How To Cut Drywall

There is no denying that drywall is a particularly tricky material to deal with. Try to pick it up on your own and you are likely to tweak a major muscle in your back, but drop it from a small height and it will break apart.

It is equal parts sturdy and fragile which can make it an absolute bear to cut. As great as it would be to finish a project that didn’t require any type of cutting, there are very few rooms that are designed to exactly fit the specifications and shape of drywall sheets. That means you had better learn how to cut it so that you don’t blow your entire budget by destroying sheet after sheet.

Perhaps the most important step in the whole process is measuring the area where the drywall is going to go. If you need to double check your measurements, then do so. Even being off by an inch or two can mean that an entire sheet is wasted and you starting from scratch. Once you have the measurements you need, you should then mark them out on the drywall, preferably using something straight so that you get a perfect line to cut along. It sounds ridiculous to have to actually say that, but people will try to freehand it and completely mess up again.

The cutting step is where most people go completely wrong as they seem to get it into their head that they have to hack their way through the entire sheet.

1. All you have to do is break through the paper layer, as cutting any deeper is likely to dull your blade and potentially damage the drywall. As you can already tell, cutting isn’t a totally difficult process, but a single mistake can end up being very costly when it means that you have to start replacing the sheets that you have ruined.
2. You will want to make sure that you cut the entire length of the drywall sheet as that is crucial to the next step. Only cut one side at a time, as again you can damage the sheet by having three or 4 separate cuts going at the same time. Once the initial cut has been finished, you will then have to flip the sheet over, making sure that you get someone to CAREFULLY help you do this.
3. Take the smallest part of the cut drywall and bend it up at a 90 degree angle. Doing so will break through the rest of the drywall save for the paper on the side that should now be facing you.

It’s then just a simple task of cutting the paper on the backside and you are done.