Pro tip: I used a drywall square to check out-of-square corners and saved myself a whole mudding headache

Spent an hour fighting a corner that was 8 degrees off plumb on my last basement remodel, so I grabbed my square and marked the studs for shimming, and the whole sheet sat flush first try no gaps has anyone else found a use for the square beyond cutting board?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamierodriguez16d ago

Wait, you had a corner that was 8 degrees off plumb? That's insane (I'm honestly surprised the whole wall didn't just look like a funhouse mirror). I've seen some bad framing but that's next level - my old house had a corner off by about 5 degrees and I still had to use shims every 12 inches just to get the drywall to not bow out.

grant.jade16d ago

Wait, isn't 8 degrees basically the norm in older houses though?

king.jordan16d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back a little on that 8 degrees being insane lol. Honestly, once you've framed a few basements yourself, 8 degrees off plumb is just a Tuesday. I've seen way worse, like 10-12 degrees in some of these old split levels where the floor slab settled weird. The framing crew who built half these houses back in the 70s clearly just eyeballed it with a beer in hand. So yeah, your square trick is solid, but I wouldn't act like 8 degrees is some crazy outlier. It's more like the standard for "good enough" in a lot of these remodels.