Best Practices for Transporting Drywall
Not really a green building question but planning on picking up some drywall in a week or two to finish my basement renovation. I need to take measurements but I’m guessing at least 20 sheets. I want to use green board, local box store sells a 4×8 sheet for $15. I have to call tomorrow for prices at lumbar yard 5 min away and a drywall supplier about 30 minutes away but should I be expecting to pay a lot more? Do you guys just pay for delivery and skip picking it up? I have a small pickup, 6 foot bed. I could get someone to help me load up from box store but not sure worth the trouble to hand pick 20+ sheets. I’m assuming lumbar yard will drop it in back of pickup and strap it for me, they usually do with wood. So should I go pick it up at box store, drive to lumbar yard or drywall supplier and have them drop it in, or just deliver the whole thing. I’m assuming you throw the guy a few bucks at lumbar yard to load is cheaper than delivery but I think delivery at lumbar yard is a flat rate at $25 not sure. They probably just dump it right off a truck instead of carrying it, never did this before. Box store charges $79 delivery but I’m sure you get drywall all mangled up.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Supply houses will usually deliver for free as long as you’re not too far away. Mine all do. Box stores will deliver for a fee, but they’ll usually credit you back for any damaged material. The downside is you might have needed full sheets, so damaged sheets could potentially delay your project.
I’ve rented Home Depot’s van before for moving sheet goods. It’s cheap, and it works. You could use a pickup, but you’ll need to brace the sheets so that any unsupported areas don’t flop around and break while you’re driving. You also need to flag it if it sticks out of your tailgate too far (red rags are commonly used for this propose).
Note that you probably don’t need green board for a basement finishing project. Regular drywall is usually fine, and it’s cheaper.
BTW, a panel carrier makes it much easier to carry individual sheets around your jobsite.
Bill
My local supply house charges a delivery fee for something that small, the farther away the larger the fee, but they will most likely place your material where you need it. The box store will just be dropping it outside in front of your house. An 8’ sheet is pretty light so depending on your access grabbing a friend to help you stock from your truck wouldn’t be that bad. Fortunately whatever way you choose, mangled drywall is pretty easy to fix.
Local lumber yard delivers for free into house at location I specify with orders of >$500.
I'd find another $200 of materials I need, order it from them and be done with it. Time and effort have a cost, and I like to support the local business that has better customer service. (although after 125 years they just got bought out by a national chain last month -arggg)
If you're doing more that a couple sheets have it delivered. It's fragile stuff, unless you have something like a cargo van or bigger it's really easy to ding it up transporting it. Fixing those dings adds a lot of time.
The annoying thing on my small pickup is that the bed does not fit 4 ft between the wheel wells. I have put in 2x4s at an angle side to side, and bought mdf or plywood at the same time to create an angled support for the stack of drywall. I more often use my flatbed trailer for this sorta thing.