Everyone knows that drywall is probably the messiest job as well as the job that requires near perfection, especially when you’re going for a smooth, contemporary finish. So, what can you do to save time while improving the quality of your work? How about saving time on prep, or when actually hanging a sheet or during sanding and finishing? Then, there’s the finish itself and being able to spot imperfections and defects - and correct them – before having to deal with callbacks.

The logical areas of improvement are 1) faster hanging and fastening 2) better lighting for better results and 3) better sanding methods that will help you with both clean-up and results.

  1. Faster hanging and fastening – while not being too particular when measuring and cutting each sheet may save you time up front, big gaps mean more tape and mud and increases the potential for an unsatisfactory result. Take a few extra moments to try and make those cuts as accurately as possible – it will save you lots of time down the road. For fastening, definitely consider using an autofeed, cordless driver with depth adjustment. You’ll not only speed up the whole fastening part of the job, but you’ll have fewer fastening flaws to have to go back and correct. Properly cut and fastened sheets mean less tape, less mud AND less sanding.

  2. Better lighting – actually being able to see the surface means that you will be able to spot and correct any imperfections while you’re sanding/finishing and before you leave the jobsite. Try not to solely rely on natural or in-place structural lighting and instead, use a good jobsite light to more completely illuminate your working surfaces. Better yet, be sure to use a light to inspect the finished drywall surface after sanding – you’ll be surprised at what you find and will be able to correct any flaws before paint.

  3. Reduce drywall sanding dust – yes, it IS possible to both reduce all of that dust and improve your finish results. Remember, no matter how well you tape off your work area, you’re still going to see drywall dust travel. The solution? Reduce the amount of drywall dust that you create. You can do this by reducing the amount of dust created while sanding by using a drywall sander with a dust extractor attached. An even better solution for capturing drywall dust at the source is with an integrated, tool-triggered dust extraction system that can actually capture over 90% of your drywall dust.

While reducing drywall dust is probably the most important thing you can do, the tips above, when taken together, will help you make drywall go faster, cleaner and better.