Drywall is also known as sheet rock and it is a common type of wall finish in modern homes. Drywall is typically installed by professionals. Related tasks like sanding, spackling and taping may take an average of up to five days for a standard-sized house. Then, the drywall will need to be painted. With enough practice, homeowners should be able to install drywall and they can get acceptable results. Before we do it, it is a good idea to watch others work with drywall and if possible, help them. It will be helpful if we can see the spackling and taping works on our own. Drywall is available in different thickness and some are available for specific application. A drywall is commonly 1.5-inch thick. Drywall for boiler room and garages may require only one coat of spackle and tape; as long as it can prevent fire from penetrating through the screws and seams. Bathrooms are humid, so we will need water-resistant drywall. Commonly, standard drywall sheets are sold in stores at four feet width, but the length can be up to 16 feet, but more likely 8 feet.
There are longer drywall sheets, but they will need to be specially ordered. For house applications, 8-feet sheets are sufficient and they can be handled easily. Any extra footage will need to be taped and spackled. If we use excessively long sheets for house-wide applications, we need to deal with hundreds of feet of extra sanding and taping. This will be equal to many hours of additional work. Even the simplest drywall installation may need a couple of person. It is quite cumbersome to handle drywall sheets. When installing drywall on the ceiling, three people will be needed. Two people need to hold each end of the sheet and the third person needs to drive and fasten screws to the rafters or stud. Even if two people can do this, it is unlikely that they will be able to keep the sheet properly aligned and inline adjacent sheets on the ceiling. If we do need to work alone, we may need to use a drywall lift for raising and holding the sheet. We will need to rent it; because it may not be financially appropriate to buy a lift for occasional DIY job.
A well-made drywall screw gun could also help us speed up the installation project. If we want to install many sheets, it is a good idea to invest on a good one. The gun can be helpful, because we will need to faster a screw every 6 inches on the perimeter. On the sheet’s field, we will need to use two screws for every eight feet. Proper screw pattern is needed to prevent nail from popping over time. This can happen when a single nail needs to deal with more weight. Regardless of our method, the screw’s head should be fastened until slightly under the sheet’s surface. If we have a gun, we will need to practice a few times, after we have good and consistent results.