Walls and Ceilings - Ceiling - how to hang sheetrock

Bought an ancient house and discovered that the ceiling in the living room had been lowered and covered with cardboard tiles in the distant past. We found this out when we attempted to paint the badly discolored ceiling and the tiles disintegrated from the moisture in the paint! We now want to replace the gaping hole with sheetrock. The framing is in place but we are unsure how difficult it is to put up the sheetrock and finish the joints. Any advice appreciated.

I am not trying to be a wise guy, but in your best interest, if you have to ask, you will be alot better off having it professionally done. Sheetrockers will come in sheetrock your ceiling, have the sheetrock jacks, stilts, and all the equipment and be in and out, before you even have the sheetrock moved into your home. They are very fast, and very inexpensive. They will also recommand a good taper and mudder. Also very inexpensive. A ceiling is not a place to learn about sheetrock. It would cost you more on rental equipment then to hire it done. Good Luck

Got to agree with most of what Jack says except, when it comes to drywallers, you get what you pay for.

Don is correct. As someone who hires lots of drywallers, let me tell you how I do it. If I get 5 bids on drywalling a certain area, all of the bids will be within 20 cents per sq. ft. Always get bids for drywall by the aq. foot, and they carry it in, and supply their own screws. So, if one is 25 cents, another 30 cents, and another 40 cents, I would probably take the one for 40 cents. There are alot of want to be drywallers out there and they are always trying to outbid the good guys. A good drywaller, can save you alot of money with the taper and texture guy. A real professional drywaller, does not tape & texture. This is an art of its own.

Jack,

Now you've gone and hurt my feelings. Been in the drywall/ plaster business over 20 years and we hang, tape and texture. Different crews, but we do it all. Don C.

Years ago I traveled the all around the USA with a major Commercial/Industrial painting company, we were doing mall jobs (County Seat, Womans World, Petite Sofisticated, etc.) Sometimes the drywallers would do the tape and bedding and texture, sometimes not and we would do it, in some places the drywallers installed the corner bead, others would not it was left up to the tapers (us), etc, etc.
Well, what I am getting at is that it depends on what part of the country you are in is to what the jobs of individual contractors do. Just thought I would post this for Don and Jack, so therefor, you are both right :).

Also ran into problems with the Chicago Painters Union once, that was no fun, we receeded.