Have you come up with an original multi-level ceiling for your kitchen? Or decided to make a drywall arch? Or maybe you want to round the wall or decorate the room with columns? To bring any of these ideas to life, you need to know how to bend drywall.

From a sheet of ordinary drywall, you can create real masterpieces of decor

Ways to bend drywall

The choice of method for bending drywall is determined by the bending radius and the thickness of the drywall, which is used to finish walls or ceilings. Arched drywall is considered ideal for the manufacture of bent structures, the thickness of which is only 6.5 mm. It is best suited for curvilinear figures. But if you need a little curvilinear profile, it makes no sense to buy a whole sheet of thin drywall. After all, you can bend a sheet with a thickness of 9 or 12.5 mm.

From curved drywall, you can create any complexity and configuration of the structure

The originality of this kitchen ceiling is emphasized by stylish lighting.

Dry bending

This is an easier method that relies on the existing natural flexibility of the drywall board. If the sheet thickness is 9 mm, it can be dry-bent if the radius is not less than 130 cm, and if the sheet thickness is 12.5 mm, if the radius is not less than 180 cm.

Dry bending is used to create large and simple structures

To bend drywall in a dry way, it is necessary to make a frame in advance. One side of the sheet is fixed on it, and the second is slowly pressed against the frame, giving the sheet the necessary shape, after which the sheet is fixed on the frame.

A drywall slab can only be bent along. If you try to bend across, the plate will break.

How to bend drywall wet

It is used when it is necessary to bend a sheet with a radius of less than 130 cm. In this way, bent sheets with a radius of 50 cm or more are obtained. When wet, drywall sheets become much more plastic and can change their shape without damage under the influence of an external load. And after drying, the sheets retain their new shape and restore their original strength parameters.

To give the desired shape to a sheet of drywall, a spiked roller is often used.

The advantage of this bending method is to obtain a relatively smooth surface that requires minimal processing, as well as a small consumption of self-tapping screws. The disadvantage is that it takes a significant amount of time to bend the sheets. In addition, the process is more technically complicated (additional tools are needed).

A template for bending sheets of drywall allows you to simplify and speed up the process

To bend drywall in a wet way, you will need a roller with spikes, which should pierce the sheet to a depth of 1/2 - 1/3 of the thickness. The side that will subsequently shrink should be pricked. No roller? Then make holes in increments of 10-15 mm with an ordinary awl. To speed up the process, you can make a "studded bar". Self-tapping screws with a diameter of 2-3 mm are screwed into a wooden beam in increments of 10-15 cm.

Moisten the perforated side of the drywall sheet with water. It needs a little, it should impregnate the cardboard and the plaster base, but not seep to the other side of the sheet. On average, the sheet must be moistened for 10-15 minutes 3-4 times. After that, the sheet is carefully bent according to the template and clamped in this position. The workpiece must be fixed for at least a day - until completely dry.

Drywall arch - one of the most common designs

The wet method of bending drywall is quite simple, but certain skills in working with the material are required. If you have never worked with it, it is better to try wet bending a small piece of the sheet, and only then do the main work.

How to bend drywall with a radius of less than 50 cm

For such a bend, it is necessary to cut cardboard and gypsum on one side every 3-5 cm. The smaller the bend radius, the smaller the incision step. It is necessary to incise very carefully, since the rupture of the opposite layer of cardboard will inevitably cause the sheet to break and violate the integrity of the structure.

Bending with notches allows you to create elegant and openwork designs that will become the highlight of the interior

The advantage of this method is the high speed of installation. But you will need an assistant to work, since it is very difficult to screw the workpiece to the frame. There are other disadvantages: a large consumption of self-tapping screws and putty for leveling (a large layer is obtained).

After painting is completed, the finished structure will show all its decorative possibilities.

The plate with cuts is fixed in place on the profile. If it is an arch, they begin to fasten from the center, gradually moving towards the edges. The cuts are puttied and the entire surface is treated. When puttying, the joints of the sheets should be reinforced with sickle to prevent cracks. You can instead treat the surface with fiberglass before painting.

Rounded walls and partitions, arches, vaulted or multi-level ceilings with intricate curves, cylindrical, wavy and domed elements - at first glance it seems that such interior solutions are very complex and expensive. But it is not always the case.

Almost all such structures are created from drywall - a material that builders and designers love so much for its ease of use and versatility. How to bend drywall and will be discussed in our article.

From drywall you can make an arch of the most bizarre shape

In general, to create curved shapes, it is better to use a special brand of drywall - GKLA (arched drywall sheet). It is designed just for such work, has a thickness of 6.5 mm and is characterized by increased plasticity. But it costs more than usual, besides, because of its small thickness, it has to be mounted in two layers.

However, if you know some tricks, you can bend not only an arched, but also an ordinary drywall sheet. To give it the desired shape and not break, there are several ways.

In the process of work, it should be remembered that you need to bend the sheet in length, and not in width.

The first way: “we bend to dry”

When the drywall needs only a slight convexity or concavity, the dry bending method is quite suitable. The smaller the radius of curvature, the thinner the sheet to be bent must be.

First of all, you need to prepare the frame of the desired shape. On the one hand, the edge of the sheet is fixed on the frame, and the free edge is slowly and forcefully given a slight bend, rounding in the shape of the frame, then screwed to it with self-tapping screws. This work is more convenient to do with a partner.

The second way: “wet and bend”

Needle roller for piercing the surface of the GKL sheet

When you need to achieve a more pronounced bend, it is better to wet the drywall. This will make it much easier to bend it without the risk of breaking it.

First you need to prepare a template from plywood or chipboard. The radius of the template must be less than the radius of the final bend by the thickness of the sheet.

The side of the sheet, which will be concave, should be moistened with clean water at room temperature and left for 5-10 minutes to absorb. To enhance the effect, you can first walk along the wetted side with a needle roller or make frequent punctures with an awl.

The water should soak the cardboard layer and the gypsum core, but not soak the sheet through.

Water is applied with a brush or roller. After that, the wetted sheet, as carefully as in the dry method, is bent, laid on a template, then wrapped with tape and left to dry completely. After that, they are mounted by screwing with screws to the frame.

You should not be afraid that drywall will lose its properties when wet. Water only softens the gypsum, making it more plastic. After drying, it completely restores all its characteristics.

Notched method

This method is suitable for the tightest curves, which are difficult to achieve even with a wet method. To do this, with a sharp knife or cutter on one side of the drywall sheet along the fold line, parallel cuts or cuts are made at a distance of 1 to 5 cm from each other. The smaller the radius of curvature, the more often the cuts should be. They are made on the side of the sheet that will be convex. That is, for they will be on the wrong side, and for a rounded wall - on the front.

The cuts are made deep enough, almost to the entire depth of the gypsum layer, not reaching 1-3 mm to the cardboard on the reverse side. When bent, the notched side unfolds like a fan. The resulting gaps are filled with gypsum putty, which further strengthens the entire structure.

Using a cutter speeds up this work several times, besides, it can be used to make U- or V-shaped cuts. This allows you to make a bend of an even smaller radius and give the drywall a wide variety, sometimes bizarre shapes that bring individuality and originality to the interior.

Probably, each of those who worked with such a versatile and very convenient building and finishing material as gypsum plasterboard wondered how to bend drywall without damaging it. Naturally, the curved outlines of arched structures and "curly" partitions, spectacular multi-level suspended ceilings, at first glance, a novice master, seem simply an unattainable result. In fact, everything is much simpler.

It turns out that although it is fragile in appearance, drywall is still very flexible, and knowing some tricks, it can be easily bent with an arc. Note that to create curved shapes, the easiest way is to use a special type of plasterboard - arched. It has a thickness of 6.5 mm and has good plasticity, which is achieved by additional reinforcement of the gypsum core with fiberglass. However, the cost of this material is higher than usual, and due to its small thickness, it must be mounted in two layers.

Today we will tell you how to bend drywall correctly, describe the technology of this process and consider the most common methods to achieve the desired result.

Before starting a detailed description of the work technology, it should be noted that the GKL sheet must be bent only along its length.

We bend drywall at home

So, there are several simple and effective ways to give the material the desired shape:

In continuation of the topic, I would like to draw your attention to the moments without which the work on the implementation of curved, "shaped" structures from GKL will simply be impossible. In their manufacture, it is necessary not only to know how to bend drywall, you also need to be able to give the required shape to the steel profile for the frame.

For the production of arched arched vaults from plasterboard sheets, a U-shaped profile is used, on the side shelves of which cuts are made (to the base) in increments of 30–70 mm, after which it bends perfectly, taking the desired form. If you need a “sideways” bend, then cut the shelf (on one side) and the very base of the profile.

After you have learned how to bend drywall for an arched arc, you also need to understand how to make the side parts of the structure. By measuring the width of the opening and dividing this value in half, we get the radius of the circle. Having marked the central vertical line on the part, we measure the length of the radius from above, to which we add the distance from the top point of the arc to the overlap of the opening. From the received mark - the center of the circle - we draw a circle with our radius with a rope compass. Using a jigsaw, we cut out the part from a single sheet and, according to its template, we make the second “sidewall”.

Good day! I'll get straight to the point.

Due to its properties, drywall is used not only for facing ceilings, walls and partitions, but can also be used to create almost any complex shape, up to the dome. Basically, with its help they make figured multi-level ceilings, columns, semicircular boxes and so on.

Of course, to create such forms, drywall must be bent. If you were holding a piece of GKL in your hands, then you know that it is quite durable, and if you try hard to just bend it, it will break. In fact, bending drywall is a piece of cake. However, it will not lose its properties.

In this article, I will give you three ways on how to bend drywall. Each of them is good in its own way.

Method number 1. Dry

There is nothing special to explain here, the sheet is simply taken and gently bent. But for this there are several nuances. Firstly, it is allowed to bend the GKL only along the length. Secondly, it is undesirable to bend wide sheets (more than 60 cm wide). The bending radius will depend on the thickness of the HA and its initial moisture content. Wall plasterboard (12.5 mm thick) does not bend very willingly. The minimum bending radius for it will be 275 cm. Ceiling (9 mm) - already better, a radius of 2 meters.

If you want to get a particularly cool figure with a radius of 155-200 cm, you will have to look for a thin 8 mm drywall. And if you are lucky and you find the thinnest sheets of 6.5 mm on sale, then you will be able to bend them with a radius of 1 meter or more.

Of course, you need to bend the sheet slowly and carefully so as not to break it. The step of self-tapping screws for fixing it is taken minimal: 4-5 cm, no more.

Method number 2. Wet

For this column, the sheet was wet folded

Here the same dependence is on the thickness. But wet drywall bends much better. In general, there are two subspecies of wet bending. The first is that only cardboard is wetted. The second - the sheet is wetted to the full thickness. Here you need to choose, again, based on the radius. In the first method, the GKL is wetted with a brush on both sides and left for 5-10 minutes so that the cardboard is properly soaked. This is followed by mounting the sheet on the frame.

In the second method, a special needle roller is purchased. They carefully roll the back of the sheet, which then needs to be moistened.

Attention: the sheet is moistened only on one side, the front must be dry.

Again, leave the sheet for 5-10 minutes, then mount.

Needle roller for drywall

Sometimes a template is used for this method - a structure with the same radius as the frame, on which a specific sheet will subsequently be attached. The frame is usually made of plywood or profiles. The wet sheet is laid on the template, fixed (not with screws) and remains on it until completely dry. After that, the sheet finally acquires the desired shape. But all this is done very rarely, because. takes a lot of time.

Important: the distance between the profiles in a curved frame must be taken small, a maximum of 30 cm, otherwise it will break when the sheet is attached, or the structure will look flawed.

So, what bending radii can be achieved with a wet method? For wall plasterboard, this is 1 meter. For ceiling (9 mm) - 50 cm, and for a thin 8 mm - only 30 cm. For most cases, enough.

Method number 3. notching

Drywall on these boxes was bent by notching

When you want to get even smaller bend radii, you have to use this method. In fact, this requires a special tool that makes grooves on one side of the GKL, but no one uses it here, and the drywall is simply cut with a knife with frequent steps. In any case, this method requires considerable skill, because the sheet can simply crumble in your hands, because all that will hold it is cardboard on the front side.

Such a sheet cut into fragments is sewn onto the frame and, if the shape is convex, the grooves are filled with Uniflot. If it is concave, then nothing else needs to be done with the sheet.

It is advisable to use this method only if you intend to use a template. If there is a template, then the grooves on the back side must be filled with Uniflot. After it dries, the sheet takes the desired shape.

Good day! I'll get straight to the point.

Due to its properties, drywall is used not only for facing ceilings, walls and partitions, but can also be used to create almost any complex shape, up to the dome. Basically, arches, curly, columns, semicircular boxes and so on are made with it.

In our time, they have not yet come up with special equipment with which it would be possible to bend drywall. Let's try to figure out how to bend drywall for an arch without special tools. Unlike this material, which consists of rather dense fibers that are difficult to physical impact, plastic bends very easily.

Therefore, in order to give drywall a different shape, special profile designs are used.

To prepare a metal profile, you will have to go through several steps.

• It is necessary to purchase the main racks and guides, as well as make the same cuts along their entire length.
• It is important to know that the cuts should not be made deep, otherwise the metal may break while working with it. Ideal - incisions of 5 cm.
• The cuts are made evenly and parallel to one another.
• It is necessary to bend drywall very carefully in separate parts. When you need a circular decor, the drawing is best done on the floor.
• Depending on which circle you need, cuts are also made: either from the outside or from the inside.

If you do not know how to bend drywall in a semicircle, then keep in mind that the frame is also made for it. The same applies to working with complex configurations, making decorative elements. The profile is cut at different angles and at the required distance - it depends on the form that will be used in the work.

After the bend is made, the frame is installed in the chosen place and fixed with crabs or dowels. Then, on the ceiling, it can be cut into petals or bent.

When choosing a drywall bending method, take into account the bending radius, as well as the thickness of the material itself that will be used. In most cases, arched drywall is chosen for curly structures, since its thickness is slightly more than half a centimeter. Curvilinear figures are made from it. But, there are times when it is needed quite a bit, then they buy ordinary drywall, bend it and make original designs of varying complexity.

In general, there are two ways to bend drywall: dry and wet.

Dry bending

This method is more simple. They are used when arches are made and the wall is combined with the ceiling in the form of a semicircle. In this way, sheets are bent, which are used for large and simple structures. If you need to make a complex interior, then this option will not work. In order to use this option, you need to prepare a frame. One of the sides of the drywall sheet is attached to it, the other side is slowly pressed against the frame, and then fixed. It is important to know that gypsum boards can only be bent along, they will simply break across. In a dry way, you can bend drywall with a thickness of 9 mm and a radius of not less than 130 centimeters, as well as sheets of 12.5 mm with a radius of not less than 180 centimeters.

The dry method has two options:

• Dry using cuts.
• Dry with seams.

Wet way to bend drywall

If drywall sheets have parameters less than indicated above, they must be bent in a wet way. To be precise, those with a radius of 50 centimeters or more are ideally obtained. When the sheets are wet, they can change their shape very much, become more ductile and do not break. When dry, they retain the shape they were given and do not lose their strength. To give the sheets the desired shape, a spiked roller is very often used. If not, you can make punctures with an ordinary awl. Also use a homemade bar with spikes. To do this, self-tapping screws are screwed into the beam, the diameter of which is 2-3 mm. Drywall is pierced ½ thickness, wetted with water, and then bent. The bent workpiece is fixed for a day to dry. It is important to know that if you are working with internal moisture-resistant or moisture-repellent drywall sheets, then you cannot use this option. The advantage of this method of bending is that the surface, in the end, turns out to be even, smooth and requires minimal processing, you can also save on self-tapping screws, which will be needed less. The downside is that this method takes much more time and the process itself is technically more complicated.

How to bend drywall at home? The video you can watch will help you understand this better. It’s easier, of course, to hire specialists, but repairing it yourself, for your home, will help you save a lot of money. There is nothing difficult in working with drywall sheets, if you read all the instructions well before starting work.