I have run into this situation many times over the years, whether I was on a paid job or doing some drywalling myself. So, I can definitely speak to this topic, as I have more experience doing this work alone than I care to remember.
How do you hang drywall by yourself? There are a few ways to drywall by yourself, which include using a drywall lift to place drywall in position to be screwed to a wall or ceiling. Placing a sheet of drywall on the floor and shimming it up into position is another method. The third method is to mark lines on the studs where drywall will sit and apply bracing to hold up drywall as you set it in place.
Those are a few ways that all work fine for someone wanting to install drywall themselves. I have used all three methods and will explain them all to you below in more detail. I do have my favorite ways to put up drywall myself and will reveal that as well. I would like to mention, however, that if you can get some help, even just to put the harder sheets of gyproc first, I recommend you do that.
So, if you’re ready to learn more about drywalling by yourself, then let’s get started.
Using a Drywall Lift When Drywalling by Yourself
Once in a while, you can buy some sort of tool to make your work easier and every so often, one of those tools are so incredible you don’t know how you ever lived without it! That is how I feel about my drywall lift. I purchased it used through a Facebook used page for $140 CD. Depending on the exchange rate, that would be about $110 USD. Fairly cheap, I would say.
The key to using a drywall lift is to be able to lift the drywall up onto the hooks of the lift. At their lowest height, they are about 3’ from the ground. If you can lift the sheet of drywall up and place it on the hooks, you can use the machine yourself with great success. I have used 12’ sheets by myself. They are heavy, but not ridiculous.
You can drywall ceilings and walls with a lift. The important thing to know and remember is the outside facing of the drywall will always be placed against the supports on the lift.
- When sheeting a ceiling, once the board is flipped over flat on the lift you can take the hooks off (flip them down) as they will just get in the way and are not necessary at this point. This also makes maneuvering the lift much easier when you are lining up the board.
- Once the board is in place, crank up the board with the lift so it is snug to the ceiling. At this point, if everything is lined up properly, you can start screwing it to the framing.
The lift I have can go as high as 11’. This means you can use it to drywall almost any room or garage all by yourself.
One thing I really like about these lifts are that they come apart. When all put together, they are very large pieces of equipment yet when taken apart for travel or storage, you could fit one of these into the trunk of a car.
The one I purchased is available through Amazon and when I saw the price, I almost kicked myself for buying a used one. The drywall lifts are such a reasonable price on Amazon. Please feel free to check it out through the following link. Drywall panel lift.
How to Drywall Yourself Using the Drywall for Support
This is what I used to do before I purchased a lift. This is probably the easiest out of the three methods provided here, except for ceilings. This method is for walls. I will cover drywalling the ceiling in another article.
For this method, here is how it works.
- Since you will be installing the drywall horizontally, begin by measuring from the ceiling downward to the 4’ mark. The reason is because 4’ is the universal height for drywall.
- Once you mark a few studs along one wall, take a chalk line or long 2×4 and run a marking across all of the studs. This will be the highest the bottom piece of drywall can go.
- You might want to measure the wall first from top to bottom, just to see what the measurement is. If you have 8’ exactly, you will either be trimming a bit off the length of the board or installing them with the bottom board tight to the floor.
- Once you have done all of that, measure your first board’s length and place it against the wall lining it up length wise on the studs.
- Lift or shim the board into place according to the markings on the studs. Once the board is lined up to your markings, go ahead and screw it to the wall.
- Once done, go ahead and finish installing all of the lower drywall sheets.
- Once they are done, you can start installing the upper sheets by lifting and placing them onto the edge of the already installed drywall for support.
That’s it! So easy to do. The hardest part will be determining if you are shaving a bit of the length of the board if your ceiling is only 8’. Most new homes are now 9’ ceiling height. If you run into a 9’ ceiling, I would recommend measuring from the floor upwards at 4’ then another 4’ which will leave you a 1’ space at the top for a long narrow board.
Better to have the smaller board at the top closer to the inner corner as it will be easier to mud versus mudding 1’ above the floor around the perimeter of the room.
Using Nails or Boards to Drywall by Yourself
I haven’t done this one in years but have seen others using this method not too long ago.
- Using the last method to mark the studs, instead of marking a line horizontally across the wall, you would hammer in a large nail or if you marked the studs screw or nail a piece of lumber on the bottom side of the marking.
- Once you have your nails or lumber supports in place, just cut your piece and lift it up onto the supports then proceed to screw into the studs.
- After all of the top sheets of drywall are screwed in place, take out the supports and proceed to install the lower sheets of drywall.
That’s about all I can tell you. This method should be straight forward.
I like this method least out of the three provided to you so far. I will tell you why. When you are hammering long nails or pieces of lumber for support, they stick out of the wall and could get in your way when you are lifting the board up into place. Other than that, this method works fine, just not my favorite of the three.
Conclusion
If you are going to attempt to drywall yourself, regardless of what method you use, the most important thing for you to do is think of safety at all times. Even if you are using a lift, accidents can and do happen. Be aware of your surroundings and be safe.
My recommended method is to use a drywall lift if you can get your hands on one .They really are easy to use. The one thing I didn’t mention previously is that they come with three wheels and the move-ability is great on these lifts. The wheels on the floor and drywall rack are all independent of each other so you can spin the drywall above or move the wheels without having to move the whole apparatus around.
Whichever route you take, good luck and thanks for reading.
