TIL I've hung exactly 10,000 sheets of drywall in my career

I was cleaning out my work truck yesterday and found an old notebook where I used to tally every job. I added up all the sheets from the last fifteen years, and the total came to 10,000. It's a round number that just stopped me. I remember the first sheet I ever hung, a 4x8 in a garage in Tacoma, and how long it took me to get it right. Now I can hang a whole ceiling by myself before lunch. That number made me think about all the houses and offices I've been in, all the walls that are just part of someone's life now. It's not just a job, it's literally shaping spaces. Has anyone else ever kept track and been surprised by their own number?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben40219d ago

Ever think about how many nails that is? Ten thousand sheets is a crazy amount of work to just have in a notebook. That number really shows the quiet skill in trades that most people never see. It's cool you kept track.

nathanwalker19d ago

My buddy's a roofer and he tracks his squares. After twenty years he's over 50,000. That's half a million square feet of shingles he's laid by hand. You start to see the weight of a career in those numbers, all the mornings on a steep pitch before most people have had coffee. It's a whole life measured in bundles and nails, not in office meetings.