I’ve been storing about 20 sheets of fiberglas-faced moisture resistant drywall in my garage for about a year. I had the stack up on six 4×4’s and now the whole stack is slightly wavy (approx 3/8″ max from “flat” at the worst spots). Any suggestions? I won’t need to use these for another few weeks.
Ideas I’ve had:
1) Move the supports so that the “dips” now rest on the supports, let it sit for a few weeks. Wait and hope
2) Replace the side-to-side supports with ones running the length of the sheets. Flip and re-stack the pile so that the “dips” are now up. Wait and hope.
AAnybody fixed wavy drywall before? Suggestions welcome.
Replies
3/8" over what span?
3/8" over what span?
Several "sags"
There are about 4 "dips" in each sheet, between the places I was supporting them. So, 3/8" "sags" over approx 2 foot spans.
Sounds Bad
I haven't worked with paperless drywall (and for whatever reason, it's no longer sold around here). I'm sure the grain runs the long way, just like regular drywall, which means that it's going to be a little harder to straighten.
3/8" bow over a 2' span in a stack of 20 sheets sounds like a lot. Are the sheets towards the top of the stack similarly bowed? It's a little hard to imagine a 3/8" dip in the entire stack. If not, I would be tempted to dispose of the worst offenders and salvage what you can. Drywall is not terribly expensive. Hopefully, you have an easy way of getting rid of a few extra sheets.
Maybe paperless drywall is more flexible than the regular stuff, I don't know. I think the best bet is to lay them on a flat surface with the most bowed sheets on the bottom. If after a couple of weeks, the bow can be taken out with minimal weight (like 2 sheets worth of weight), I would go ahead and use them. Otherwise, replace them because the extra aggravation you'll experience during taping/spackling will not be worth the price of a few sheets.
Another option would be to add enough blocking to the framing to take out the bow as you hang the drywall. Again, this might be more aggravation than it's worth.
Drywall starts out liquid wet.
They dry it flat, cut it, tape the ends and send it to you. The moisture released from the concrete floor probably helped with the new shape. You might be able to reassume its original form with either of your techniques. Worth a try.
It'd help if it was brought in and laid flat-weighted on top if necessary.
Restack it, but flip every other sheet upside-down.
I'll try that
Thanks, I'll give this a shot and report back.
Drywall is interesting stuff: All the processing that goes into making a uniform sheet, and all the hassle with packaging and moving a product that weights so much. I marvel that anyone can make money manufacturing it and selling it for 8 bucks per sheet (which includes the retailer's markup). I'd figure it would cost a big chunk of that just to move it from the factory to the store.
It's doubly amazing that they can make it in China and ship it here and sell it at that price. (Kinda gives you an idea what the folks in China are getting paid.)
Of course, we bought some colored landscape rock -- basically just limestone with some dye on it -- and it turned out that it came from China. (Thankfully there are no electrical fixtures in the garden to corrode.)
I'd do the full sheet under (e.g. plywood) and restack on top. I'd think it would be good to go.