Sheetrocking Traditional Frames

Al Carrell: Ever since World War II, most of the interior walls in houses have been made using gypsum board, or sheetrock, as it's usually called. Actually, that's a brand name of one of the leading brands. One of the reasons it's so popular, is that it's very, very labor efficient. A house can be put together on the inside in very little time compared to the old walls that used to be plaster walls. It looks a lot like plaster when it's finished. Gypsum board is applied to the wall, using either nails or screws, special screws made for drywall, and either one has to be dimpled a little bit so that they can hide the nail heads. You may think this is a sloppy installation, but actually they go ahead and nail it in place and then they can easily cut the excess away. Incidentally, it's cut by just scoring it with a knife, then it snaps, then you just cut the paper on the other side. It's real quick.

One think you'll notice is that many times the cuts are up next to the ceiling or down to the floor, so that if it's an irregular cut there it can be covered up with baseboard molding on the floor, or crown molding up at the top. After the wall board is all in place, the next step is to tape and bed it. Now this is a process where by you go in and you put a thin layer of drywall compound along each one of the joints and over the nails, and then you come back over the joints and you lay in some drywall tape. You take a knife, it's like a big wide putty knife, and you smooth that out real good and then you wait until that dries and you come back and you put another layer of the drywall compound extending it about two inches over on each side. You let the dry, sand it, come back and do that a third time and then even though there is actually a lump there, because of the fact that you feathered it out by sanding it, you can't even see where the seam used to be. One of the goals in sheetrocking is to have as few seams as possible, even though sheetrockers can come in and tape and bed it, and you'd be hard pressed to find where those seams are. It's really better if you can do without 'em.

Outside corners are usually covered with a metal strip. This is then taped and bedded. These metal corners prevent something knocking into it and taking a chunk out of your corner.

In wet areas, such as the shower, it's a good idea and probably required by the code that you use water resistant gypsum board, which is usually called greenboard. If you'd like to make your house a little bit less likely to have outside noise come in, get thicker sheetrock. And the time to do it, is while the job is being done. It's hard to add afterwards, because that means you'd have to come back in and add the sheetrock on top of the old sheetrock. You'd have to tape and bed it and then texture over it like starting all over again. Could make a difference and now's the time to do it.

Another advantage to Gypsum board, it's easy to repair in case you happen to poke a hole in it, and we'll show you how to do this when we come back.

Episode 013 1995 - 96 Season

| Sheetrock Wood Frame | Sheetrock Steel Frame | Repairing Drywall | Duitall Window Treatments | Winterizing Your Lawnmower | Wall Textures | Mortgage Index |LIST |

To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #013.