DIY Network

Finished In 48: The 48-Hour Bedroom Gionni Thompson helps a couple turn a dead space into a living bedroom. Gionni's list of drywall and remodeling tips may help you with a project of your own. From "Finished in 48" episode DF48-103

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A do-it-yourself couple bites off more than they can chew when they try to build an entire bedroom and bathroom, basically from scratch, in just 48 hours. Enter Gionni Thompson. With some help from DIY's ace builder, bare brick gets concealed behind drywall, and a new living space emerges. Below are some of Gionni's tips for drywall installation, as featured in this project, as well as a couple of general construction-project pointers.

Tip #1: Pick Your DIY Friends Carefully

1. When you're planning a weekend project like this, or trying to get something done quickly, it can definitely be a time-saver to recruit a lot of help from friends, but choose your helpers carefully! While some friends might be eager to help, they may be novice do-it-yourselfers, and taking the time to show them how to do things correctly can really slow you down. It may take them even more time to get their technique down to do a job efficiently. You may be better off just doing the work yourself if your friends fall in this category. Also, avoid getting too many people working in one small space. You'll end up bumping into each other and getting in each other's way, which can be completely counterproductive. Like too many cooks in a kitchen, too many helpers on a do-it-yourself project can definitely waste a lot of time.

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	Figure A
	Figure B

Drywall Tips

2. To attach drywall so that it lies as flat as possible on your wall, screw it down onto all of the studs that it covers. Otherwise, it may warp and begin to bow over time. Screws work better than nails for this since, over time, gravity works on them and the nails will start to pull away from the studs and can cause sagging and even crack your spackling. This can be one unsightly mess, so hang it right the first time. You can easily miss the studs if you're just eyeballing where the screws go, so a great tip to take the guesswork out of it is to use a chalk line to make a mark (snap a line) across the drywall along the middle of the stud (figure A). This gives you a guideline for where to sink your screws (figure B).

3. To sink the screws you can simply use a cordless drill, but to save time on larger projects you should rent a drywall screw gun, which automatically feeds screws into the driver and sinks them to a predetermined depth. The proper depth at which to sink the screws is just below flush with the surface of the drywall paper, but not so far in that it breaks the paper. The screw hole should just be a nice little dimple. A good way to check the depth is to use a straight edge. A spackling knife will work great for this. Just rub it across the head of the screw and if it clicks on the screw, you need to set it in a little deeper.

Figure C

4. Cover the heads of all the screws with spackle or "mud," a liquid-solid drywall compound, to ensure a nice smooth surface (figure C). Use a four-inch putty knife and pack a dab of mud into the screw hole, then swipe over it with your putty knife until you get it as flat as possible. Make sure you remove all the excess mud before it dries, or you will have a harder time sanding it off later.

5. Next, you'll need to tape all the seams between sheets of drywall. Fiberglass mesh tape is much easier and faster to use than paper tape, which requires a coat of mud underneath it to adhere to the walls. Cover all the seams with the tape and follow it up with your knife to make sure it goes on perfectly smooth. You will need to apply several coats of mud over the tape to make the wall appear seamless after it's painted. Use a small four-inch putty knife to apply a thick first coat, wipe it flat with the knife, let it dry, and sand it smooth. For the second coat use a wider knife to level out the mud and smooth out the transition between tape and drywall. Let that dry and sand it again. Then, for the third coat, use a 12-inch finishing knife to make the joint virtually invisible.

6. Good knife technique saves you time sanding. When you put mud on your knife, keep it somewhat thick in the middle of the blade and taper the mud near the edges of the knife. This will give the mud some room to spread out against the wall and you won't leave a ridged trail behind you.

7. Different kinds of spackle, or mud, have different drying times. Drying times can range from 5 minutes to 3 hours. To save time on a project, you can use a fast drying mud, but make sure you mix only as much as you can use in the allotted time, or it will start to harden as you're applying it, and that can get wasteful. Twenty-minute mud is probably the most commonly used spackle, as it gives you enough time to work with it before it dries, but is still fairly quick setting.

8. When mixing a fresh batch of mud after you've already been working make sure your buckets, trays and knives are clean to avoid getting dry chunks in the fresh mixture. Chunks will leave streaks in the mud as you spread it out, creating a very uneven texture and more sanding work for you later on in the job.

9. On this project there ended up being a lot of gaps between the drywall pieces placed on the walls and ceilings because it was an old house that had settled quite a bit and the room was no longer square. It was difficult to get the drywall to fit into the room without a lot of custom cuts, which takes time the homeowners just didn't have. You need to make sure these gaps are fully packed with mud and let the mud dry before taping the seams and finally mudding the taped seams. This will help to ensure that the gaps don't crack later on.

Gas or Electric?

10. For this project, there was a brick wall that needed to be cut away to make room for a new window. A gas-powered demolition saw was required to be used both inside and outside, primarily because there were no other options. Using electrical power tools indoors is certainly the safer recommendation, but if you must use gas-powered tools indoors, make sure everyone else beside the operator is cleared out of the area to cut down on the amount of exposure to dangerous fumes. It's extremely important to open every window and use fans to make sure there is more than enough ventilation for the carbon-monoxide fumes to escape.