It’s kind of surprising how many people want to do small home improvement projects that require drywall, but pay out big money to have someone else do it. Know how to cut and hang your own drywall (sheetrock) is very gratifying and it will save you a lot of money.

At your local home improvement store, you’ll probably find the drywall is fairly cheap and so are all the tools that come along with it.

There are several ways to cut drywall: saw, dremel tool, razor, knife, and so on.

I prefer to simply use a razor followed by a rasp.

The most important part about cutting is having all your measurements marked correctly. Even if you are using a T-Square. Remember the old advice, check twice, cut once.

Once you’ve marked your drywall and drawn your line for the cut, double check to make sure you have it elevated slightly off the floor. Simply place a 2×4 under the sheetrock. That way, when you get to the end, you don’t accidentally, bring your razor off the sheet and cut into your carpet or hardwoods. (It happens all the time).

You don’t have to cut very deep into the drywall, simply score it with about 1/8 of an inch if the razor.

Once that’s done, bend the drywall at the seam of the cut, you’ll find that it should break along the line rather easily.

After that, finish the cut by running your razor down the seam of the bend on the back side (brown side).

Use your rasp to smooth down the cut sides. Most people tend to want to take their razor to it. You’ll find that it doesn’t work all that well.

If you go to hand the sheet rock and find that a hair needs to be trimmed, use the rasp to help with that. Too much rasping is messy, but it beats bending over to make another cut.

Tags: Do it yourself // 1 Comment »