Drywall is a convenient way to decorate your walls and ceilings. Especially for garages, drywall works wonders. It saves both your money and time. The best thing about drywall is that you can hang it without any professional help. But how long does it take to hang drywall?
There’s no specific answer to that. We’ll have to consider the size of the room, ceiling height, framing complexity, cutting, mudding, sanding, the number of workers, and other environmental factors to get an estimated duration. An experienced person will take about 15-20 minutes to hang a 4×8-sized sheet of drywall, 10 minutes for each coating of mud, and 5 minutes to sand it.
In this article, I’ll try to give you a complete picture of how much time you may require to hang the drywall. Let’s break it down.
How Much Drywall Can You Hang Alone in One Working Day?
It takes between 12 and 20 minutes to hang one 4×8 sized sheet if only one person is doing it, which means that a single man could theoretically hang up to approximately 24 sheets of drywall throughout a single workday.
But it’s easier to hang drywall when two people are working rather than one. If nothing goes wrong, two people could hang almost 24 sheets in 4 hours if I count the previous average time. So two workers would be able to hang up to 48 sheets in one working day.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, I can’t tell you the exact amount of time it’ll take to drywall your home or garage. You have to calculate it after considering some important factors. Here are the variables that can determine the amount of time it takes to hang the drywall.
Size Of The Home
The total time required for hanging drywall in your house depends on the size of the house. If you have a bigger house or a bigger garage, it will take more time naturally.
If the size of your home is within the range of 1000 to 2000 square feet, a team of four crews will take about a week to finish the complete process, starting from drywall to painting.
If your house is larger than 3,000 square feet, it’ll take more than 10 working days, 8 hours each to finish hanging drywall.
But it also depends on the next variable, which is,
Number And Experience Of Labors
If a group of two people can finish drywalling a house in eight days, a group of four can do it in half that time. But experience is another thing. If you intend to hang drywall in your home or garage without any professional help, it will take more time.
While hanging drywall in a bigger home, you should definitely go for experienced crews. They will offer you a great result with good finishing, saving you a hell of a lot of time. They will also repair and clean the surrounding area, leaving no stains behind.
But even if you’ve decided to do it alone, I’ll recommend that you get a helping hand because it requires cutting, trimming, and lots of energy to carry the drywall sheets and hang them.
Height Of The Ceiling
Drywall sheets come in a standard size of 4×8 feet. So, if your ceiling height is 8 feet, you can easily cover the whole wall with one sheet. But complexity arises when the ceiling is higher.
In this case, you will have to cut and fit another drywall sheet, which will take more time. In my opinion, bigger drywall sheets shouldn’t be an option. They are heavier and inconvenient to hang.
Unfortunately, the heights of the ceilings in most houses are higher than 8 feet. So, you should consider the additional time it’ll require to cut and fit two drywall sheets.
Complex Framing Requires More Time
Hanging drywall is as simple as it seems. The main problem arises when you reach the edges, joists, and beams, making a hole for lighting and air-conditioning outlets.
You will need more time if your house or garage has multiple windows or doors. Also, drywalling around the garage door requires more time. Houses with HVAC will need more time in the ceiling.
Joint Compounds
After you’re done hanging the drywall sheets, your work isn’t finished yet. It’s only the beginning of the end. Mudding requires a lot of time, especially for drying. There are different types of joint compounds available.
Some mud dries off pretty quickly, especially the setting-type fast-drying joint compounds. They will dry off within an hour or so. But regular drywall muds need more time.
So, before applying another coat of mud, you’ll have to wait for the previous one to dry.
It Takes More Time In Rain And Humid Weather
As mentioned in the previous section, each layer of mud needs to dry off before being overlapped by another layer. But if the humidity is higher, it’ll take more time to dry off.
You should leave each layer for at least a day in this circumstance. If you rush through it, the layers of mud can crack, raising tons of other problems in the future.
So to conclude, hanging drywall in the rainy season requires more time than usual.
Finishing Requires A Day
After hanging, the next step is to fill gaps between drywalls and the walls. Also, you need to sand them, put primer on them, and paint them to give them a nice, well-furnished look. For these purposes, you might require a day.
You can do the sanding and priming in 4-5 hours. A crew of four will need another 4-5 hours to apply the first coat of paint to a 2,000+ square foot house.
How Long Do I Need For Mudding?
The first step to ending your drywall job is mudding. Before you begin, it is sufficient to say that if you are a beginner, it would be a learning curve for you.
Because, mudding is a messy job, especially if you are not experienced. One way to limit the mess is to make sure you have the ideal consistency for the drywall mud.
Now as for the duration you would need for mudding, that would depend completely on you. If I take a 4X8-size sheet as an example, I can have an approximate time, putting on a sheet includes putting on drywall tape and mud all around the four borders.
You would also need to put mud on top of the screw heads. So with all these steps, per sheet, you would need no longer than 10 minutes for each application of mud.
Typically, three coatings of mud are laid, one of which contains drywall tape. The final step prior to painting would be sanding it to a flat surface. If there isn’t a huge problem to deal with, each sheet of wood needs to be sanded for around 5 minutes.
So, it would take around 35 hours to finish every 4X8 sheet of all the coatings. But, as mentioned before, according to your expertise, might take more or less.
How Long Should I Wait For My Drywall To dry?
Usually, 24 hours is sufficient for drywall to completely dry. Even with big projects, 24 hours of drying time has proved to be enough. The duration may vary depending on the humidity and the thickness of the mud. With a thin layer of mudding, the drying time is usually less.
But if your environment is humid, it might take more than 24 hours, and in those cases, you can use a fan to help the air move around and dry the mudding.
Many people try to opt for a dehumidifier to dry the mudding, which backfires in most cases. If the drywall dries too fast, there will be cracks in the mudding, which mean you will need to spend more time filling the cracks.
These Things Can Cost You More Hours
Putting everything in the right order and getting a perfect finish is not always achievable while drywalling. Even professionals can mess things up. Here are some important things to note that can cause you to work additional hours.
Cutting the drywall in the wrong proportion and with the wrong measurement will give you a hard time. Especially while covering the joists and edges, you may need to cut them again. So, it’s extremely important to cut the drywall sheets perfectly.
Pay attention to the light switch box and power outlets. If you make the holes in the wrong place or make them smaller, you will have to trim them again, which is pretty annoying considering the weight of the drywall.
Some walls are not as straight as they should be. In this case, you may need to back the studs to screw the drywall in place. It will require additional time. Another time-consuming thing would be incorrectly placed studs. You’d definitely hate that work.
Some say, the bigger the drywall sheets are. The better it is. Hell No! Big drywall sheets can crack when you’re moving them. They are also heavier and inconvenient to move.
FAQs
Can Drywall Be Done In One Day?
Yes. Drywall can be done in one day if your room or garage is small. In this case, you will have to use fast-drying drywall compounds. They will dry off in about an hour.
How Long Should I leave My Muds To Dry?
You should give 12 hours’ intervals between each layer of mudding. But setting-type muds will require less time. So ideally, if you apply the first two coats on day 2, you can finish it off on day 3.
How Much Time Does It Require To Hang One Drywall Sheet?
A professional will take somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes to hang a 4×8 drywall sheet. The time will be doubled in the case of ceilings. To finish it off properly with mudding, sanding, and taping, you need around 35 minutes per drywall sheet.
Conclusion
There’s no specific timeline to finish drywalling your house or garage. If you are experienced enough, you can finish a small room or garage in a day or two. If you have hired professionals, they can finish drywalling a house within a week.
To minimize the time required, choose the right crew, the right weather, and the proper framing.
