Three products to make putting up drywall easier

Drywalling can be heavy, dusty, awkward and tiring. With a view to smoothing out the inherent difficulties in a recent drywalling project, I tried out some excellent new products that promise to make this onerous chore easier for do-it-yourselfers.

One of the hardest parts of drywalling is boarding the ceiling. This task is normally a two-person job, but a panel lift can make it manageable for one. While a lift can be rented from a home or rental centre, King Canada offers a really handy unit for only a small investment. When used in a DIY environment, the lift compares favourably with the robust versions available for rental. If you have just a few sheets of drywall to stick to your ceiling, you'll do fine renting a lift for a day. But if, like me, you have a whole house full of ceilings to replace and you want to do a little now and a little later, investing in the King lift is well worth it. The lift has a 150-lb. capacity and can raise a panel to an 11' ceiling. It's easy to assemble and easy to break down for storage. I'm sure that the impressive King Panel Lift ($220) will persuade many leery drywallers that there's nothing to fear from an otherwise onerous chore.

For more information, visit www.kingcanada.com or call 514-636-5464.

After the boards are up, the seams need tape and mud. When you sand the mud, there’s the pervasive, ultra-fine drywall compound dust, which, despite your best efforts, always seems to migrate throughout your palace. I tried CGC’s Dust Control Drywall Compound and was amazed by how the particles that result from sanding bind together into clumps heavier than regular drywall compound. The clamps, then, fall more readily to the ground rather than float around in the air. The results were really impressive. After sanding a spot on the ceiling, for example, within about 10 seconds there were no visible particles floating around. You still have to tape off those doorways and wear a mask, but immediately after a heavy sanding session, you’re left with a floor covered in drywall dust, which is pretty easy to clean up with a vacuum and a fine-filter bag. $9/6 kg.

For more information, visit www.homehardware.ca.

To make the process of sanding a little smoother, I recently set myself up with a sanding system from Full Circle International that greatly simplifies smoothing out the compound. The heart of the system is the Radius 360 degree Sanding Head. Its large, foam-backed circular sanding pads do an excellent job of rapidly smoothing taped joints, feathering the edges with virtually no effort. The circular shape is also resistant to flipping over, which often gouges the mud you're trying to smooth. The manufacturer refers to the round head as the roller, for broad expanses, and they supply a more traditional-looking rectangular sanding head (Flex Edge), which is called the brush, for working in corners. Both the rectangular sanding head and the circular one use proprietary, ready-to-use hook-and-loop-backed abrasives, which offer a wide array of sanding options. The abrasives are high-quality, durable and resistant to clogging-and they're easily cleaned to extend their useful life. All in all, I was very impressed with this system. $37 (Radius 360?), $37 (Flex Head), $10 (10 pack of sanding discs).

For more information, visit www.fullcircleinternational.com or call 866-675-2401.