dry wall hints - time to start this project

boyohboyohboy wrote: ok, so please pray for us during this construction process, we sure are going to need it!
my dh is the so creative, and artistic, he can make something out of nothing anytime! he can cook, and is great with cars, has the patience of a saint, but home maintence so far has not been his thing.
we have a med size room that we are going to tackle with drywall.
the walls and the ceiling.
I know someone you said you did this in your house, can you tell us of any pit falls you ran into, or some helpful hints you didnt realize till the end?
save us some trouble?
we are making a materials list now, and looking at some home improvement sites..
but experience is the best....

the contractors just wanted way to much for a room we have dubbed the play room...why pay a contractor 5 x's what the materials cost...?

i hope i dont end up answering that question with, "because it turns out right the first time!"

colinandtracy replied: Let me tell you ........... Hubby has remodeled a bathroom, installed hardwood floors and so on.....Drywalling is NOT his thing....1st suggestion - Do you know anyone that can help him? If not....putting the putty on and sanding (VERY DIRTY) is relatively easy when you have done it before..... Mark my words though....if you can cover ANY AND EVERYTHING with plastic....When he did our basement there was drywall dust in our kitchen cupboards upstairs....I was not impressed... When he remodeled our bathroom I was 5 months prego so he kicked me out and told me to say with my mom for a couple of weeks...

Once he is up and around if you still are inneed of instructions i will have him come on...

Good luck

A&A'smommy replied: ick good luck...my husband has done drywall many MANY times because of my MIL who has remodeled two or three homes Anyway I have never done it so I don't have any tips for you but remember everything because we are going to eventually do the same to a room we have that is terrible!!

boyohboyohboy replied:
thank you! we have 4 inside corners to do also! i think from what you said i am going to go and get some air purifiers also while this is being done.
i have a child with asthma.

grandma replied: My son hangs drywall and there is an art to it, but it's not so much the hanging of the drywall as it is the taping and floating after it's up. That is where all sins are hidden.... You have to tape then float once, get it as smooth as you can, sand and then go lightly over it again. If you have faults in that, it will show thru the paint.

Good luck!

Jamison'smama replied: When you do the ceiling, rent a drywall lift from a hardware store...worth every penny---it can also be used for the walls but we have it then.

I think the professionals use something to cut down on the dust....you might check into that,.

We hung drywall ourselves then had someone else tape and mud.

boyohboyohboy replied:
tracy, can you also ask your husband, about something that is put on the dry wall after the tape and mud is put on to "finish" it? before the primer is put on?
the man that did our estimate said that there was some type of finish he puts on after he did the tape and mud part, and it was before the primer is put on....

thanks

boyohboyohboy replied:
i was just reading on a website that this dry wall lift existed, i am going to check into that! my dh brother is coming to help him. so i dont have to be involved...but i am afraid of the outcome! really from what i have read it doesnt sound so hard to hang just the smoothing out process, and for a play room it doesnt have to be perfect.
my husband is going to paint murals for the kids on it...

colinandtracy replied: I just mentioned the topic to hubby, he walked away shaking his head LOL.... Tips for doing drywall online, or at a Home Depot - he thinks that there maybe a book or illustrations - He likes pictures lol....Depending on how big the room is, you may want to look for that lift that was mentioned, unless of course he has a friend that owes him a favour, hubby compares drywall to helping a friend move(neither one you really want to do but.....) Also when you are doing the ceiling are you putting up lights ? Another thing to think about......

Let me see if i can google it....must be something like drywall for begginers...

grandma replied:
There is a product called Killz It, I don't know what phase that goes on, but you might want to check that.

msoulz replied: All I (think I) know is less mud = less sanding in the end = less dust in your kitchen cupboards. The mudding takes patience - days to do well and layers of thin coats work better than one big blob that has to be sanded a lot, spewing loads of yucky dust up. And when sanding, there are attachments to put on a shop vac that suck a great deal of the dust into the vac and therefore not floating all over the house. There is also some kind of bag that goes in the shop vac to catch the dust. It's all available at Lowe's, or Home Depot. This will also work with your normal vacuum once, for a very small project, before it is so clogged it will no longer work so I don't recommend that unless you really want a new vacuum.

We had professionals do part of our house and it took them I think three visits to do the mudding, and when they returned to sand I didn't know they had been there except for a little pile of sand on a step going down to the basement. They were just that good, and DH learned a lot from watching them. They didn't need to sand so much becuase they had taken the days to do the thin layers and apparently do them well enough where minimal sanding was needed.

This is all based on observation as I have never attempted it myself but have seen the results of the work and of the mess it leaves behind.

luvmykids replied: I'll ask DH when I talk to him tomorrow but ITA with whoever said to be super careful in your tape and texture. And thin coats with sanding between is much better than trying to knock it out with a thick coat

grapfruit replied: Tim would tell you his hint is to hire it out to somebody else

Seriously, he can fix ANYTHING and has a lot of experience w/dry wall and HATES it. Ceiling work is a two person job, one to hold it and one to screw it up. It's not hard, but it's VERY time consuming (and messy!). I've helped, it's not fun.

Masks and goggles are a must. And if you can rent a special sander for the job DO IT. B/c I'm hear to tell you sanding by hand is not fun. We patched our living room before painting and I ended up whinying. LoL I was like, "Is it smooth enough YET??"

Have fun! And take some before and after pictures.

HuskerMom replied: How fun! (not really) Dh has pretty much drywalled every room in our house. I agree get a lift if you're doing ceilings. I've had to hold drywall up while Dh screwed it in and it's a pain, especially when you start laughing! We didn't have to worry about covering things up when he would sand because the rooms were always empty but the dust does go everywhere and there's ton of it. Also when we were all done and ready to paint we got a texture gun and used drywall mud and sprayed that on the walls. That way if there was any little mistakes it would cover it up and it's not noticable after painting it and it looks really nice. You can get them at Menards.

msoulz replied:

Oh, I have heard of this and it sounds like a really good idea! Is it difficult to paint over it?