanie (Jun 2, 2006)

Hi Chuck:
I might add one more fine pont for you. Most beginning drywallers have a tremendous problem with dust from heavy sanding. I have seen Square Eye use a spray bottle of water on those nuisance little ridges and scrape them with his 6" knife. It  eliminates the dust.
Glenn


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## asbestos (Jun 2, 2006)

*YUCK*
I am sorry but IMHO knockdown is ugly, no wait it's not IMHO it's a proven fact. Anyway texture will cover up a fair amount of sins in your mudding. Most texturing these days is done with a spray rig. either a small hopper that hooks to an air comp. or a unit built to spray texture. By changing the flow,pressure and orifice size, as well as the thickness of the gunk, different textures  can be achived. from a light splatter to orange peel, to heavy splatter and if you _must_ knockdown. don't even get me started on that horrible "popcorn"


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## Square Eye (Jun 2, 2006)

asbestos said:
			
		

> *YUCK*
> don't even get me started on that horrible "popcorn"



*YEAH BABY!!*

With gold glitter!!

Woooooooo-hoo!!


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## Dale (Jun 4, 2006)

Hello sqare eye
Wo! dont tell me they make texture with gold glitter, whatever next
Regards
Dale


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## hubbie (Jun 14, 2006)

Square eye, you seem to be the most knowlegeable and forgive me I'm a girl with a home improvement hobby. I have paneling and someone recently brought to my attention that the rest of the sheetrock in my house is an older version maybe 1/8" and now they make 1/4". Apparently I can run into a lot of trouble around outlets and windows with trim etc. Making the job more of a cancer and a much larger expense than originally expected. What is your experience with the sheetrock old vs. new? What size would I need to replace paneling with nothing behind it at all?


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## Square Eye (Jun 14, 2006)

Thin old sheetrock is a pain to mess with. Flimsy, cracks easily, shows flaws in the framing.

1/2" is pretty much the standard now for interior walls.

Cut the openings carefully and you should be alright with the electrical devices. The windows are another story. You will have to fill the space added by using the thicker wall board. Still, I'd go for the 1/2".





"Square eye, you seem to be the most knowlegeable,"

P-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ho-hum...

Maybe the most likely to reply,,,, most knowlegeable? 


NAW! Biggest mouth more like it.


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## Bud Cline (Jun 18, 2006)

I think everyone would agree with that!


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## hondagirl019292 (Jul 24, 2009)

Hello,

I too am trying to replace the old wood paneling in my house with 1/2 inch sheet rock.  But I have come into a snag, at first it was the wall sockets and the window trim.  But I have found a way to fix that, one I need new windows they are the old wood ones and I was able to upgrade the wall outlets.  The real problem I am running into no is with the trim around the closet door and the door to the room.  Obviously the sheet rock sticks out way farther that the casings.  What can I do to remedy this situation?  Would I have to change out the door frames?  The other thing is the other side of the door frame to the hallway is already sheet rock.  How did they do this?

If someone could please help that would be great!!

Thanks Mo


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jul 24, 2009)

Hondagirl:

     Yes, the sheetrock will be much thicker than wood paneling, and so you need to widen the door frame in order to install the frame around that door properly.

     Probably the easiest way to do that is by simply having some clear fir 2X4 material cut into the width you need on each side of the door jamb, and then predrill and nail your door frame to that added piece of wood.  If your door jamb is stained and varnished, then you'll want to match the stain, too.  I would probably just glue those strips in place to the original door jamb with either white wood glue or construction adhesive.



NOW, I didn't read this whole thread, but I did notice some things I thought I should comment on:

The way people typically install drywall when renovating a basement is really dumb because they do it the same way as professionals do, and the pro won't spend so much as 5 minutes or $5 more to make the job much better at handling a sewer back up or small scale basement flood.

Here's the better way:

1. Decide on the baseboard you're wanting to install.  In this particular situaiton, where you're designing against an accidental flood in the basement, the wider the better.

2. Now, have some 1/2 inch construction grade spruce plywood ripped into pieces a little narrower than your baseboard.  The reason you want to use construction grade spruce is that "Good 1 Side" fir plywood will be sanded on the good side, and that makes it a bit thinner than 1/2 inch.  Construction grade spruce should be exactly 1/2 inch thick, just like drywall.

3. Nail the spruce strips to the bottom plate of your wall, measure from ceiling to top of spruce strip, mark your drywall and cut, set the drywall on the spruce strip and screw it to the studs.

4. Mud your joints and screw heads, put on your corner beads and when dry, hold a bright light close to the wall to make any rough spots easy to find.  Scrape off anything that's sticking out with a tungsten carbide paint scraper.  Unlike sanding, scraping creates large pieces of gypsum that fall to the floor instead of hanging in the air so you're not inhaling any gypsum dust.

5.  When you're finished sanding, priming and painting, put your baseboards on.  Since they're wider than the spruce strips, they cover the spruce strip entirely, and he installation looks identical to the conventional way of installing drywall...

but:

A) Now, your basement walls are water proof up to the elevation of the top of those spruce strips.  So, if your sewer backs up, or you get really hammered and knock over a big aquarium, or you make your own beer and you drop a 5 gallon glass carboy on the concrete basement floor, or your basement toilet bowl overflows then you may have wrecked the carpet, but the walls won't need any work.

B) Now, you have solid wood behind the baseboard, ergo you don't have to use longer (pronounced "thicker") nails to put your baseboard on.  So it makes it easier to both install and remove your baseboard those times when you want to replace your flooring.

This is how I rebuilt the bottoms of the walls in my sister's house after a super heavy rain caused her basement floor drain to back up and flood her basement.

And, most people aren't aware that Georgia Pacific "DensShield" which is a gypsum based water proof board is also available in 4 foot by 8 foot by 1/2 inch thick sheets.  So, if you really wanna design against the Mother of all Sewer Backups, you can install your drywall horizontally and use DensShield for the bottom course.  4X8 sheets cost about $50 each here in Winnipeg about 10 years ago.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jul 24, 2009)

Other things people should know about drywalling, but often don't:

1. There are 3 different kinds of premixed joint compounds;
"Regular" or "Taping" joint compounds have the most glue in them so they stick the best but are hardest to sand smooth.  "Finish" or "Topping" joint compounds have the least glue in them and therefore dry soft and easy to sand.  They are intended for the top coat of mud which is sanded smooth.  "All Purpose" joint compound is a half way compromize between Taping and Topping joint compounds cuz the drywall contractor doesn't want to carry two boxes of compound to do repair work when he can get the job done with only one.

2. Ask to see a "curved trowel" at your hardware store.  A curved trowel looks just like a regular 11 inch plastering trowel until you sight along it's edge and notice that it's curved so that if you put it down on a flat surface it'll arch upward about 1/8 of an inch in the middle.  Since you hold the trowel at a comfortable angle to the wall when working with it, a curved trowel allows you to spread a perfectly symmetric and smooth "mound" of joint compound on the wall that's about 1/16th inch deep at the middle.  This is more than enough depth to cover the paper or fiberglass mesh tape you have on "butt" joints (where you don't have a contoured edge on both sides of the joint to bury your tape in), but it's so shallow that no one would ever detect that "bump", even with wall mounted lighting fixtures.

3. And, if you buy premixed joint compound, don't be scared to thin it by mixing water into it.  Any place that sells and repairs small appliances will give you worn out kitchen mixer blades that fit in an electric drill to make a handy drywall joint compound mixer.  Mix your mud inside a cardboard box so that the joint compound that flies off the spinning mixer blade will be contained inside the box.

4. Using a tungsten carbide paint scraper to scrape down rough joint compound works better and faster than sanding it down with a sanding screen.  But, always always always work with a bright light close to the wall when spreading, scraping or sanding joint compound.  The critical lighting angle will make the joint compound look rougher than it really is, giving you a much better mental picture of where you need to add and remove compound to get a smooth surface.  When it looks OK under such critical lighting, it'll look perfect under normal lighting.

5. When you do sand, use a sanding screen instead of sandpaper and buy some machinists Scotchbrite pad from any place that sells machining equipment and supplies.  Machinists use 3M Scotchbrite pads in various grits to polish metals after machining them, especially on rapidly turning machinging equipment like a lathe.  These machinists pads are much larger than the small white or green pads you see in hardware and grocery stores and can be cut down to fit behind a standard drywall sanding screen.  Having that Scotchbrite pad behind the sanding screen makes the sanding go much faster because the sanding dust goes through the screen and into the Scotchbrite pad instead of clogging up the screen.

6. Believe it or not, a 4 X 8 foot sheet of drywall is a little stronger in the lengthwise dimension than the widthwise dimension.  That's because the wood fibers tend to align themselves in this direction when fed into the paper making machine.  Professional drywallers install longer sheets of drywall (12 feet long) horizontally only to reduce the number of drywall joints they have to do, not to make the wall any stronger.

7. The reason why drywall is rigid (considering what it's made of) is easiest to understand if you consider a deck of playing cards.  It's easy to bend a deck of playing cards because each card only bends, and none of them have to stretch.  If you glue all the cards together, then that deck becomes much more rigid and harder to bend BECAUSE for the deck to bend now, then the card(s) on the outside of the deck have to stretch to accomodate the new shape of the deck.  (Prior to gluing, no card had to stretch to bend the deck.)  That's exactly the same principle that makes drywall so strong considering it's made of gypsum powder and paper.  In order for drywall to bend, then the paper on either side of the drywall has to stretch.  Paper is quite strong in tension, and it the high strength of paper in tension that results in drywall being rigid and strong.


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