Every Beginner Drywall Mistake I can think of (1/3)

welcome back to vancouver carpenter today i'm going to try and show you every single mistake that i can think of that a beginner could make while hanging drywall so unfortunately we don't have any ceilings to hang on this job but there's enough boards here that i can show you guys just some of the basic mistakes you could make and some of the things that you want to think of before you start hanging your boards and while you're hanging your boards okay as far as kit what tools might you want so a drywall drill is really handy to have you could get away with an impact driver and maybe you know one of those little dimplers like some people have good results with them some people fail horribly with them you can try it there are some higher end dimplers too but in my opinion if you have any decent amount of board to hang buying one of these for like a hundred bucks or less not a hilti cordless but a corded one for like 100 bucks or less and then like selling it for half price on craigslist after like that's well worth your time and energy if you see how much easier it makes the job okay so next you want to have a knife most drywallers you will find use a fixed blade knife so that's one of those sort of basic utility knives and the reason is the blade is a little stiffer so you can get the job done with other knives i don't really like these big ones i don't like how thick the blade is i find it's not as nice for cutting drywall and i don't like the smaller olfa knifes very much because that blade's kind of flimsy so i prefer a fixed blade knife obviously you're going to need a pencil tape measure fat max is fine for me or one of the homeowner special tape measures is just fine and dandy too circle cutter is really handy to have the cheese grater drywall rasp definitely worth having chalk line you definitely want a chalk line and make sure you use blue chalk in the chalk line that would definitely be a beginner mistake to use some other kind of chalk in your chalk line so like red or black those are staining and it could come through your water-based primer so don't use those use a blue chalk and the erwin chalk kind of sucks i mean at least it did 10 years ago and i haven't bought it since then because it always failed me but there's other brands like the stanley blue chalk is good or tajima chalk is always amazing but yeah don't buy the erwin chalk it just doesn't stick to anything okay so next uh one of the first beginner mistakes that somebody could make is like what kind of screws you're using so in this job it's wood framing and we are going to be using inch and a quarter coarse thread screws so that's really important that you use coarse thread screws for wood and fine thread screws for steel the next is going to be the length of the screw that's another common mistake that people make so for just half inch drywall inch and a quarter is fine and inch and a quarter is also fine on steel stud with fine thread because the threads don't have to go in very far since they're just basically grabbing something you know twice the thickness of a pop can so they don't need to go in very far but as a general rule of thumb for wood framing i would say you should be going about three quarters of an inch into the framing member uh minimum so that's why inch and a quarter for a half inch you've got one and five eighths four five eighths and then you've got two inch for double layer applications and drywall screws have a big range they go you know like every quarter inch so more than a lot of your typical wood framing screws anyways that's enough about screws that's probably super boring it's time for us to get to hanging some drywall so i can think of some more mistakes that people would typically make okay so let's start out with this one right here this is going to be a vertical sheet because it's going to make the most sense being eight by four roughly got a plug down there and one in the middle that's kind of hard to see all right you guys now we're gonna get to one of my favorite mistakes and one of the ones that i think people make the most and carpenters make this mistake all the time too and they do it because they're used to trying to get a tight fit on things so one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they try to cut it too tight so on this one right here let's see what our measurements are so i'm going to measure at the top right here for width so it's 47 and a half to that brick but we don't need to go to the brick i'm going to be putting a trim on here so i'm actually going to go to 47 so i have enough let's see 47 and a half no 47 and an eighth i'm going to write it down right here 47 and an 8. check your middle measurement and what do we have right there yeah 47 and an eighth will be good it'll give a little space for that trim good there too let's check it down at the floor so down here all of a sudden we are down to 46 and three quarters so all of a sudden it goes in a bunch so it's a good thing we checked 47 46 and three quarters so we're going to taper this piece to 46 and three quarters so it's going to go from 47 and 8 to 46 and three quarters and the height we can leave it pretty loose so i'm going to give it an easy half inch so 91 and a half there check it here don't let my tape hit that plug 91 and a half will be plenty of space and how about back here 91 and a half is plenty of space so our height 91 and a half okay one of the next biggest mistakes that people make is they don't set everything up in a nice out of the way spot so you got to plan ahead and get your sheets preferably all leaned up against one wall if you can or one wall of the room that you can easily board last that's out of the way and then get them all white side out all nice and tidy because that's going to make it easier to do things like slide cutting and it's going to make it easier for you to like look at the wall you're going to hang and then you know get a point of reference for putting all your measurements on which is what i had to do on this one so what i did was i checked which wall was out of plum the most and it was the right hand wall so that's the one we're gonna taper so we have one mark here that i think was like 47 and an eighth and then we got 46 and three quarters down there we've got 91 and a half which we're going to cut off the top so this is where having that chalk line comes in real handy hopefully it actually has some chalk in it the corner of the sheet was too blown out to actually pull a chalk line from hopefully this one does a little better nope you guys i can't even pull from these take a look at this this is too blown out for me to even put a chalk line on to so what are we gonna do about that well we could just cut this side first let's make sure we actually mark that so 47 and an 8. ah keeping a fresh blade handy so make sure your knives are sharp i change these maybe like two or three times a day easy i'd rather go through the blades and have a nice sharp nice sharp blade so here's another one don't push so hard and do not have your hand anywhere like this so that way as you're cutting down you're not going to cut your hand all this needs is a little score so i'm not even pushing very hard i've been holding it at the bottom with my foot like this and now i can just cut back up so at this point it just needed the little score snap super easy and i usually cut it again from the front but i again i'm careful not to like go slashing wildly if you want to pull the sheet out get behind it and cut it from the back it is actually easier but usually i'm too impatient to actually move the sheet out and do that so that's why if you have a nice sharp blade and this is where you got to be careful coming up to your hand you know that you're not going wildly out of control so pushing too hard and trying to cut as much into or through the drywall as they can on the first cut is one of the biggest mistakes newbies make too all you need to do is cut the paper and that thing's going to break right off i lost my mark here so we'll start again it was 47 and an eight so again all it needs is just a little snap and i'm stabilizing my knife with my hand on the board like this if you're going like this it's going to wobble but if your hand is on the board it helps stabilize it so again just a quick little score okay really quickly we're going to introduce a little terminology so this is the factory edge of the sheet and this is what's known as a bevel so yeah you can see a little bit of light that shines through there so the sheet tapers off right here i'm not sure if you guys can see that on camera but that is for hiding the tape when you butt these two edges together so in the bevel of the board the mud has been not mud but the the gypsum inside the board has been compressed so it's harder and it's a little bit harder to snap and it often doesn't break as nicely i should still be able to get it with a simple score so it's not no problem but it often doesn't break as cleanly and in this case i'll usually cut from the back right here okay this is where the old cheese grater comes in handy especially on a bevel where it doesn't break super clean so if you want to clean up your line that's what these are for okay you guys so getting these measured is actually the easy part and if i didn't mention it one of the main things people do is they cut them too tight so this one wasn't the best example for that because it has an edge here that we're going to put a trim on against the brick but generally i go you know i would say an eight to sometimes a quarter inch especially if it has both sides that are butting up to bear drywall i'll go an eight to a quarter inch so that it just slides in there nicely instead of me fighting those edges and having all the corners blow out so definitely blown out corners like that's a carpenter special for sure another mistake that people make is they don't use the same point of reference so i'm going to be measuring off the same two points for this whole thing so i'm not going to be measuring off the brick because that's not where it's butting up against it's going to be butting up against this wall right here and it's going to be butting up against this ceiling so those are going to be the only two reference points that i use the whole time so a lot of the time people will be measuring they'll be measuring off the floor they'll measure off both sides they'll measure up the ceiling and when you do that you get measurements from different spaces so all of your lines don't line up so your openings and everything it just ends up all kind of screwy so pick two spots and the two spots i pick are the ones that are going to be butted up against so right here i'm picking a spot on this box that's relatively free of wires so right at about 43 and three quarters is a pretty good spot for me to do 43 and three quarters and measuring down from the ceiling let's say about 43 again so we're going to go right into this little bottom pocket where there's no wires so i'll put an arrow usually and 43. that way i know where i'm gonna be measuring from these ones down here when people have left the plugs in are super annoying so it's not an easy box to router out so what i'm gonna be doing is i'm gonna measure from here to the center so 43 43 and an eighth roughly and we're not going to measure off the floor remember i told you that because i cut this half an inch short if i measure off the floor my mark's going to be off by half an inch so i've got to go all the way to the ceiling it's super annoying but it's just what i have to do and that one is about seven and a half feet down seven and a half feet seven feet and a half inch so 84 and a half so now i can transfer those over so what do we have 43 and an 8 from this side right about here 43 and 1 8. 84 and a half down so this one this one we have to router right here and now so i'm just going to be routering this big enough to pull the plug through but small enough that i don't over cut it [Applause] [Music] okay and this top one's simple it just needs a little mark so we got 43 and three quarters and it's going to be roughly this high 43 and three quarters and it was simple 43 down right there so now if we remember it was in the bottom right hand corner so it was roughly like this sometimes you can draw that if it helps you but what i know is i need to go this way with my router and then as i router we're going to be going to the edge we're going to hop over and go around counterclockwise but we're not there yet the next thing you want to do and this is totally a beginner mistake is not marking out your joists and studs so if you are doing a ceiling what you're going to want to do is everywhere on that top plate if there's like a joist coming right there well put a little mark right there center center center every time you have one and then that way once you get that sheet up you're going to be able to find them again so in this case i'm going to scribble that out but in this case well we know there's one along the brick we don't need to mark that but this one right here we're going to mark right there that's our center same thing on the floor right there it's almost impossible to see because there is a line right there so we'll give it a little c right there all right next we're going to hang the board and man i wish i had enough space in here to show you guys the whole wall but it's a tight spot and my camera is not a very good wide angle well it's not a wide angle which is why it isn't a good one so i also might mention that we are going to be routering these boxes because it's easier for me it's more professional but if you weren't routering the boxes what i would say is you're going to have to mark the edges of each one of these outlets and what i would say is err on the side of marking them a little bit smaller because it's way easier to cut a little bit out of these once it's installed than it is to well then you have to fill and patch and tape the edges of them when you've over cut it and your electrical cover plate doesn't cover it so that's another beginner mistake is people tend to over cut those thinking that it's not a big deal but if you undercut it slightly like i said way easier to cut that out while you're hanging than it is to yeah i already said it you don't need me to say it again let's hang this thing so what are we going to do here well let's get it over here tie it up to the wall now there's another tool that i don't think i mentioned and that is a panel lift so what this thing's for obviously is lifting a panel hence panel lift okay so i'm going to lift this thing up and it looks pretty flush along the ceiling this wall is looking good so we picked the right one to cut the excess off and taper it so another beginner mistake is going to be fastening too close to the boxes that you have to router so i'm just going to put one right here i'm going to put one right here [Applause] and put one right here three are now gonna hold it this side's not even sagging so if i really want i am gonna put one up in this top corner just to make sure it can't go anywhere but now we can router out these boxes [Music] first one of the day was definitely a little clumsy i forgot that it had both of those right there but nothing here is not gonna cover okay next we have this one and this is live and i'm not gonna recommend that people work with live plugs but this is just what i have to work with here so i mentioned that you could always just undercut them and then you can just kind of knife the box out like that so i'm not going to do that i'm going to router it so i can now finish screwing off this sheet and another beginner mistake that people make all the time is on these they screw too close so we know there's a stud right here and screwing right here would be silly so there's these plastic tabs on these boxes and they rest on the stud right about here and right about here and when you screw too close to this those plastic tabs cause this drywall to blow out so i'm only gonna go right down here i always always get embarrassing screws whenever i film a video you know part of the reason is it takes so much time energy and attention to film a video that you're not paying proper attention to the physical aspect of doing the job so it makes it way easier to get little mistakes oh would you look at this these bricks stick out right here um well i know an easy solution to that [Applause] all right we've got another beginner mistake and that is screws set too deep so that's too deep too deep now my drill just needs a click outwards and it should be just right i'm going to leave those ones but i'm going to put another one in right here that's better [Applause] all right guys so your screws shouldn't stick out at all you can use a putty knife to test so that one's borderline it's actually not clicking it would cover but i would still like it to actually be just a little bit further in and this one very obviously if any of your screws click give that a quarter turn even that if you can even hear just that it's too much needs to go in and you need to adjust your drill perfect those will cover so that's a total beginner mistake it screws either too far in or too far out when they're too far in they tear the paper and when the paper is torn it has no holding power it's just going to turn into a screw pop because the board can move drywall's crumbly in fact it's a terrible product i don't i don't even really like it it's just it's what we use because it's fast and cheap that's our uh that's our motto in north america fast and cheap not just north america that's like the new economy i suppose oh yeah let's see one two three darn i forgot i had this set wrong there we go okay let's see how it's set now how do i always embarra embarrass myself with the drill [Applause] like and the screws there's three on the floor [Applause] i'm out of practice i actually haven't hung any board for a good couple of months [Applause] all right you guys this brings me to another mistake that people make all the time screw spacing way too many or not enough screws and i would say more often than not i see people putting not enough screws in so over from top to bottom there might be like four screws or like two screws i've seen that a lot so here's the thing that's a little bit confusing depending on where you live it can vary as to how much screws they want so here in canada on the west coast they're not actually that fussy so what we usually do is three screws in the center of a four foot board which turns into about every 16 inches for walls on ceilings it's a foot apart and around the perimeter it goes down to a foot as well so on this perimeter [Music] i should be putting them roughly every 12 inches [Music] how is the closest i should put it to an outlet so you don't need to go every eight inches i mean you're gonna have to fill each and every one of those screws so i say you know about every 12 inches is a pretty safe bet no matter where you are [Applause] okay you guys i'm running out of time in daylight right now but there's still definitely some more things i can tell you so um yeah i'm gonna go and have my weekend maybe i'll shave maybe i won't but we'll get back to this in a little bit which is only you know 10 seconds for you guys but for me it's like three days you

Channel: Vancouver Carpenter

Views: 709,648

Keywords: drywall, drywall patch repair, drywall repair, drywall installers, drywall finishers, drywall hole repair, drywall patch, drywall screw gun, drywall ceiling repair water damage, drywall anchor for tv mount, drywall repair large hole, drywall taping and mudding

Id: jfFiucVSKVQ

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021