Despite the fact that drywall has been used since Soviet times, it has become widespread only in the last two decades. Working with drywall with your own hands is quite within the power of a simple layman with a minimum of building skills, and the scope of this material is extremely wide. It is ideal for leveling walls and ceilings in apartments, erecting all kinds of arches, interior partitions and creating other interior details that give the apartment its individuality.
Drywall is valued by finishers for its undeniable advantages.
- The material is excellent value for money.
- In addition to solving aesthetic problems, it can be used for warming apartments, increasing their sound insulation.
- Under its surface, it is easy to hide not only the unevenness of the wall, but also protruding pipes and communications.
- Working with drywall is not accompanied by as much dust and dirt as, for example, plastering walls or whitewashing the ceiling.
- This finishing material is environmentally friendly, does not conduct electricity and is easy to use.
All these factors determined the widespread use of drywall in repair work.
What is drywall
Before you figure out how to work with drywall, you need to decide on its types. Building material must be selected taking into account the specifics of the room and its microclimate. For convenience, the sheets of material are painted in different colors depending on the type.
- In ordinary rooms with normal humidity, gray drywall is used.
- Fire-resistant sheets marked with the abbreviation GKLO are painted in pink or light purple. They are used when finishing surfaces near stoves and fireplaces.
- The letters GKLV and green color indicate moisture-resistant drywall for bathrooms and kitchens.
- For finishing walls and ceilings in the kitchen, you can also use sheets of dark gray or blue color, which have the designation GKLVO. They combine good moisture resistance with high fire resistance.
- GKLA arched drywall is often used to create curved structures. It has a smaller thickness - 6-7 mm and is very plastic.
The most detailed information about the types of this material and its parameters, as well as its classification according to the new GOST can be found in the article "Main characteristics of drywall sheet».
Profiles for drywall installation
Installation of drywall can be carried out in two ways: on glue or on a frame. More often, a frame structure is used, which has only one drawback: a more significant reduction in the internal space of the room. But with its help it is easier to level the walls or ceiling, provide heat and sound insulation of the room, hide communications.
Fastening drywall to a frame made of wooden bars is currently rare, it is much more convenient to use special metal profiles. Their length is standard and is 3 m, and the remaining parameters are indicated in the profile marking. The first number is the width of the profile, and the second is its height.
- The basis of the drywall frame is made up of guide profiles, designated PN or UW. Ceiling or rack profiles are attached to them.
- For fixing suspended ceilings and for wall cladding, guides are used that are marked PNP or UD.
- PP or CD ceiling profiles are inserted into the guides, which are also used when leveling walls, which are subsequently fixed with crabs or anchors. With their help, a frame and jumpers are formed.
- To create walls and partitions, rack-mount profiles are inserted into the rails, denoted by the abbreviation PS or CW.
For curved structures and arches, a special arched profile is used. There is also a corner profile designed to strengthen the outer and inner corners.
In addition, a wide variety of fasteners are produced, thanks to which do-it-yourself drywall work on walls and ceilings turns into an assembly of an exciting designer.
The profiles are attached to the wall and ceiling with the help of U-shaped brackets, self-tapping screws and “quick installation” dowel-nails. To fasten the profiles together, you can use rivets or a cutter (special mounting pliers). There are many parts for fasteners, but with a single do-it-yourself job, most of them will not be required.
Required Tools
The tool that will be needed when installing a drywall structure is best prepared in advance.
- When attaching the profiles to the wall, you will have to drill a lot of holes for the dowels. With a conventional impact drill, this process can turn into a real torment. Therefore, it is better to stock up on a good puncher.
- A screwdriver with a set of interchangeable bits is useful when mounting the frame on a wall or ceiling and fixing drywall sheets.
- You will also need a hammer, metal shears, a screwdriver, a level, a plumb line, a clerical knife and a spatula.
This is a necessary minimum, you can expand the list of tools based on your needs and capabilities.
Sheet cutting
In order to cut a sheet of drywall, you can use a regular clerical knife. With its help, an incision is made along the ruler on one side of the sheet, after which the sheet is easily broken into two parts.
If you want to cut a curved hole, such as an arch, it is better to use a jigsaw. It is necessary to insert a metal file into it and cut at maximum speed.
How to bend a sheet of drywall
In the vast majority of cases, drywall constructions have flat surfaces. But the GKL sheet can be easily bent. This can be done both dry and wet.
- With the dry method, suitable for the sharpest bends, transverse cuts are applied to the surface of the drywall sheet in increments of 1 to 5 mm. Their depth can reach 6 mm. The smaller the radius of curvature, the more often such lines need to be made. After giving the sheet the desired shape, the cuts are filled with gypsum putty.
To obtain a smooth bend, you can do without incisions. The GKL sheet is attached with one side to the prepared curved frame, the free side is slowly and carefully bent, rounded in the shape of the frame. This job is best done by two people.
Check out the video tutorial that will show you how the pros do it:
With the wet method, the side of the GKL sheet, which will be concave, must be moistened. For a better effect, you can walk on the surface with a spiked roller, and in its absence, with an ordinary fork. Once wet, the sheet can be gently folded into the desired shape. It is best to carefully lay it on the template, wrap it with tape and leave it to dry completely.
Surface preparation
Regardless of the purpose and method of fixing drywall, the surface of the wall or ceiling needs preliminary preparation.
- Remove old coatings. It can be paint, wallpaper or fragile plaster.
- Large cracks are primed and sealed with cement mortar.
- The surface is treated with an antiseptic, otherwise mold or fungus may develop under the drywall.
Installation of drywall on the frame
In most cases, this method is used to level the walls. The order of installation work in this case will be as follows:
- On the ceiling, a line is drawn on the inner edge of the drywall sheet.In this case, the distance from the wall cannot be less than the thickness of the profile, that is, 30 mm.
- A UD guide profile is screwed along this line. Its outer border should coincide with our line, and it will be between the wall and the mark.
- Using a plumb line, the same line is drawn on the floor and another UD profile is screwed. If everything is done carefully, then the profiles will be in a single vertical plane.
- Installation of vertical racks. Each sheet of drywall must be screwed to three such racks from the CD profile: one is located in the center of the sheet, and two along the edges. With a standard drywall width of 120 mm, vertical posts must be installed every 60 mm. Adjacent sheets will also be attached to the profiles located at the edges. The verticality of the profiles is checked using a level.
- Racks are fixed with a cutter or self-tapping screws. In order for the frame to become rigid, each rack must be connected to the wall using brackets. They are attached to the wall with dowels in increments of 500–600 mm. In the future, their edges are bent and attached to the profiles with self-tapping screws. In this case, it is necessary to avoid the curvature of the racks, controlling the level of their verticality.
- After the frame is ready, a heater is laid in it, if it was provided for by one of the tasks of erecting the structure, and drywall is screwed.
If the ceiling is leveled with drywall, then anchors are used instead of dowels when fastening. Rough plastic dowels and self-tapping screws can only be used in case of a slight load. Also, when installing the ceiling, wire strands and "butterflies" are used, which are necessary if the distance between the ceiling and the GKL sheet is significant.
- Sheets of drywall are attached to the frame with self-tapping screws 30–35 mm long. The distance between the attachment points should not exceed 20 cm, most often a step of 10–15 cm is chosen.
The caps of the screws must be deepened into the sheet by a few millimeters.
Seal joints between sheets
When fixing drywall, a gap of 1–2 mm is allowed between adjacent sheets. At the final stage, it is necessary to process these joints so that the drywall surface is ready for fine finishing.
- If there is no factory chamfer on the sheets, then it is necessary to make it with a sharp knife at an angle of 45 degrees.
- This triangular seam is filled with putty, and a sickle mesh is glued on top. It is pressed with a spatula and recessed in putty. The corners are puttied with special perforated corners. You should also not forget to fill with putty all the recesses formed at the screwing points of the screws, otherwise the rust from them will eventually come through the finish.
- After the putty has dried, the entire surface of the drywall should be primed.
- After the time required for the primer to dry, the final layer of putty is applied. Excess can then be removed with fine sandpaper.
The perfect base for a fine finish is ready.
