Expansion Joints or Gaps for Drywall

[AllanJ]

Recently I put up drywall, but in a few places I forgot to leave a space between panels and consequently panels are butted up really tight.

Is it necessary or desirable to separate the panels by making a slit at the seam using a saw blade (of course destroying the paper wrapping at the factory edges) prior to mudding?

Temperature at time of drywalling was about 50 degrees. This is a basement so the temperature is not likely to go much over 70 degrees.

[joed]

Butt them tight, tape and mud them. I have never heard of leaving expansion joints in drywall.

[Fischer]

Leave them tight. It's the proper way to install.

If you have any odd corners or cathedral ceilings the thing to use is a product called Magic Corner. Has a flexible rubber center that will expand and contract with the seasons. It takes paint well, and makes for a great joint.

[scuba_dave]

Thanks for the info on the Magic Corner
I have a sunroom w/Cathedral ceiling
Someone else will be doing the mudding, sounds like a good product to have installed

[Fischer]

The magic corner is best installed over the rock and stapled, and then a layer of tape over the corner and onto the sheet rock. Works best with a first coat of Easysand 40 or 90 as your imbedding coat. Been lots of Cathedral Ceilings done in this manner and never a crack. Easysand is a USG product, and the best imbedding mud on the market. I feel the same way about Plus3 for the finish coat. It lays in so fine that you can actually fill paint chips on woodwork with it.

[AllanJ]

Thanks. I feel more comfortable now leaving it the way it is. (The panels that were butted tightly together were not butted all that tight on their opposite edges.)