Cut plasterboard

[DennisCA]

I hope someone can answer this quickly because I'm working now and need to continue as soon as possible. I'm putting up drywall on the walls, did the ceiling yesterday and that went just fine, but I'm having trouble with the cutting now.

Usually, it's no problem to cut and snap with a utility knife, but then we always cut off larger pieces, 20cm at the smallest. Now I need to remove just 1cm from the board to make it fit (all boards need to be trimmed by 1cm before putting them on the wall), and it doesn't work at all even though I've scored with the utility knife on both sides and tried to snap it; it just becomes a mess with ugly edges.

What can I do? Is it possible to saw?

 

[hama65]

Take an old discarded handsaw. They become dull after cutting a bit of plaster.

 

[Alfredo]

Any metal saw will probably work but they do get dull as mentioned.

 

[nimhed]

Or you take the utility knife and cut away 3 cm instead. The floor molding will cover it, right?

 

[mycke_nu]

At the risk of sounding like a Messerschmitt: Start with the walls next time, and the boards will likely fit.

 

[cpalm]

A plaster plane works well for smaller adjustments too. Or a regular small plane for that matter, if you're not too concerned about it.

 

[MathiasS]

Handsaw! Jigsaw! Rasp! Anything works. The blades are worn out but that doesn't matter...

 

[Alfredo]

Jigsaw!

I guess you mean hand-driven. I probably wouldn't want to expose my motor-driven one to gypsum dust. I don't know how dangerous it really is, but it doesn't feel good anyway.

 

[MathiasS]

Oh well, it's fine. I might hesitate to use my new super-duper saw for drywall, but the blue one I have has lasted 10 years with occasional drywall cutting, so it's hardly a major problem.

 

[Alfredo]

I might hesitate to use my new super-duper saw for gypsum, but the blue one I have has lasted 10 years with occasional gypsum sawing, so it is hardly a major problem.

My blue one is my "super-duper saw" But joking aside, of course, it works. Then it's up to each individual whether they think/believe the additional wear and tear due to gypsum dust is dangerous or negligible. I don't really know, but since it goes so easily with a handsaw, I avoid using the power saw just to be safe.

 

[DennisCA]

What I did was take 5cm instead and break it and leave a gap against the floor instead. This is in a garage, so I think it's even better this way, so it won't be as exposed to moisture if you want to rinse off the floor.

 

[schmakita]

Score a little extra deep into the plaster, place the plasterboard so that the cut edge is just on the edge on top of underlying plaster support, use a short length of stud that is 900/1200 and place on top as a force distributor, hit it with the hammer in a twisting/breaking direction.
Works excellently down to 10 mm on the short side. Long side can be a bit worse!

You can also use an old worn-out handsaw and make cross cuts at, for instance, cc 600 to limit the length of the plaster to be broken, which makes it easier.

 

[Stefan N]

Advanced for home tinkerers but a kantskärare works perfectly. http://www.gyproc.se/produkter/verktyg/verktyg+för+gipsskivor/kantskärare

 

[SBH]

just carve away the gips with the knife

 

[Mikael_L]

This is how I did it:
http://www.byggahus.se/forum/byggmaterial-byggteknik/170118-gips-1-cm-kortare.html