Common Drywall Installation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Common Drywall Installation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

There are far too many times when a person thinks to themselves, “I can do that” without realizing that there is so much more to installing drywall than just simply putting it up. Read on to learn about the most common drywall installation mistakes which include neglecting: edge support, framing locations, tapered edges, fit before fastening and minimizing joints.

Drywall Installation Mistake #1: Missing Edge Support for Drywall Installation

• How do you install ceiling drywall? Why is supporting the edges so important? Well, you won’t be able to fasten the drywall properly, that’s a good enough reason right? What you need to make sure of is that you always inspect the framing before you start putting up your drywall. You need to have 1 inch at least of exposed framing at each corner.
• Always check along the top of the drywall that is lined up parallel to the ceiling framing because usually this is missing. Add blocking by screwing it in at an angle in case you can’t get a hammer in there.

• So, a lot of people usually guess with this. Don’t! Try marking the framing location prior to covering it with the drywall. You will definitely have a difficult time screwing in screws correctly. A good method is to make marks and have them as a guideline so you can pencil in a line across. That way you should be able to screw in the screws quickly and correctly.
• Always mark the location of ceiling joists on the top of the wall framing before you mark the center of every stud on the floor below. Take this into consideration with any different framing so you know exactly where to screw in screws once you’ve covered it with drywall. Then, once the ceiling drywall is up you can mark the stud locations right on the ceiling using a pencil prior to hanging the rest of the drywall.

• When you cut the drywall for a really tight fit it will often never work how you planned. The interior drywall will actually crumble at the edges or even chip out at a corner. You’ll have to remove it and do it all over again… not worth it! Try to leave a 1/8″ gap on all edges so it is tapered correctly.
• Always leave a gap so you don’t end up with tapered edges, it’s much easier to fill in the gap than to replace the entire drywall sheet.

• Let’s imagine you have an outlet box and you have to put up drywall… what do most people do? They force the drywall over the outlet box and they break the drywall! You can measure as specifically as you can and often there will still be an outlet box that just doesn’t line up and fit. Don’t put up the drywall first only to think you can trim away the opening, you could end up with broken drywall spending more time than necessary fixing it.
• Always fit before fastening. After you have ever so carefully measured and cut away the opening on the drywall, try holding the drywall up to the spot and see if the fit is tight before you fasten it in place. Once it is fitted trim any excess drywall and tightly line it up to the edges using a utility knife. Then the drywall should easily slide into place over the outlet box, making it easy to fasten.