Extending a finished drywall wall

[rick.webuse]

Any tips, tricks to extending a finished drywall wall? Making some modifications to my home, I want to add 6 feet onto an existing wall partition. It's a pretty simple job but just wanted to ask if there are any best practices for when it comes to joining the new wall drywall to the already plastered metal 90 degree corner. Should you remove the corner first and then place the drywall flush to the wall and plaster? Or leave the corner? Just wondering if you leave the corner intact, will there be a raised section or "bump" in the plaster where the new drywall meets the finished wall?

Thanks!

[dpb]

Far better to knock the corner bead off. I'll normally take the end drywall off and cut back the existing to half the end post for nailing the new to get the same starting surface plane as well. Otherwise, as you guessed, the finish work to smooth out the final wall is much more of a pita to eliminate the shadow line from the hump...

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[franz frippl]

I would think it best to remove the metal corner bead and but your new wall up tight to the existing one. If you don't, you may see a vertical ridge where the two meet.

[Chris Lewis]

Had a similar situation - needed to extend a wall across an alcove a few inches, and then dog leg the new wall out into the room - new counter to be butted to the new wall on one side, closet on the other in the (now) deeper alcove.

If I hadn't ripped out the corner bead, it would have looked awful.

It also means that you get to fasten the extension wood-to-wood with the old section of wall. Eg: build new section of wall framing, erect, and then fasten the new framing directly to the old by driving screws directly thru the adjacent (one old and one new) studs.

It'll be much more secure that way, rather than having 1/2" of drywall in the middle. Which'll be much more likely to flex and crack the joint (which'll now need at least another layer of tape or mesh over top of the corner bead, making it more of a hump than the corner probably already was).

Ripping out metal corner bead is a PITA, but it has to be done.

[G Wood]

Depending on the space available, you might overlap the existing butt end wall with the new drywall. This requires a slight patch at the end of the "butt" wall, but will avoid any ridges etc with the new run wall.