Bending Drywall
How To Bend Drywall, Curve Drywall For Arches
A curved wall can really add some life to a room, and also a barrel-vaulted ceiling could create a normal corridor into something fabulous. Go around your home and you might end up finding a few places where a curved wall would be a great addition.
When you are organizing for the job, take into consideration that if your using 1/4- or 3/8-inch panels, your going to have to install two sheets onto each other to end up with a thickness of a 1/2 inch. As your framing for this curved wall, remember that closer studs will make your wall smoother and more rigid.
Most drywall companies warn not to wet the 1/4-inch flexible drywall as its more likely to crumble. Just design your project with curves that drywall can handle.
The panels are real thin and fragile, so a helper might be in your best interest to maneuver them around.
CheckList :
Time (for the panels to soak)
Drywall screws or nail
Drywall Gun
Wall Prep and Ready
Materials
Step 1 :If you must wet the drywall to archive the radius of the curve your trying to drywall, apply with a sponge, garden sprayer or paint roller, some water at room tempature. Only coat with water the side that is going to be the inside the curve.
Step 2:
Stack the wet drywall surfaces together as a pile, you must let the water work for a minimum of 1 hour. If its real hot outside, you should cover up the stack with some sheets of plastic so that the water doesn't all evaporate. Also the sheets will start getting weak and want to sag, make sure they have enough support.
Step 3:
When you are installing the sheets to the outside of a curve, always start from the one end and work your way to the other end, driving all the fasteners in each stud before moving onto the next stud. The trimming gets done a little later.
Step 4:When installing the sheets to an inside curve, always start in the middle of the sheet, and then work your way to both ends. Make sure to drive all the fasteners before moving onto the next one.
Step 5:
Trim up the end just like always with the score, snap, and cut method explained in cut drywall. If you had to wet the drywall, I would wait until its dry before making any cuts.
ALLOW DRYING TIME :
Make sure you give the new wall some time to dry before to attempt to tape it.
Tips For Dealing With Archways :I would do this like if you were doing and inside wall, starting with the screwing in the middle, and working towards the ends. If your having a lot of trouble trying to bend a strip of dry 1/2 inch drywall, make some scores in the back side about 1 inch apart. You may see that it not a perfect round anymore and that your drywall is kind of jagged. But don't worry it can be fixed with joint compound.
