And Yes, The Drywall Is Backwards

You never know what surprises are in store for you when you start a remodeling project in your home. In fact I've come to expect something odd or just plain wrong whenever I start a project in my house. So I was not surprised when I found what I thought was another layer of wallpaper under the old yellow paper in my dining room. What was odd was the fact that this second layer seemed to have a very unique, kind of furry, texture and it seemed to be glued into the gypsum inside the drywall. As it turns out this is not wallpaper. It is the surface of what should have been the back side of the drywall. My wife and I got a good laugh out of that one: “Yes honey, the drywall is backwards.”

To be honest I didn’t even know before now that drywall has a front and a back. In fact I scraped paper from the walls of one of our bathrooms and mud skimmed without recognizing that the drywall there is also backwards. I only thought about it while looking at some new drywall left by the contractor who replaced our severely damaged kitchen ceiling. The difference in color between the two sides got me thinking about the walls on home remodeling shows which are not fuzzy.

The new drywall is tan on one side and gray on the other and the gray is what I am use to seeing on television. It is also the side that was visible on the new kitchen ceiling before the contractor started painting. A quick Google search revealed the differences between the two sides. The gray side (the side that should face into the room) is slightly beveled around the edges. This allows the tape on the seems to lie flat with the edge of the board below the level of the board’s face. Because of these beveled edges it is easier to hide the tape and the seem. Plus the gray side has a smoother surface vs. the brown side’s rougher finish. The sort of fuzzy texture tends to show show through when you paint. Based on recent experience I'm guessing the grey side also makes it much easier to take down old wallpaper.

There are other reasons to make sure drywall is hung with the brown side facing the studs. According to Hunker.com greenboard (with a green surface) is designed for use in humid areas such as bathrooms. The special paper coating the front of the board resists moisture, repelling water (and I would assume mold). Turning this side towards the studs defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place. But no matter what room your putting it in, the gray (or green or even blue) side of drywall sounds as if it is a more practical side to have facing into the room. I only wish whoever put the drywall up in my house took this fact into consideration.

So I live in a house where it seems all of the drywall is backwards. This should make removing the old wallpaper in the other rooms a bit of an adventure. In the meantime I have to figure out what to do in my dining room. I can tear out all of the old drywall, which is time consuming but might be best from a visual standpoint. I can put wall paper back up using either decorative or a plain smooth type that I can paint over. That option would still mean mud skimming in order to prepare the wall for the new paper. To be honest, after the look I got from the guy in the big box store while I was looking for my scraper, I think I’ll stay away from wallpaper. I could simply mud skim the walls and then paint over them. That likely is the easiest solution but will it give me the best results?

Time to confer with my better half. I’ll let you know what we decide. Just out of curiosity which one would you do? Leave a comment below and let me know what you would choose.