How To Cut Drywall With A Jigsaw | Easy Tutorial!

Drywall is easy enough to cut - measure, score and snap. For cutting out neat, precise holes for your light switches, power outlets, and other apertures, few tools compare with the jigsaw, besides maybe a rotozip type of tool.

To cut drywall with a jigsaw, you can start with a few pilot holes – or even make them yourself with a plunge cut and a decent jigsaw blade.

Things You Need to Cut Drywall With a Jigsaw

A Knife: Chances are you will be cutting drywall with a knife for the most part. The cuts that will have you reaching for a power tool will be the interior cuts or the cut-outs you need for your light switches and electrical outlets.

Blades: For those kinds of cuts, you will need your jigsaw and a blade that will work on drywall material.

You will want to look for a medium tooth count blade (I recommend a 14 tpi blade) but to be honest, virtually any type of drywall blade will work. A medium to higher tooth count will help to prevent the paper from tearing though.

Drill & Drill Bit (optional): The nice thing about drywall/sheetrock is that it is soft and you can puncture the material with enough force pretty easily or you can start out with a simple plunge cut to get your blade started.

You can also make starter holes using a drill and a drill bit that’s large enough to make holes for your jigsaw blade.

Marking Tools: For cutting out clean, accurate holes, you will also need a speed square and a pencil to lay out the cutting lines of your opening. 

Other Tools: You may also need to clean up after cutting out the hole with a jigsaw, and for that, you can use the jigsaw itself, and a utility knife to cut out any remaining paper flaps.

 If you are making large openings on the drywall, a drywall rasp will also help improve the finish of the cut.

Cutting Rectangular Cut-Outs Into Drywall With a Jigsaw and a Plunge Tip Blade

First, you will need to mark out the cutting lines for the opening you want to open up on your drywall.

For rectangular cuts, you can use a combination square with a bubble level to make sure that the cutting lines you lay out are perfectly plumb and level.

Making Standard Cuts (With A Little Pressure):

You can also just press the jigsaw blade through the sheetrock with enough downward pressure to pierce through the sheetrock. It doesn't take much pressure to do this and rocking the jigsaw back and forth will help tear the paper and break through easier.

You do need to use caution when using this method because you can break the blade (usually thinner blades) and if you use too much pressure you can actually break the blade change mechanism (never happened to me).

Making Plunge Cuts:

First, lay the jigsaw such that the blade is at an angle to the cutting line, but without touching it. The heel of the shoe has to be resting on the drywall, too. Make sure that the orbital function of your jigsaw is turned off before starting the tool.

Start the jigsaw and let it run to full speed. While keeping the heel of the jigsaw shoe in contact with the drywall, gently push the blade into the wall until it breaks through the material.

At this point, you can continue until you have the shoe fully in contact with the drywall, and you can finish the cut.

For a rectangular opening, you have two ways of finishing the cut. You can cut all four sides with the jigsaw and finish the cut-out that way. Another way is to cut three sides, and then take the drywall knife and score the last side to finish the cut-out.

Knock out the piece of drywall from the rest of the work piece to open up the hole. If you used a drywall knife for the last side, here is where you also cut the paper flap to complete the cut-out.

You can clean up the hole by running the jigsaw along the sides to break off any larger pieces of drywall, or you can use a drywall rasp to smoothen out the edges of the opening.

Cutting Rectangular Cut-Outs Into Drywall With a Jigsaw and a Drill

If you are uncomfortable with the plunge cut method described above, you could always use a drill bit and a jigsaw to make standard cutouts as well.

First, mark out the cutting lines as usual on the drywall. Then, attach a drill bit that is large enough to make holes for the jigsaw blade on your drill.

You can then use the drill to open up pilot holes, either on the corner of the cutting lines or along the sides. Make sure you are drilling into the waste side of the cut and not into the part of the wall that will remain after.

After that, you can inset the blade of the jigsaw into one of the pilot holes. Line up the jigsaw blade with the cutting line, and start the tool. Let the jigsaw blade get up to speed. After that, follow the cutting line with the running jigsaw blade to finish the cut.

You can cut all four sides of a rectangular hole this way, or you can also leave the last side to the drywall knife so that there will be less clean-up for you to do after.

Once all sides are cut or scored, knock out the piece of drywall to complete the opening. Clean up the cut with a drywall rasp or the jigsaw and cut off any flaps remaining.

Cutting Large Openings Into Drywall With A Jigsaw

For cutting large openings, like for doors and windows, it’s better to start with the sides first and leave the top of the opening last, in order to prevent the paper from ripping.

First, measure the opening and mark out the cutting lines with a sharp pencil. If you can do this with the drywall on the floor or a couple of sawhorses, it will be way easier compared to doing it with the drywall already hung.

Use the jigsaw to cut the sides and bottom first , and use a drywall knife for the top of the opening. To complete the cut, score the top with the knife and carefully bend it down and then with a sharp, fast movement back upwards to snap it off.

You can also use the knife to cut out the paper flap on the reverse side after your first cut with the utility knife and then by bending it up, cutting the other side. Clean up the sides with drywall rasps or files to smooth them out, if necessary.