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Young House Love » Home Improvement » How To Hang Drywall By Yourself

| By John Petersik | August 4, 2014 | 178 Comments

How To Hang Drywall By Yourself

Installing drywall doesn’t have to be intimidating and, in fact, you can do it all by yourself! I was able to do our entire laundry room (including the ceiling) in one day AND without an extra set of hands. So today I’ll show you how and the secret weapon that made it all possible.

John lifting drywall panel into place on laundry room wall

Drywall Installation Tools & Materials

Here’s what you’ll want to have on hand if, some of it is optional depending on the difficulty of your job:

  • Drywall, we used 4 x 8′ UltraLight Sheetrock
  • Drywall lift (we rented ours for $40!)
  • An electric drill, in hindsight I wish I’d gotten a drywall screw gun
  • Drywall setting drill bit (to countersink heads into the drywall)
  • Coarse-thread drywall screws (I did 2″ on the ceiling, 1 5/8″ on the walls)
  • Measuring tape
  • Chalk line
  • Utility knife
  • Straight edge like a metal yardstick
  • Drywall saw
  • Hole saw drill bit (optional)
  • Pencil or marker
  • Step ladder

As you saw in our last post, I picked up the drywall along with my other big supplies when I rented the $19 Home Depot truck. I got fourteen 4 x 8′ sheets of UltraLight Sheetrock since the whole “ultra light” thing sounded helpful and it was well-reviewed.

John lifting insulation out of truck bed with sheets of sheetrock in the back too

The lightweight thing was a bit of an over-promise. It’s lighter than traditional stuff, but still not something you can hold in place with one hand while the other screws it into the studs. So I rented this drywall lift from Home Depot to help with the job. It was $40 for 24 hours and the pieces easily fit in our car.

Drywall lift rented from Home Depot for holding sheetrock in place during installation

Hanging Drywall On The Ceiling

The drywall lift was a total lifesaver (and a backsaver). I could place a piece of drywall on it (once it was cut to size) and then crank it up into place with the spin of a wheel.

John using drywall lift to hold sheet of sheetrock to ceiling

Then with the lift holding it in place, I was free to screw it into the wall studs or ceiling joists without having to worry about my arms (or a human helper’s arms) getting tired.

attaching drywall sheet to the ceiling using a drill

I used coarse-thread drywall screws (2″ on the ceiling, 1 5/8″ on the walls) and a special drywall setting drill bit, which makes sure the head of the screw gets counter-sunk into the drywall. In hindsight, I kinda wish I had splurged on a drywall screw gun because this step would have gone a lot faster.

drywall sheet hung across doorway before and after the opening is cut

The hanging process wasn’t really all that complicated – cut it to fit the pre-measured area, carry it upstairs, use the lift to get it into place, and screw it in.

Cutting The Drywall Sheets To Size

When a full sheet didn’t fit in a particular spot, I’d use a utility knife to score and break the drywall to size. Once I took my measurement, I marked my cut with a chalk line and then used a straight edge to score the line with my utility knife. Once you’re through the top layer of paper, you can run your knife along that ridge again without the straight edge, and it’s pretty easy to snap the piece along your line. Then you just have to cut the back layer of paper.

how to cut drywall series including marking with chalk scoring with knife snapping and cutting

We also had to cut around various obstacles like light switches, vents, etc. For those I relied on a variety of tricks to ensure perfect hole placement.

Cutting Holes For Vents And Outlet Boxes

Since I had started with the ceiling, one of my first obstacles was the electrical box for our ceiling light. To mark its location, I dabbed some spare paint on the edge…

light fixture box in ceiling marked with yellow paint

…then I pressed the sheet to the ceiling with the lift to transfer some of the paint to the drywall.

sheetrock panel held against ceiling of laundry room using drywall lift

Then I could cut a perfectly placed hole using a hole saw drill bit.

drill with hole cutting bit attached sawing through drywall sheet

I used the same paint trick to mark the HVAC vent hole too, as you can see below.

drywall hung in ceiling with hole cut for light and HVAC vent

For all the non-round holes, we used the drywall / keyhole / jab saw to cut out the appropriate sized holes. Whenever possible, we liked to cut from the front of the drywall because it kept the hole a bit cleaner on the inside.

using drywall saw to cut hole for laundry plumbing in drywall sheet

Hanging Drywall On The Walls

The lift also pivots to help you hang a sheet of drywall on the wall. The room ended up being nearly 8′ deep and 7′ wide,  so each wall required just two sheets of 8′ drywall that were cut a little shorter length-wise.

drywall lift holding sheetrock panel in place against wall

NOTE: It’s typically recommended that you hang your sheets horizontally across your studs. It creates fewer seams overall, hides bowing better, and gives you a stronger wall that’s less likely to sag.

As straightforward as the process was, it still took quite a bit of time. Between measuring & marking things, making our cuts, hauling things upstairs, using the lift to get them into place, cutting around additional obstructions, and screwing the drywall into place – I think we averaged about one board every 45 minutes. But because it’s not a large room, we were still able to knock out the room in a day.

John lifting drywall panel into place on laundry room wall

Cutting Around The Doorways

Cutting around the doorway was easy. We literally hung the sheets (one at a time) over the door opening and then cut out whatever covered the door opening with my drywall saw. This was a pretty foolproof way of doing it, but I think had I bought a spiral saw it would’ve been significantly faster.

Side by Side of hanging drywall over doorway with piece cut out

Since we had four total doorway holes to cut (two doors with two sides each), we appreciated how foolproof this process was.

two doorways drywalled and openings cut

Eventually I got all 14 pieces in place (10 in the room, 2 in the hall, 2 in the storage room vestibule) and the space was really starting to take shape. This is where we started, as seen from the adjacent attic space…

before photo from same angle before drywall was installed

And this is where we ended up. Again, this is looking at the laundry room from the attic, which is why you still see exposed framing.

after photo of backside of laundry room with drywall completed on inside

The inside of the laundry room isn’t looking very exciting. You can see that our drywall hanging isn’t 100% perfect (I had a slightly angled cut up in that top corner) but we’re still proud to have completed the task on our own. As many of you mentioned, the hanging part is a lot easier than the art of mudding and taping, so we tried to buoy our spirits with that info as we inched along.

inside photo of laundry room after drywall installation was completed

How To Mud & Tape Your Drywall Seams

Speaking of mudding and taping the joints, we’ve officially started in on that, and it’s definitely the more challenging part of this process – especially since we’ve got lots of corners.

UPDATE: We found a trick for making this process easier. So if you want to jump to the next step in this project, check out how we taped, mudded, and sanded the drywall (including a video)!

Mud 24 Second Coat Done

And if you really want to jump ahead, you can see how the final room turned out in this laundry room reveal post.

Finished laundry room with gray floor tile and marble backsplash

More posts from Young House Love

Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our Third House

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Comments

  1. Avone says

    August 5, 2014 at 2:06 pm

    You definitely need to purchase a spiral saw. We bought a Rotozip years ago and have used the heck out of that thing. There are bits for cutting tile, metal, glass…
    It’s one of our most used tools.

    Reply
    • YoungHouseLove says

      August 5, 2014 at 2:28 pm

      Thanks Avone!

      -John

  2. Autumn says

    August 5, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    You might have mentioned this and I probably missed this. :) But why was the hallway not extended? It looks like a little mini hallway in the “bonus room”. Like a door was stuck inside the hallway leading from the bonus room to rest of the house. I was curious why the door frame wasn’t moved to be flush with the brand new laundry room wall?

    Reply
    • YoungHouseLove says

      August 5, 2014 at 4:09 pm

      We actually had three reasons for that – so those details are in this post for ya :)

      https://www.younghouselove.com/2014/07/well-that-escalated-quickly/

      xo
      s

  3. Beemie says

    August 5, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    This is looking like progress…I see clean laundry and lots of fluff and folding in your future. Love it.

    Reply
  4. Randy says

    August 5, 2014 at 11:56 pm

    John:
    Excellent blog. We have followed you for awhile.
    One suggestion to make your drywall life m-u-c-h easier. You can buy a simple RotoZip tool with a tracing bit to cut EXACT holes around all your ac vents, lights, boxes, etc. It is Fast, easy and traces the exact outline of the box. I hang the drywall with a few screws (after measuring where the boxes are), then cut the holes (perfect fit around each box or can), then tighten up the screws. PERFECT fit every time. the tracing bit is the secret. I cut holes in about 10 seconds a box. I just did this with canned lighting in the basement. Perfect holes, easy, professional, low cost. Give it a try!

    Reply
    • YoungHouseLove says

      August 6, 2014 at 9:02 am

      Sounds really smart!

      -John

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John and Sherry Sitting On Woven ChairHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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