What drywall weighs and how to get it into the house

What a sheet weighs

Gypsum board weighs about 1.6 lb per square foot at 1/2 in and 2.2 lb at 5/8 in type X, by manufacturers’ data. Lightweight versions are a fifth lighter.

Brands differ by a few percent; the sheet weights table has every size, and the sheet weight calculator weighs your order.

A whole order

That last figure matters on upper floors. A living-room floor is designed for a spread load of about 40 lb per square foot; a stack of 60 sheets concentrates more than twice that on a 4 × 8 patch. Spread deliveries in several stacks of 10 to 15 sheets, near walls and over beams or bearing walls rather than mid-span.

Collect it or have it delivered

For a few sheets, a pickup or a trailer is the obvious answer. For a whole room or more, delivery usually wins once you count the trips. A drywall supplier’s boom truck can put the board through a second-floor window, stacked in the rooms where it will be hung, which saves carrying it up the stairs at all.

Long sheets and stairs

A 12 ft sheet needs a straight run of about 12 ft to turn into a room, and more on a staircase with a landing. Before ordering 12s for a basement or an upstairs room, walk the route with a tape measure: the stairs, the turn at the top, the door into the room. If they do not fit, the choice is 8 or 10 ft sheets, delivery through a window, or cutting sheets on site, which defeats the purpose.

Carry sheets on edge, one person at each end, the leading person lifting slightly higher on stairs going up. A panel carrier, a simple hooked handle, takes the strain off the fingers. Never carry a sheet flat: it breaks under its own weight.

Storing board

• Flat, on spacers. Lay the stack on three or four lengths of 2 × 4 across the sheets so the bottom sheet does not sit in moisture.
• Dry. Gypsum board absorbs water from the air and the floor. Keep it indoors, off fresh concrete, and out of rain.
• Not on edge for long. Board leaned against a wall for weeks bows and is hard to hang flat.
• Near where it goes. Each stack in the room it will be hung in, ceiling board on top.

Getting it onto the ceiling

Ceiling sheets are the hardest part of the job. A 4 × 8 sheet of 1/2 in board weighs about 51 lb, held overhead while the first screws go in. Three ways to do it:

• A panel lift. A rented hoist raises the sheet on a cradle to the joists and holds it there. One person can hang a ceiling. Rental shops price lifts by the day; two people with a lift can hang about 30 ceiling sheets a day by our estimate.
• Two people and a T-brace. A pair of 2 × 4 tees cut a little longer than the ceiling height wedge the sheet up while it is screwed.
• Lightweight board. At 40 lb a sheet, it makes the other two methods easier.

The ceiling calculator gives the weight of the ceiling sheets, and the guide to hanging ceilings first covers the order of work.

The other end of the job

Drywall leaves the house the same way it came, as weight. Offcuts are usually 10 to 15% of the board hung, and a tear-out of old board weighs as much as the new. Plaster and lath weigh about five times as much as drywall per square foot. The dumpster size calculator sizes the bin by weight and volume, and the guide to removing old drywall and plaster covers the tear-out.

Safety

• Two people per sheet above 4 × 8, and for any 5/8 in board.
• Lift with the legs, and set the sheet down on edge before re-gripping.
• Gloves for the paper edges, which cut.
• Watch the wind. A sheet of drywall outdoors is a sail.
• Tie it down. A load of board shifting in a pickup bed breaks the sheets at the bottom of the pile.