Drywall

[dadiOH]

It's a garage, who cares? Flat is a bitch to clean, semi or gloss isn't.

[Tony]

Agreed, but I thought the OP was concerned about how his tape and spackle job looks. I'm doing my garage also... when in the mood. I just looked at it today and realized my ceiling should look good since the fluorescent fixtures are hanging down about 1 foot. My last garage had the lights up on the ceiling which also makes imperfections stand out.

[stryped]

I guess I wanted it to look halfway decent. Something I could be pround of.

[RicodJour]

Yep, one coat is fine. Like I said earlier, if you run the 10' boards vertically, you won't have any but joints and the tapered joints are the easiest part. They're almost hard to mess up.

Look at this another way - a garage is the perfect place to practice your taping skills, so when the opportunity arises inside the house, you'll be ready.

There are pluses and minuses to any wall covering, but drywall is the easiest to repair if it does get dinged. If you expect the walls to take abuse, 4' high paneling over the drywall would be the ticket.

R

[stryped]

Wont there be butt joints at the corners?

[RicodJour]

Nope. There'll be corners at the corners, not butt joints. You'll have taped inside corners, and corner-beaded outside corners (if there are any in your garage). Butt joints are non-tapered edges meeting on a flat wall. The corners are just as easy to do as the tapered edges if you have an inside corner taping tool. They're cheap, too, and well worth the money.

R

[HeyBub]

Oh.

[benick]

If drywall scares you atleast use plywood...OSB just plain sucks left exposed...Atleast plywood will take paint...As always check your local codes...You may want to sell someday...HTH...

[Tony]

I just bought a stainless corner taper thing for the same thing, finishing off a garage. This is my second attempt at tape and spackle and with what I learned since the first job, this one is going much better. And yes I got 10' rock for the 9' 4" walls and am hanging it vertically. I'm finishing the first phase of the job now and I think I'm doing a lot better than the first time. (the garage is half full of stuff already so I'm doing about 1/3rd at a time. When this is finished I move stuff to the newly finished wall and start on the middle.) I bought a drywall lift new for $200. Best $200 I've ever spent! The ceiling is actually easier than the walls! When I'm finished, I'll sell it for $250. ;-)