Drywall – How to bend a sheet a drywall into a curve

drywall

How do you bend a sheet a drywall into a curve? I tried wetting the back surface with a paint roller, letting it soak for 30 minutes, then scoring the back paper in parallel lines about an inch apart where I wanted the curve. When I screwed it to the studs, though, one of the scores turned into a break and the sheet became angled rather than curved.

In this specific situation the curve was probably about 10 degrees over the span of 6 inches. Is this too tight a bend for standard drywall?

Best Answer

Dampening and scoring the back paper is the right way to prepare drywall for installation around a curve. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation says that the radius of curvature was about 30", which should have been OK (my drywall book says 20" minimum for 1/2" panels). You may simply have been unlucky with it breaking.

There are flexible drywall panels, though I've never seen them in the stores. Failing that, you could also try a double thickness of 1/4" panels, which are widely available.