Lightweight drywall with homemade butthanger problem
In reading a lot of past butthanger posts I decided to make my own out of 3/4″ ply X 8″ X 46″ and the booster strips are 3/16″ Luan which are 5/4″ wide. I’m using 1/2″ Ultralight Sheetrock on the ceiling and my first joint looks really ugly. The sheetrock wants to snap about two inches from the butt edge of the second sheet. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong. I started by screwing the first sheet, along it’s edge, to the center of the homemade butthanger and then put my second sheet up into position with a drywall lift and secured it starting at the center of the 8′ sheet working back towards the butt end. When I got to the end edge that butts up with the first sheet the drywall wants to snap. I put the screws about 1 1/2″ from the edge and about every 4″. I did not put any screws into either of the booster strips. I’m cutting the length of these sheets so that they fall in the center, between the joists so I assumed there would be enough flex. Do you think I should be using thinner plywood? Perhaps a wider butthanger? Are my booster strips too thick? Is the Ultralight too brittle for this type of technique? Would wetting the drywall help? If so, when/how would I do it?
Thanks, Roy
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I've only done this once, but I set both sheets in place with the unit only tacked in place, secured the sheets, then slowly tightened the joiner screws uniformly. You just need enough flex to create a concave surface, not a sharp bend.
You are spot on
I had great success after I decided to widen it to 10" and reduce the thickness of the strips to 1/8th. Probably the most important change I made was to screw the drywall to the first strip instead of screwing down the butt edge first. Once I had the butthanger attached to the first sheet I positioned the second sheet and screwed it to it's strip and worked my way towards the other end. Then I came back to the butthanger joint and carefully screwed along both edges, about every 4". The gap at the butted edges is about 3/16th" now and the lightweight DW is not cracking like before.
I hate to be so anal but we are talking butthangers.
Roy