Vertical vs. Horizontal Drywall Hanging - Given how a SureWalls installation changes the game, there should no longer be any argument over whether to hang drywall vertically or horizontally. Vertically wins every time with SureWalls.
There are two main arguments for hanging drywall horizontally. Both of these arguments fade to irrelevancy with a SureWalls installation. It is said that the drywall seams on a horizontal drywall installation are easier to finish since a main seam appears at a convenient stand up height for the finishers. You could argue this to be true with all the taping and mudding of seams that is required with such an installation. However, with a SureWalls installation there is no taping and mudding required. There is no difficult seam to finish. Wouldn't any finisher truly find it easier to simply be skim coating a clean and easy SureWalls finished seam even at some vertical height, than to be messing with taping and mudding and repeated mudding at some more convenient height? The answer to this one is pretty obvious. SureWalls wins.
The next best argument for horizontal drywall hanging is that it reduces the volume of seams to finish by 25%. We acknowledge that this may be a meaningful concern when you're taping and mudding the length of all those seams. However, with a SureWalls installation, you're not doing all that taping an mudding. Wouldn't you rather be doing easy skim coats of joint compound on a SureWalls seam (even if there are 25% more of them) than taping and mudding all those seams along the way? And, with SureWalls, in the end, wouldn't you be using far less joint compound in the process? The answers are obvious.
Finally, we have seen the claim made that hanging drywall horizontally adds shear strength to a wall because the panel length contacts more studs along the way. On its face this may seem to be a valid argument, however, we have found no testing data to actually back this claim. Additionally, it ignores the major, major drawbacks of a horizontal installation which are: 1) the air gap created in the length of a wall with a horizontal installation given that there is no stud backing for the joint; and 2) the fact that a horizontal installation with tapered drywall leaves the tapered ends at the bottom and, often, top of the wall too. This makes for difficult finishing at those locations, at the bottom for the application of baseboard (unless shimmed), or for inside corner, smooth finishing at the top. They just created additional mudding and finish work for themselves that could and should be avoided. In short, any argument for horizontal installation of drywall is trumped by the clear benefits of the SureWalls system. A SureWalls installation changes the game.