Hung the drywall on the ceiling today with the help of an extra set of hands and a rented drywall lift. We’d gone back and forth on the best approach for the ceiling, Sheetrock lifts are really nice but it just seemed kind of ridiculous to rent one for 5 sheets. In the end we just got the lift and were glad for it.
We ended up using a hybrid approach: we screwed a cleat onto one of the longer walls and tipped the sheets in place lengthwise. One of us would support the loose end of a sheet while the other wheeled the jack underneath and cranked it up. Then with the sheet suspended just below the ceiling we had our hands free to make any adjustments, and once the placement was 100% we could crank it all the way up and use the lift to hold the sheet while we screwed it in place, saving much of the heavy overhead work. We cut the sheets 3/8″ less than the actual ceiling width, anything less was just too tight to maneuver. In addition to screws we also used sheet rock adhesive following the advice of our friend Derin Williams from Shelterwise. The ceiling sheets are 1/2” which is thinner than you’d do in a normal house but should be fine on our 16” rafter spacing. We screwed every 10 inches.
The rental was worth every penny and I wouldn’t do it any other way in the future – we were able to hang sheets with just two of us and a stepladder.
x Liz
