I will have to bring my drywall in thru 1st floor hallway and manuver a tight
corner to go down basement steps. Worried about damaging corners of drywall (hitting floor or walls) and just making a mess in general :).

I'm sure others have been thru this and was wondering if anyone has any
Tips or suggestions for moving,carrying the drywall.

Thanks
Doug

If you think you can fit 8' sheets down, then you might want to get:
- a friend or two to help
- beer for said friends
- a couple of these make life a bit easier
http://images1.hdpi.com/product_enlarged/stanley93-301.jpg
- take the heavy stuff down first (5/8" first if you are using it...)
- "pad" or cover wall corners with cardboard or something similar to avoid damage (blue painters tape holds well for a short time)
- more beer

That's how I've done it in the past and how theater 2.0 will be done!

pay the extra buck a sheet and have it delivered there

Just a FYI, a friend of mine considered finishing off his basement, he had a contractor in and took one look at his tight stairway with an impossible turn then proceeded to go to the living room and took a look at the floor.

His plan was to roll up the carpet, remove a section of the sub-floor, lower all the needed supplies then replace the floor.

pay the extra buck a sheet and have it delivered there

Best money you'll spend, right there. Is there no window that you can bring the rock through? My guys stocked my basement through the windows. We just unbolted the windows from the concrete exterior wall and they got them all in.

Thanks for the responses- certainly not going to rip up the subfloor :)

I never thought to ask if they would deliver the drywall to the basement-

Would probably be worth at least and extra buck a sheet.

I'm going to experiment with a 4x8 sheet of foam insulation and see if we
can make the turn. If it goes in- i guess we can get the drywall down there
if we are real careful.

I guess I could always cut the sheets in 1/2 - outside of course. Just didn't
want to deal with all the seams that would create.

Doug

I paid the extra $120 to have them deliver it to my basement. I would have gladly paid double. Well worth the money.

I guess I could always cut the sheets in 1/2 - outside of course. Just didn't
want to deal with all the seams that would create.

Boy, I would do my absolute best to avoid that option. Remember, dealing with butt seams is the absolute hardest part of mudding/taping. If every single sheet in the theater has a butt seam in the middle, I think I'd go stark raving mad trying to mud the room!

Depending on how your basement is laid out, you might be able to cut an opening in the existing drywall in the stairway through which you could pass the drywall sheets for the theater. Normally, you'd position the opening on the wall you face as you walk down the first section of the stairs, so that you have a straight run for the drywall sheets. After you get all your sheet goods down in the space, you just patch the holes you cut. Patching those holes would be a LOT less work than dealing with butt seams in the middle of every sheet of drywall in the theater.

pay the extra buck a sheet and have it delivered there

AMEN. I schlepped some in the minivan for the first part of my basement build. I even had a walk out basement that I could back up to with the van, but it sucked. I was so happy to have paid the drywall company to deliver it to the basement (I purchased 5/8" sheets in 54" x 12' lengths). Cathan had it delivered as well, and he's got a nasty bend getting into the basement from the main floor. It's well worth the extra $1.00 / $1.50 a sheet to let the goons deliver it. Talk with your local drywall supplier...not HD or Big Blue. The price is comparable and they provide really good service, particularly now that the market is so slow.

I do remember that someone on this forum had this same issue a long time ago. They ended up scoring and snapping the drywall in 1/2, but not cutting the paper on the "good" side. When they hung it, they had unbroken paper covering on the outside that they didn't need to finish. If the broken side were over a stud, I don't see how this would hurt.

Another thread on here built a drywall ladder to get the drywall from the first floor to the second floor (where the theater is). He went through the floor.

CJ

Here's another option...use the Butttaper tool. It is supposed to make short work of butt joints.

http://www.butttaper.com/home.htm

Maybe Mark (BritInVa) can pick up one for his NoVa Home Theater tool rental business.

CJ

I schlepped a few pieces of drywall/plywood up the stairs (right angle turn in the middle, very hard on the walls and the drywall corners), then I convinced my wife to let me do this:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z196/pgmeyer/avspics/DSC_9776.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z196/pgmeyer/avspics/DSC_9780.jpg

I cut a hole in the garage ceiling through the floor into the family room (next to the HT) which was going through a remodel with new carpet anyway. It was the biggest time/effort saver of my whole project. I was able to move drywall/OSB from the garage to the theater by myself whenever I needed it.

Just a FYI, a friend of mine considered finishing off his basement, he had a contractor in and took one look at his tight stairway with an impossible turn then proceeded to go to the living room and took a look at the floor.

His plan was to roll up the carpet, remove a section of the sub-floor, lower all the needed supplies then replace the floor.

Thats what they did at my old house. The floor was cut up and the drywall lowered through the open joist space.

I had a similar problem bringing 4x8 sheets of drywall down my staircase. I ended up cutting the backside of a sheet right down the middle and brought the 2 front parts together, without actually cutting the front paper. This worked well and I didnt have butt joints.

Am I missing something? Are there no windows in this basement? Just pay a window guy $40 dollars and have the window panels taken out. :confused:

If you think you can fit 8' sheets down, then you might want to get:
- a friend or two to help
- beer for said friends
- a couple of these make life a bit easier
http://images1.hdpi.com/product_enlarged/stanley93-301.jpg
- take the heavy stuff down first (5/8" first if you are using it...)
- "pad" or cover wall corners with cardboard or something similar to avoid damage (blue painters tape holds well for a short time)
- more beer

That's how I've done it in the past and how theater 2.0 will be done!

+1 on these simple plastic sheet rock carriers. They are worth the $10.00. My local HD would only do curb delivery so I went with a local building supply that forked it right into my garage. Then I called up my sons to carry it down the basement! I had a couple collateral dingers, but nothing spackle can't take care of

I had a similar problem bringing 4x8 sheets of drywall down my staircase. I ended up cutting the backside of a sheet right down the middle and brought the 2 front parts together, without actually cutting the front paper. This worked well and I didnt have butt joints.

I've also done this, gets the job done and no one would notice after the job is done. Cut it, fold it in half, unfold it, install it. Just handle with care in the process.