Hanging dry wall and the lessons I have learned.

Dry walling is hard for a woman of my height. The sheets are heavy, and incorrect usage can actually injure you. Believe me I know there are right ways and wrong ways of doing the job, and I learned both the hard way.

The lessons I have learned are :

1) Organize your work. Don't work in a slipshod manner. Have the necessary tools at hand.

2) Keep a notepad of measurements because a wrong cut can mean a lot of wastage.

3) Do not try to saw dry walling. It really is pointless. Draw a line where you want a cut. Then score the surface and it will break cleanly and save time and wear on your back.

4) When placing dry wall at angles against roofs that are sloping do use some kind of support for the dry wall. I made a gadget that held the dry wall in place after sustaining an injury from trying to support dry wall at the same time as fixing.

5) Always mark top and bottom where the stud-work is. When you place a piece of dry wall onto a wall, if you haven't marked the studs, how the heck can you remember where to place your fixings.

6) Tape the joins with a mesh. It works better than the paper rolls, adheres better to your joining compound and does not leave ridges.

7) Always use a scraper the same width or bigger than the joins, so that you can achieve a super smooth finish on joins, and take off as much excess product as you can, because otherwise you make even more hard work sanding down the surface after it has dried. Careful joints make less work in the long run, and here there are no shortcuts. Doing it carefully first time round makes the work neater.

8) Always ensure that all screw and nail heads lie beneath the surface so that the holes can be filled and not show up afterwards.

9) Making expert holes in dry board for light switches etc., can be done with a drill and a cutter for cutting round holes.

10) Always keep a wiring diagram of the wall you are dry walling, as this is very valuable later when you want to fix things to the wall.

Good luck and I hope this helps someone to perform dry walling well.

Learn more about this author, Rachelle de Bretagne.
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