On commercial jobs, fire codes often require seams to fall on the entire length of the framing, so the drywall must be hung vertically. Residential: How high are the walls? For walls nine feet high or shorter, hanging the drywall horizontally has a number of benefits. Most often I choose to hang the drywall on ceilings perpendicular to the joists. Yes, we are always trying to avoid butted seams, but an occasional butt seam is better than a ridged seam running the length of the ceiling, or sagged drywall between joists.
Hanging drywall perpendicular to the overhead framing members is a good idea for several reasons:. This can be done as long as the following conditions are met:. If hung parallel, the maximum spacing is 16 inches on center. These framing spacings are only acceptable for half inch regular board when no water-based textures are being applied to the ceiling. On the other hand, horizontal installations cause all sheets to pile up in front of a problem area. Commercial buildings are usually taller than residential ones.
If every sheet of drywall in a tall commercial building were to fall horizontally, it could potentially pile up and cause the ceiling to collapse when another sheet falls on top of it. Because drywall is lighter than plywood, the installation process is faster and easier with vertical drywall installation on commercial buildings.
Pro Tip: When installing horizontally, you must take care to prevent sagging under weight loads. Beams spaced at 24 inches 61 cm on the center provide strong support along the entire length of the wall. The reason is that vertical installation increases the lateral loads on the walls. Drywall panels installed horizontally increase the shear strength of walls. Shear strength is the ability of a wall to resist lateral loads, such as wind. The horizontal installation also reduces the likelihood of sagging in walls, which could lead to cracks and even collapse if it persists.
With horizontal installation, drywall can easily conceal hanging wires for lights or plugs drilled into the walls.
Vertical installations require drywall panels that are cut into smaller pieces to fit standard stud walls at angles. The potential for cracks in a wall is greater when installed vertically compared with horizontal installation. Drywall sheets crack when drilled into or removed from walls too quickly. With vertical installations, sheets will fall if the bottom buckled instead of mounting to wood structures on studs joists uniformly. On the other hand, with horizontal installation, sheets are attached to a structure evenly and can be removed or replaced without placing too much stress on the surface.
We just started our drywall business in lakewood Colorado Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge on the topic! Iggy, intersting points. Glad you feel passionate, but these comments will be heard more clearly by other readers with less shouting and insults. I'll later edit accordingly. It is important for us to keep in mind the differences among scholarly research, engineering analysis, field experience, and opinion.
Horizontal panel orientation appeared to offer a significant improvement over that obtained with vertical panel orientation. Walls tested with panels oriented horizontally were more than 40 percent stronger and stiffer than those with panels oriented vertically.
On by Iggy - buttboad drywall blocking: always fasten to blocking. No users of that stuff do that and they VERY stupidly expect the seam to stand up to someone bumping into the wall or leaning on it.
Well, they aren't durable because only drywall is "supporting" drywall. Don't worry, those idiots have plenty of imbecile friends and most of those morons proclaim themselves to be "Professionals" If Real Blocking were used, like it should've been all along, then Buttboards would've never existed. To cut an extremely shallow "V" in a chunk of 2x4 or 2x6 takes just seconds with any cheap circular saw, jig saw, belt sander or grinder and the top and bottom blocking is bridged with a 2x4 or 2x6.
Then, you'd be able to kick, punch or hammer any seam without any failure, like can be done with every single seam of the correct, easier, faster and way-way better Vertical Installation. Again, if Fire is NOT a consideration for single-ply installations, then why use drywall at all? Sorry but, Steven's point that there shouldn't be any expectation of safety from drywall's use is rather ridiculous.
Yeah, I've tried with the Gypsum Associations and Manufacturers and all they do is fallback to ASTM's errors and openly instruct that either orientation is fine by them.
They're just promoting their product's further existence and repeated purchase. Though, I'm glad to see that only 1-point of mine was confronted and so weakly. Regarding drywall butt joints that do not meet over a framing member, particularly in horizontally-run drywall, 've received enthusiastic comments from a reader about TrimTex buttboard that is specifically designed to provide a continuous backer across such joints.
More research and expert comment on that drywall approach is needed. The claimed fabulously-more-easy installation using TrimTex buttboard at butt joints of ends of horizontally-run drywall did not, for me, add-up, since in normal building framing with studs on 16" or even 24" centers, starting with full-size drywall panels in a multiple of feet, the joints should want to end in the center of framing members anyway - with the obvious exceptions for odd-sized spaces and perhaps one final drywall segment.
Comments from Steven Bliss, original author of Best Practices in Residential Construction It may be that there is a theoretical fire-safety advantage to vertical installation of drywall, but most fire-rated wall assemblies allow for either vertical or horizontal installation. There are a number of other advantages to horizontal installation and it is by far the most common. However, like many things in construction, intelligent or not people may disagree about the best way to do things.
When either of these tests are listed with a USG system, it means that the system can now be built with the panels oriented in either direction. While gypsum boards are stronger in one direction, they may be installed either vertically or horizontally on wood or steel studs.
If the boards are to be used in a fire rated assembly then use the board orientation that is stated in your specific rated assembly.
That said, there are certain commercial wall assemblies using some brands of Type X and Type C fire-rated drywall that were only tested with panels in the vertical dimension, so they must be installed that way to retain that fire rating.
The only one I could find that required vertical installation of the drywall is for elevator shafts, but there may be others. Individual panels do not have a fire-rating — only the installed assemblies are rated. It is plausible that fire could escape more easily out of a horizontal drywall joint with no backing.
I would check with the folks at US Gypsum, who have been setting standards in this area for decades. Most people die of smoke inhalation or CO poisoning long before the house burns down.
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