Sheetrock: vertical seams or horizontal

[Minnie Bannister]

All the books I have consulted show sheetrock installed with the seams vertical. Yet all the unfinished sheetrock walls in our basement have the panels installed with the seams horizontal. Is there any good reason this might have been done? If I want to extend the sheetrock, should I continue the horizontal installation or switch to vertical?

MB

[Art]

The idea is to get fewer seams. Depends on how wall was framed and sheetrock material available in your area.

[Brian V]

Hi Minnie, The correct way is vertical so that the tapered edges that are on the 8' sides line up to eachother with the untapered edges being at the ceiling and floor. If you do a horizontal install there will be untapered butt joints that will show as an uneven surface when mudding and taping the joints.

[Jim Elbrecht]

It's been a long time since I sheetrocked so 'conventional wisdom' might be different today.

When I was doing it we put seams horizontal for [at least] 3 reasons.

1. Horizontal seams are less noticeable. No seams at eye level.
2. Less seam-- On a 12' wall there would be a 12 foot seam. [not counting corners] Vertical application would have 14-16' of seam.
3. Where 2 of the walls met the ceiling there would be that nice factory indented edge which was easier to tape.

If you hire the right guy to tape & plaster you'll never be able to tell which way the seams went.

If you're doing it yourself, then get some black cats to sacrifice in a graveyard. . . .

Jim

[Minnie Bannister]

That makes sense.

The walls I can see here are less than 8' long, so there are no visible untapered edges. At least one of the new walls I want to sheetrock is longer than the longest sheets, so I guess I'll do that room with vertical seams.

MB

On 04/28/04 04:30 pm Brian V put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:

[Joseph Meehan]

Theories aside, either method works just fine is it is done properly.

[davefr]

Horizontal seams are used because most sheetrock is hung using 4X12 sheets. (which has the benefits of less taping/mudding/cutting). The finished job can also look better since the vertical joints can be staggered vs. occuring every 4' for the sheets whole length.

Taping can also be easier since the longest seam can be worked across the wall at 4' vs. going up and down every 4'.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I should have pointed out-- use sheets as long as the wall you're covering. Sheetrock comes in 24' lengths-- though I've never wrestled with anything over 14.

Jim

[Minnie Bannister]

I didn't know it came in such large sizes; 10' is the largest I had seen. Is the green stuff (for damp locations, I believe) available in the larger sizes too?

MB

On 04/28/04 08:04 pm Jim Elbrecht put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:

[Wild Bill]

Wow, who makes 24'? Longest length I've ever seen at a drywall supply house is 16 footers. Though I've seen the width up to 54", I believe it is.

Even SHEETROCK® only makes up to 16' panels.

[EJ]

Just looked at a new house and the seams were horizontal with every other wall having two staggered seams, i.e. one wall had full board + full board and the other had half board + full board + half board. I guess the idea was that there weren't any points where four board corners met.

[HerHusband]

I hung our sheetrock vertically for several reasons:

1. All panel edges are supported by framing members.
2. No butt joint seams on the ends (where there is no taper). This could be eliminated by using longer sheets that reach to the corners, but many of our rooms are 16 feet, 23 feet, or longer.
3. Easier to set the sheet on the floor and start screwing than trying to lift a sheet 4 feet up the wall and hold it in place while I screwed it.
4. We had tall walls (12' and 14' areas). MUCH easier to lean a tall sheet against the wall than trying to get those sheets of drywall high up on the wall.

I didn't notice any significant problems taping the vertical seams.

Anthony

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Couldn't tell you who. My brothers-in-law are the commercial guys.

We used to 'discuss' who worked harder-- me wrestling 14 footers by hand [2 guys] -- or them putting up long sheets with a 4 man crew & their little cart.

Jim