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Why is dry wall hung horizontally? It seems to me you could get a better finish if you hung it vertically. That way the indented edges would be vertical and would dissapear when taped. The nonindented ends would be at the floor and ceiling inside corner. There was an article In FHB a while back about how to hide the vertical end joints. All that extra work wouldn't be necessary if there were no end joint seems on the plane of the wall.
Just wondering.
Clint
*Clint, If your room's less the 16', you can span that with one sheet. Drywall has a "grain", which runs parellel with the long edge. Running the long edge perpendicular to the supporting member is stronger (somewhat).Jon
*Alot of commercial and when ever it's called for, there's no problemo hanging vert. A good taped joint is still a necessity when that light comes in the window. Ceilings/grain, now that's a diff. story.
*It's much faster to hang horizontally as the studs are exposed at the bottom of the top sheet. Taping is easier as is sanding if you think about it. Not to mention the clean edge at the bottom with no tape joints for cleaner base install. And if the studs are a bit off no problem horizontal.
*the main reason drywall is hung horizontally is to make less taping and mudding. On a 16' wall hung horizontal with 16' boards you only have 16' of taping (not including corners.) Hung vert. on the same wall with 8' boards you have 24' of taping (not including corners).
*Clint, a professional taper does not have "all that extra work" to hide a butt joint. A butt joint is just another item in the taping process that has to be dealt with. I'm not familiar with the FHB article that your referring to, but I think it safe to say that the article was aimed at novices that have trouble with taping techniques.Your idea of hanging vertical is fine for do-it-yourselfers. It does indeed eliminate the troublesome butt joints. There are some subtle downsides, but none that need to be discussed. None of them are powerful enough reasons to trump the need to eliminate the butt joint dilema for novices.blue
*I'm no pro, but I've done my share of drywalling. I'm not good at taping butt joints and taping a vertical seam goes faster for me than taping a horizontal seam. I suppose a pro wants to tape the least distance in seams, becase he (or she) can make anything look great. With my skill level, I find it easier to tape sheets hung vertically and I get better results. It makes sense to me that a horizontally hung sheet laying across many studs would be more stable than a vertical sheet hung across four studs, but so far all my work seems to be doing fine. Therefore, if someone was less than a pro, and asked me which way to go, I would recommend trying vertical first. My mudder was a better mudder than I am.
*In a commercial application the walls are usually over 8' high, and the studs are straight pieces of steel. Therefore, it would add another course of seam the length of the wall to go horizontal. The steel studs don't need the straightening affect on the wall that a 12' horizontal piece of rock can give it. The tapered edge telegraphs through the thin vinyl base common to commercial applications. The rock in a commercial building is usually 5/8" and available in common wall heights like 8'6" and 9'. There are important differences in application that affect the decision to run rock horizontally versus vertically.If you do your own mudding but feel slow and amatuerish about your endeavors then, try using a hawk and cement trowel. A hawk and trowel may speed things up and give you better results and you won't know if you don't try it.joe d
*I'm surprised no one has mentioned the mosrt obvious yet. In addition to fewer feet to tape, the seams are mostly at a level that is easy to reach. Less neding over to the floor, less reaching overhead, walk along with knife at same position = much faster standardized finish
*I've always hung rock vertically so i don't have to hoist a piece of drywall over my head, plus i can get a tighter fit against the ceiling with a bar under the lower edge than any way i could think up nailing it horizontally by myself. But most of all, when i've finished some houses with the rock run horizontally, and there's that tapered edge at the bottom...i've filled it with mud to get a flat surface, but always wondered what the pro's do about trying to install trim on the tapered edge--or do they fill it too?BTW, the attachment is a DIY approach to stilts. They didn't work very well, but the dogs broke my fall...
*try the same idea, but with empty joint compound buckets.....turned upside down. Will be more stable....maybe the dogs can safely leave you alone! Jeff
*Smacking myself on the forehead as i type...what a good idea, Jeff! Lighter and no corners to catch...cheap, too!
*My second day on stilts I got cocky and thought I could run with the more experinced finishers. It is a long way down from 16" above the floor, and I had to patch the hole I punched in the wall. Two weeks laterI could almost keep up.As far as I know horizontal hanging in residential is because of crooked studs = extra time = money. When I hung and finished as a independent 25 years ago we got $0.18 to 0.21 per square foot and we furnished the tape and mud. Aimes tools were still under patent rights and they could only be rented at a cost of about $600.00/mo. You can do the math. Speed and quantity were the only way you could make a decent living. Things have gotten better in both equipment and wages, but I suspect that with the increased cost of material $$$ still drives the decision to hang horizontal in resdential.Dave
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