Warning: never hang drywall parallel on a ceiling joist in a 1970s house

Bought a flip in Denver last spring, hung the sheets longways on the joists like I always do, and the whole damn ceiling sagged 2 inches by summer because the joists were 26 inches apart not 24 - anyone else run into weird spacing in old houses?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.anna15h ago

Respectfully, I gotta push back on this one. Hanging parallel to joists is standard practice and works fine if you actually measure first. The problem here isn't the direction you hung them, it's that you assumed 24 inch spacing without checking. Old houses are FULL of surprises, you gotta pull out a tape measure and confirm every joist bay before you start.

felix_jones9h ago

Old houses are FULL of surprises" - ain't that the truth (I found three different joist spacings in my basement once).