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How to Stack Drywall on Supports

moose_head27 | Posted in General Questions on

Hi, can anyone reference me on how to stack drywall flat on supports. What is the spacing?

I’m anticipating a delivery within 3 weeks and i went to my local store and they had it prepared. Two lifts of drywall was stacked on one another. There were two supports for the bottom lift, one within the first foot on one end of the board and the other approximately  1/3 of a board length away on the opposite side. The support didn’t look proper.

Is there any risks with accepting the material when it eventually gets delivered? Would it take it shape when I lay it flat in my basement?

Thanks

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Replies

  1. pnwbuilder | | #1

    I figured that if sheetrock can be installed on the ceiling at 2' OC, it's ok to have stack supports at the same spacing. This is for 5/8" sheetrock. Not a pro here, but that's what I did on my personal projects and didn't notice any issues after the sheetrock spent about a month on the floor.

  2. Expert Member
    BILL WICHERS | | #2

    If you have 4x8 foot sheets (and note that those are the "small" sheets), standard is three supports: one about a foot in from either end, and the third in the middle. Exact placement isn't critical. If you stack several of these arrangements on top of each other, you want all the supports to line up vertically so that load from all the drywall goes straight down through the supports to the ground. You don't want one support between two others on the next stack down, that will put bending force on the lower stack.

    With 10 foot sheets, I'd probably personally try for four supports, but three would probably still be OK. With 12 foot sheets I'd use four supports. Keeping the supports lined up vertical is very important when stacking multiple bundles of sheets.

    You really just want to avoid severe bending of the drywall. If the drywall appears to have taken a 'set' -- a permenant curve -- I'd probable reject it, although you may be able to hang it and flatten it out. What I usually do when I take a delivery is to check for really mashed up corners and edges. If it's a few sheets, no big deal -- just use those for cut sheets to fill in oddball size places and cut out the bad spots. If you have a big gash down the side of a lot of sheets in a bundle, I'd reject that since it will take extra mud work to fix. The same goes for corners -- a few crunched corners isn't a big deal, but a bunch of crushed corners is. You should have allowed for extra drywall on your order anyway, since you'll end up using a bunch of partial sheets. Most commercial projects will order so that you minimize mud work at the expense of wasting more material, which also means you can tolerate more damaged sheets.

    Bill

    1. moose_head27 | | #3

      Thanks for the replys. The drywall is 4x8 sheets of 1/2 inch. I'll be sure to inspect it well upon delivery for damaged sheets. By the time the product is delivered and in my basement it would probably be in the afternoon, if I have concerns about any bent sheets I'll be sure to call the company back to replace it and leave it outside for them to pick it up.

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