Part A of 3 Steps 01–06
Tactically hung.
The hang decides how flat the walls can get. A bad layout can't be fixed with more mud. Plan the board, place the seam, then hang it tight.
- 01
Walk it and measure
We walk every room before we price it: wall lengths, ceiling heights, openings, outlets, soffits, and where the light comes in. The board order comes from those measurements, not a square-foot guess.
- 02
Sheet layout planned to the room
Board comes in several lengths and widths. We pick sizes room by room to cut down on butt joints, the end-to-end seams that are hardest to finish flat. Longer sheets and the right width for the wall height mean fewer seams and fewer filler strips.
- 03
Seams where they won't show
Cracks like to start at joints lined up with the corners of windows and doors. So we cut sheets around openings instead of ending a sheet at the trim line. When a butt joint can't be avoided, we stagger it and keep it off walls that catch raking light from a window or down a long hallway.
- 04
The right board for the room
We hang the board the plans call for in each space, like moisture-resistant board in wet rooms. On commercial jobs, whatever the drawings specify.
- 05
Fastened to a schedule
Screws are spaced to the board maker's instructions and code, and set just below the face paper without tearing it. Loose or overdriven screws turn into nail pops later. We'd rather get them right on day one.
- 06
Less scrap, cleaner site
A planned layout means ordering what the job needs, not a pile of extra sheets headed for the dumpster. Usable offcuts go in closets and small spaces where an extra seam doesn't matter, and scrap gets picked up as we go.