drywall issue

[islander]

Guys,

Due to a back injury, I was not able to do renos on the house this past summer, so my dad flew here and did some for me. He was running out of time and wanted to get drywall up down in the basement. The previous owners had crappy wallpaper on the drywall and also had some sort of panel board glued onto it. We tried removing it but made a mess of the existing drywall. Instead of ripping down the drywall and putting up fresh sheets, he put new drywall over the old

He said it would adhere with screws and with long enough screws, I can get it to stick when I can hit the studs.... WHEN I can hit the studs. For those edges that don't have a stud to adhere to, is there any sort of special screw or even an anchor of some sort that I could stick into the wall that would make the outer fresh layer of drywall stick to the old stuff? We'd like this done in time for Christmas as we want to have a fireplace down here but I'm thinking I may have to rip it all down and start anew? Your thoughts?

 

[handyguys]

yeah, long screws is whats done when layering drywall, also glue. Then you need to extend electrical boxes, door and windows jambs. My suggestion is to usually rip the old drywall off, it gives you the opportunity to add or upgrade insulation, add outlets, correct issues done in previous work, etc.

You may want to shop around for a drywall contractor. When I did my basement I found a guy to do the entire thing, ready for paint, including materials for not much more than I could have bought the materials myself. See if you can find companies that only do drywall, my guy does mainly commercial projects but was hungry for the work. They delivered the drywall on Monday and I was painting on Saturday. This was a 1400 sq ft finished basement, including ceiling and it cost me about $2600 as I recall, or about $25-$30 per sheet. Of course I didnt have old drywall to remove, my walls were straight, etc.

You could tell the contractor you will have the old drywall off and everything cleaned up and his price will be lower. If you also need to pay the guy to rip the old off then it will cost a lot more.