How do I get plasterboard home and store it without breaking it?

Every other sheet material forgives rough handling and plasterboard does not. It is heavy for its strength, it flexes under its own weight, and the parts that matter most — the tapered long edges and the corners — are also the most fragile parts of it. Almost all wasted plasterboard is wasted between the lorry and the wall.

Safety

What you'll need

• A second person
• Level bearers or battens for the stack
• A board lifter or footlifter, for positioning
• Gloves

Step by step

1. Have it delivered.Plasterboard is heavy, fragile, and 2400 by 1200 will not go in a car. Merchant delivery is usually cheap or free above a modest order and puts it on your drive intact. This is the single best decision in this whole guide.
2. Ask where the driver will put it.Some deliveries are hand-balled to the kerb and some are placed. Ask when ordering, because a pallet of board on the pavement in the rain is your problem the moment the lorry leaves.
3. Prepare the stack position before it arrives.Level bearers off the ground, indoors or under cover, close to where the boards will be used and out of the route people walk. Moving boards twice is how they get damaged.
4. Carry it on edge, two people, one at each end.Board vertical, held by the long edge, one person at each end. Carried flat it flexes under its own weight and snaps. Carried on edge it is stiff in the direction that matters and behaves.
5. Protect the corners going through doorways.Lead with the leading edge slightly angled, and have the rear person watch the trailing corner. Corners are the first thing to go and a broken corner means a patched joint.
6. Store flat if you have the space.Flat on level bearers spaced so the board is supported along its length, all boards the same size so the edges are supported, stacked no higher than you can safely take from. Flat storage protects the edges completely.
7. If storing on edge, stand it truly upright.Against a flat wall or a full-height batten, as near vertical as possible, with the base restrained so it cannot slide out. Leaning boards at an angle bows them and puts all the weight on one bottom corner, which crushes.
8. Keep it dry, and off a concrete floor.The gypsum core absorbs water readily and a board that has been wet loses strength and goes soft at the edges. A board standing on a damp concrete floor wicks water up the bottom edge overnight. Bearers, always.
9. Check for damage before you start boarding.Sort the boards as you unstack. Put any with a crushed tapered edge or a broken corner aside for cutting into small pieces and infill, and use the intact ones where the joints will show.
10. Use a lifter for positioning rather than muscle.A footlifter — a simple lever you put under a board and press with your foot — holds a wall board tight to the ceiling while you fix it. For ceilings, a panel lift hoist from a hire shop turns a genuinely dangerous two-person job into a one-person one.

Tips

• Order 1800 by 900 boards if the route into the house is tight. The extra jointing is real work but it beats damaging every board on the stairs.
• A board with a damaged corner or edge is not scrap — it is the board you cut into infill pieces, patches and the small bits above doors. Sort rather than discard.
• Two people carrying a board should agree which way they are going before they pick it up. Most corner damage happens because one person changed direction.
• If you must store boards on edge in a room where children go, restrain the top as well as the base. A stack of boards falling sideways is a serious crush hazard.

Common mistakes

• Carrying a full board flat — It flexes under its own weight and cracks, usually right down the middle. On edge it is stiff in the useful direction and one person at each end can handle it comfortably.
• Leaning a stack against a wall at an angle — The whole weight bears on one bottom corner, which crushes, and the boards take a permanent bow. Flat or truly vertical are the only two storage positions.
• Standing boards on a bare concrete floor — The gypsum wicks moisture straight up the bottom edge, which is often the tapered edge you needed intact. Bearers or a sheet of polythene, always.
• Trying to lift a ceiling board with two people and no props — It is the classic way to hurt a back and drop a board. A hired panel lift, or a pair of dead man props made from timber, makes it straightforward and safe.

Questions people ask