Drywalling closet

[cas]

I have a closet that I want to redo. One wall is plaster/lathe, the other wall is concrete over brick for 1/2 of it then heating duct for the other part. The ceiling suffered some water damaged before we moved in, it's not leaked since.

What I want to do is put some new sheetrock in the ceiling then put some sheetrock over the wall where the concrete and duct work are.

My questions:

1) For the ceiling I was going to put in some furing strips then screw the sheetrock to it. I thought about removing what is already there but it's a PITA to get to due to the shape of the ceiling. 2) For the wall I want to cover up, I was going to mount some 1x3 strips every few feet then screw the drywall into them. There already is one 1x3 at the 6' level (it holds the closet rod in on that side). 3) For #2, I'd need a 40x100 piece of drywall. Would it be ok to cut a piece in half and install it in 2 sections? Getting a 40x100 piece into that closet intact will next to impossible.

TIA, cas

[Lawrence]

Rather than cut a sheet in half it would be better to cut the pieces so that you have tapered edges lined up. Drywall has tapered edges while the short side is not tapered. So you can either have a tapered joint or a butt joint when hanging rock. If yu match up the tapered edges then the taping and mudding will be a lot easier. It will use more material but sheetrock isn't too expensive. If you match up the butt edges it still can be done and often is.

[jeffc]

Of course, it virtually ALWAYS is. It would be a rare room indeed that could be done without butt joints. Perhaps an 8x8 room, but I haven't seen a whole lot of those. This is in a closet, I really don't think butt joints are going to matter.

[Lawrence]

Sorry to disagree but I don't think you get it. Drywall has TAPERED EDGES. If the rock is hung vertically on the walls then ALL of the wall joints will be tapered except the corners unless longer than 12 feet. If the wall rock is hung horizonal then there should ONLY be butt joints where the end of one sheet meet the end of another. All other joints can and should be hung tapered edge to tapered edge. So, butt joints can be easily avoided on most walls. They are to be avoided on the ceiling too.

Butt joints are impossible to avoid on larger ceilings, sure. But, if the room is 12 feet wide or less they can all be tapered as well. However, the ONLY place there should be a butt joint is where two sheets meet end to end or on the corners. If you have a choice and enough material then there is absolutely NO reason to have any unecessary butt joints.

There is a reason the rock is tapered. An experienced person knows this and avoids butt joints where possible. That's just good planning and good technique. It's just so much easier to tape and mud a tapered joint but you have to hang the rock right. It is not any harder or more expensive to hang the rock right.

Sure it matters less in a closet. Ultimately it will be up the the skill and experience of the person doing the job to make the call. Sure you can use a butt joint if you have to. Tapered is better.

[Joe]

why not use cedar paneling on the walls and drywall on the cieling..

Glue the cedar with wood glue in a tube and brad nail the panels after..

Smells good and removes moths.. ;)