# Cannot get my drywall into the basement.



## jeremy56 (Mar 30, 2007)

Hi Guys,

Im praying someone can help me. Its seriously driving me insane that i cant get my 4x8 sheets of drywall into the basement! My stairs are in such a way that they go down one flight to a landing and turn around 180 degrees and go down another flight. Ive tried cutting holes in the wall to make room, cutting the drywall down to side for the walls (which is useless for the celiling because i need the full 8 feet to be able to reach all the joists).

I REALLY dont wanna cut the drywall down to size to 4x4 peieces and place them up, because mudding and taping will be MURDER.

Has anyone ever done this and are there any techniques to get around this?

I know a pro has HAD to have encountered this issue before. How do the pros do it?


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

jeremy56 said:


> Hi Guys,
> Im praying someone can help me. Its seriously driving me insane that i cant get my 4x8 sheets of drywall into the basement! My stairs are in such a way that they go down one flight to a landing and turn around 180 degrees and go down another flight. Ive tried cutting holes in the wall to make room, cutting the drywall down to side for the walls (which is useless for the celiling because i need the full 8 feet to be able to reach all the joists).
> I REALLY dont wanna cut the drywall down to size to 4x4 peieces and place them up, because mudding and taping will be MURDER.
> Has anyone ever done this and are there any techniques to get around this?
> I know a pro has HAD to have encountered this issue before. How do the pros do it?


Wow..that's a tuff one. I am assuming that you are talking about the entrance from your 1st floor to the basement?
There is no outside access?


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

Your flight of stairs....are there solid walls or is it just a framed wall around the stair well?


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

If you don't have an accessible entrance from the outside...could you 'open up' an area of the stair well to pass the 4x8 sheets thru to the basement? Then go back and 'seal it up' when you are done with your project?


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## RYANINMICHIGAN (Jan 20, 2006)

Pull back carpet cut slot in subfloor, drop dry wall through?


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## beer_geek (Feb 19, 2007)

If there's access to the outside, make a hole to get the drywall in and then fix the hole you just made.


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## KUIPORNG (Jan 11, 2006)

my coworker use the pull carpet and take away subfloor approach successfully before... as suggested above... but I guess that is much more trouble some if you have hardwood flooring...


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## cibula11 (Jan 6, 2007)

I guess you need to determine which is worse. Having to demo something to get full sheets downstairs or taping a mudding more? Maybe there is a way that you could get an 8ft section down but not 4ft wide. If it were me, I would try to get the largest piece of drywall in the area and then cut it down to size. If the basement stairwell is not finished or you wouldn't mind tearing out to make extra space you could do that. Tearing up carpet and cutting a hole in the floor sounds like it would work, but may be more work than its worth.


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## KUIPORNG (Jan 11, 2006)

if your basement is > 1500 sq.ft, it is kind of worth the effort to try to bring down full drywalls... if > 1000 only, it is a border line... if it is < 1000 sq. ft.. may be not too worth...


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## cibula11 (Jan 6, 2007)

I am assuming you have joists that are 16" O.C.?? If so cut your 4x8 pieces down to 80" in length by 48" wide. Would that work? If not keep going down by increments of 16" till you get something that fits. It would require a little more taping but probably only 3 or 4 more seams. (Basically if you can keep the length longer then go with that. Otherwise, you get do both the lenght and width, but like you said it will require more taping.)


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## Big Dave (May 17, 2006)

I don't know what kind of headroom height you have in your stairwell but can the sheets be stood on end to get around the corner then layed back down to continue down the stairs?


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## crecore (Nov 2, 2005)

here's an idea, back cut it down the center deeply and snap but dont cut the front paper. With two people carefully fold it in half and carry down, install as you go with a friend. If you're careful you can probably get them up and in a basement get away without taping the "break."


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## KUIPORNG (Jan 11, 2006)

*I don't think this is a good idea...*



crecore said:


> here's an idea, back cut it down the center deeply and snap but dont cut the front paper. With two people carefully fold it in half and carry down, install as you go with a friend. If you're careful you can probably get them up and in a basement get away without taping the "break."


 
for broken drywall with only bound by a thin piece of paper without taping... 

might as well cut them and tape them properly for rigidity sake...


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## Zel1 (Mar 21, 2007)

I have a stairwell excatly as you described. Previous owner left about half a dozen sheets of drywall in the basement. I needed 3 sheets for my bathroom. We were able to sneak the sheets up by getting them through the door way, then standing them up on edge to get around that 180 bend. Maybe your ceiling height is lower and making it more difficult. Backcutting the sheets, exactly where there is a joist might not be a bad idea?


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## ron schenker (Jan 15, 2006)

Back in the old days of lathe and plaster this wouldn't have been a problem:laughing: 
Hey wait a minute, maybe....


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## wackerjr (Mar 26, 2006)

There is a easier way....

I just finished my basement, and I took out a window.

IF you have a window big enough, Take out the glass, and the frame can be cut out usually with a knife(if it is siliconed in)

I then built a skid to put the drywall on( just a slide with 2x4's). and had 3 guys helping me
2 up top, and 2 down low. Slide the rock in to the lower guys on the skid you made Voila. Done.

I loaded in 100 sheets this way in about 1hour, including window removal, and install.


Take your time, and I reccomend taking the glass out of the frame, before you cutthe frame out.....not to tough to do.


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## joewho (Nov 1, 2006)

Lengthwise through the first door and down to the landing. At the landing raise it up until it gets around the corner.

That method will get you pretty close, if it still hangs up, see where you can cut out part of the wall to get them the rest of the way around the corner. Probably, really low headroom is compounding the problem.


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## mikemy6 (Feb 21, 2007)

Did the snap the back thing of course horizontal installed the bottom run 1rst with a good liine down to 48 1/4 cut the bottom pieces to size before snapping and I put a thin line of mud on the back of the cut(?)
use alot of screws. still looks good and not as humpy as trying to tape a cut vs. taper edge.


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