Like many home improvement projects, hanging drywall is one half art, one half science and one half luck.

I learned this first-hand as I completed hanging the drywall in my first real full room renovation. I’ve mentioned before that I’m refinishing a room in my basement that was framed out and paneled years ago. It even has a permanent drywall popcorn ceiling, which I may eventually remove, but that will come at a later time. To remodel this room I decided the 70’s were over and I wanted to get rid of the paneling.

My first idea was to rip down all the paneling and then put up drywall in it’s place. But I didn’t really want to spend all the time cutting up large paneling pieces, so my next idea was to paint the paneling a lighter color. I quickly shelved that idea when I realized that paint doesn’t stick to paneling very well and, really, it just ended up looking like painted paneling. So I went back to drywall, but decided to simply attach the drywall right over the paneling. The framing was in good condition, the paneling was in good condition, so everything was good for moving forward.

I measured carefully and used a drywall saw to cut out this area to fit over a vent in the wall.

Putting drywall up against another wall (whether it be made of wood, paneling or even other drywall) is only a little different from putting it up against an open frame. When you have an open frame of wood or metal you can be pretty sure that you’re nailing or screwing the drywall into the studs of the frame. When you’re putting drywall up over an existing wall you might be a little less sure at times about what you’re really attaching things to.

Drywall is also known as gypsum board, wallboard, plasterboard, Sheetrock (trademarked name) or even “rock” but it’s all mostly the same idea: it provides a smooth wall surface that’s relatively easy to install in a number of different places. Before modern drywall was used in homes most walls were made smooth by running strips of wood (laths) over studs and then plaster was applied to the laths and smoothed out. These days there are all sorts of specialized drywall materials that offer extra sound proofing, extra fireproofing, mold resistance, greater flexibility for curved walls and even protection from interferring radio waves.

First, a couple things to remember when you’re working with drywall:

Drywall Sheets Are Heavy and Bulky: I only put up walls, no ceilings, in this project and there were times when my arms were killing me and I was pretty sure I was going to be squashed. Depending upon the thickness a single 8 foot by 4 foot drywall piece can weigh anywhere from 60 to 80 pounds per sheet. The heaviness is compounded by the bulkiness of most drywall sheets, so it’s usually helpful to have another person around to help you move drywall around if at all possible.

Drywall is Brittle: It’s not exactly like a pane of glass, but it’s close. The thinner your drywall sheets, the more brittle they are and prone to cracking. Thinner Sheetrock sheets that are 1/4 inch or so in thickness can actually crack in half as a result of their own weight sometimes. For my basement remodeling project I went with the more traditional 1/2 drywall panels. They were heavier, but they were also a little sturdier.

Your Drywall Doesn’t Have To Look Perfect: Remember that when you’re putting up Sheetrock that’s it’s ultimately going to all be hidden beneath layers of joint compound, plaster, primer and paint. If you have a scuff or scratch or even a dent or ding in one of your drywall sheets it’s perfectly okay. If you’re hanging drywall and you end up with a small gap in one area, that’s okay. You’re going to end up doing a lot of finishing work and you’ll have a chance to hide a lot of blemishes and imperfections.

The act of putting up drywall is pretty simple on paper:

1. Measure the wall area and cut the drywall to the desired size (including leaving space for outlets and switch boxes)
2. Attach the drywall to the studs or wall frame with screws or nails.
3. Repeat.

After hanging all your drywall you’ll have to finish it, but that’s another whole process. You generally want to hang all your drywall at once time before you even think about moving on to finishing.

There are hundreds of different specialty drywall hanging tools, but generally you’ll need a tape measure, a heavy duty razor with plenty of extra blades, a drill for driving in screws and a drywall saw or some other means to cut out parts of drywall. If you have wood studs you can hang drywall with a hammer and nails, but most people seem to use a drill and screws these days. When you’re choosing drywall screws, you want them to be at least 1/2 inch longer than the drywall is thick. So you’d generally use a 1″ screw to hang 1/2 inch thick drywall. You’d use a longer screw for thicker drywall.

A quality drywall saw will really help you cut out inserts for vents, electrical outlets and light switches.

Measuring and Cutting Drywall

When you first approach any drywall project you’re going to have to make a decision about how to hang your drywall in the most efficient manner. That means you should try get the most coverage out of the least number of sheets of drywall. For most average height rooms you’ll want to put up drywall horizontally, with the 8 foot edge measuring across and the 4 foot size measuring down (like printing things in “landscape” mode on paper). My basement room has a ceiling that is only about 7 feet high, so I opted for hanging my drywall vertically. This meant that I was only cutting off a 1 foot by 4 foot piece out of every sheet instead of a 1 foot by 8 foot piece (just trust me… I saved drywall this way).

To start you’ll want to measure the area that you want to put your first piece of drywall. Then measure it again. And, yes, one more time. Even when I was hanging my drywall vertically I would measure the up and down and I would sometimes have measures that were lower or higher by about a half in or so from the ceiling to floor. My home is about 50 years old and the room in my basement was probably framed out at least 30 years ago, so there’s been a little sagging and shifting over the years.

There’s one more key to measuring: knock off about a a 1/2 inch or so from your measurement from floor to ceiling. When you’re hanging drywall most professionals suggest hanging your drywall so there’s a little gap between the drywall and the floor. You generally don’t want your drywall to touch any part of the floor for a couple reasons: First, leaving a little room helps when you’re putting down some sort of flooring like carpeting, tile or even laminate padding. Second, it helps with moisture control. Drywall is like a sponge and if you have a little moisture on the floor and it get in contact with the drywall, the moisture will actually be sucked into the drywall and could eventually have mold issues.

How to you easily get a gap of 1/2 or so at the floor level when you’re hanging drywall? You just rest your drywall sheet on a few scrap pieces of drywall on the floor. Once your drywall is attached you just yank out the scrap pieces, and you’ll have your even gap along the bottom. Once you’re done finishing the wall you can install baseboards to hide the gap completely.

Cutting A Straight Line Across Sheetrock

Straight line cuts with Sheetrock is easy: just score it on the line, snap it, and slice the paper on the other side.

If you need to cut a straight line all the way across a piece of drywall there’s actually a pretty clever way to do it. First, mark your line from one edge of your drywall sheet to another. This is best done on the front side. Next, use a razor and slowly score the front of drywall all the way across the line. You basically want to cut the paper along the line completely.

Now you can stand the sheet of drywall on it’s side or edge and apply a little pressure against the score. If the cut is deep enough then the gypsum should snap pretty nicely and with a wonderfully clean line. The paper on the back side of the drywall will still be holding on, so you can just take your razor down that as well.

Cutting Out Inserts from Sheetrock

If you have an electrical outlet or light switch or something to work around then you’re going to want to be especially careful with measuring. There are a couple ways to do measure and cut out holes, but here’s what I did when I wanted to cut out a spot for an electrical outlet in my Sheetrock before I put it up:

1. Measure from a “known” edge to the center of the outlet with your tape measure. In my case I was always able to measure from another piece of drywall that was already attached. So I would measure and find that the center of the outlet was 13 inches away from the wall. I would then repeat this from another known edge, which was always the floor in my case. In most cases the center of my outlets were about 19 inches high.

2. I would then go to a new piece of drywall and measure 13 inches from the edge and 19 inches high from the bottom and put a little mark with a pencil.

3. Then I went back to the outlet and took measurements from the center of the outlet to the edge of the outlet.

4. I would go back to my drywall piece and mark those measurements around the center mark that I’d put on previously.

5. I would then lightly draw straight lines on the edges, making a fairly accurate sketch of where the outlet box should be.

6. I would then check my measurements by going back to the wall and measuring from a known edge to a specific edge of the outlet box. I would take that measurement and compare it to the drawing I had on the drywall. If it was within 1/16th of an inch or so I figured I was pretty close and went with it.

7. I then used a manual drywall saw to cut out the rectangle out of the middle of the sheet of drywall. Drywall saws are pretty easy to use, but the key is to go slowly and with deliberate pressure. I just pushed the saw into the drywall at one top corner of my little sketched out box and started sawing back and forth, steadily pushing down. Keep going all the way around the box and just push it out when you’re done.

Hanging the Drywall

Drywall drill bits prevent drywall screws from going in too deep and tearing the drywall paper.

Now that your drywall is measured and cut to size you’re finally ready to actually, you know, put some up! But one more word of caution: when you’re driving in drywall screws or banging in nails you have to be extremely careful about the possibility of hitting pipes or electrical conduit that’s run between the studs. There are electrical wire detectors and electronic stud finders that can

Before you do, though, you have to think about how this is going to work: you’ll want to attach your drywall to studs in the wall, not just the space between the studs or the wall that might be behind it. You’ll want to mark where the studs are before you go putting that Sheetrock up.

Now, if you have exposed framing then it’s pretty obvious where the studs are: you can more than likely see them. If you’re putting your drywall up over an existing wall you might want to use some quick tricks for finding studs in walls before you keep going. Once you find those studs, mark their position with chalk or piece of painter’s tape on the ceiling or floor. When you put up your new drywall you can look at the ceiling or floor and draw a mental line up or down the wall, showing you where to drive your nails or screws. Again, I much prefer screws. I’ve been told that building codes in some areas actually dictate whether you need to use nails or screws and how many to use per sheet. I didn’t lose too much sleep over that.

If you’re hanging your Sheetrock horizontally, plan to do the bottom row around the room first. Place your drywall on a few scrap pieces of Sheetrock that are on the floor (so you’ll have that 1/2 gap at the bottom) and position your drywall sheet against the wall or studs and try to make it as square as possible.

You’ll also want to be mindful of how you’re putting one sheet of drywall up beside another. Most types of Sheetrock have a slightly (almost unnoticeable) tapered edge along the the “long” side of each 4 x 8 sheet. These tapered edges should be put against one another and will help make a very slight “valley” between the two sheets of drywall. That valley is crucial because when you’re finishing the walls you’ll end up putting joint compound and tape and more joint compound over that gap and in the valley. The tape and joint compound should fill the valley “up” and make it even with the rest of the wall. If you do it right your entire wall will be even and flat (with no “valleys” or “mountains”) and a solid coat of paint will make your wall completely smooth.

When you’re sure it’s tight and ready to go you can grab your drill and start driving screws through the drywall and into the studs. I like to put one screw into each corner of a piece of Sheetrock so I can then let go of it for a moment and start driving screws into the middle.

There’s no exact amount of screws or nails you should put into a piece of drywall, but you’ll probably want to err on the side of caution. The standard building code requirement is to place a screw or nail every 12″ down on the studs at the center of a piece of drywall and 6″ apart on the studs that line the end of a piece of drywall. That works out to about 42 or so screws for each sheet of drywall.

Here’s the finished piece of drywall attached to the studs. I need to add more screws and repeat the whole process until my paneled walls are completely covered with Sheetrock.

Whether you’re driving nails or using screws, there’s definitely a wrong and right way put them into drywall. You want to make sure your screw head or nail head is set below the surface of the drywall surface but you also want to be sure it isn’t so deep that the paper is broken on the drywall sheet. So, your nail or screw should be deep, but not too deep.

I don’t like nails because if you do put them in too deep they’re nearly impossible to get out. If you happen to drive a screw in too far you can usually just reverse it right back out. For screws you can also use a handy little drywall drill bit that helps prevent screws from driving in too far. I used one and it made driving in screws pretty much effortless and worry-free.

If you’re hanging drywall horizontally you’ll want to work your way around the bottom of the room and then come back and do the upper levels of the room. If you have little half walls or small areas around windows or above doors to install drywall you might want to leave them for the end. Anything that would take less than a half sheet of Sheetrock I saved until the end of the job and then I found I was able to actually creatively cut a few pieces and had very little wasted drywall when all was said and done.

And while it’s good to think that every room will be perfectly even and square, that just isn’t the case. As I was putting Sheetrock up around the room in my basement I found that in some places the walls were simply not 100% even or straight. In a few cases the top of the drywall sheet ended up being a 1/2 inch wider than the bottom of the sheet, just to accommodate how the other wall of an interior corner.

When you’re done hanging your drywall you’ll inevitably have a few gaps and a few uneven spots. Most blemishes, gaps and little flaws in your drywall hanging job can be taken care of when you move on to the next step: finishing your drywall!