Not and have it look decent. I would remove it and go with the thinner sheetrock, so it fits right and looks considerably better. Only other option, that would look ok, but, might make your room a bit busy, is to put moulding along that entire edge so it makes the sheetrock look like it was done right, when it isnt. Not the option, I would choose.

Thank you. Yes, the idea of putting some kind of trim over the edge has come up, but I agree with you that it will change the look of the room.

I should have noted that another reason I’d like to avoid replacing the sheet rock with something thinner or otherwise changing the depth of the sheet rock is that all the windows, casing, doors, baseboard heating covers, etc., in the room were installed based on the existing walls, and changing them could become very involved. I’d like to keep things simple.

You could put a piece of L bead moulding over the edge of the drywall.

https://www.trim-tex.com/products/l-beads

Thank you. I will look into that. I asked one carpenter about this idea and he said it would be hard to make it look neat — that the eye would be drawn to where the molding was.

L bead is simple clean and neat. That is exactly what it was designed for.

Thank you all! I am going to follow up on these leads. Really appreciate it!

The simplest way to deal with this is to get some 5/8" or 3/4" quarter round wood molding and have your carpenter rabbet a little recess in it to conceal the raw edge. Stain it to match the beam, and nail it in place. It will look clean, and be a fraction of the time and effort needed to apply L bead. Something like this:

If you don't want a quarter round profile, you can choose something with a square profile or anything else that appeals to you. The trick is to do the little rabbet in the stock so that you don't have to put any work in trying to finish that sheetrock edge.

Interesting! Thank you. I will look into this.

This is what L bead looks like spackled in. Essentially nothing but a clean edge. A decent drywaller should be able to get the same result with L bead or J bead in your case.

This is a screen cap from a You Tube video so it's a little blurry.

Thank you!!

That picture right above looks really good, however, if you look closely, it buts up to the brick face. Yours stands proud of those beams, and it will not look like the above.

Makes sense. Point noted.

I work in a building that has exposed drywall edges covered with j channel that overlap the adjacent material, like brick. I just don't have a picture of it.

Palimpsest - How does it look? Does it look clean and finished?

It looks like a square edge, I will try to get a picture on Thursday.

Thank you all for your input! Our current plan is to move forward with j-bead on Tuesday. Fingers crossed, we achieve a beautiful outcome. :)

This is late but here is J bead on drywall over the adjacent surface

Thank you! And I can share an update now…. Attached are a few photos. We’re not done spackling, etc., but you can see how different it looks already. While I initially thought we’d use the j-bead only on the sheet rock edge that’s against the top of the beam, I’m now considering finishing the sheet rock edge that’s below the beam with it. Here are the photos:

I would just layer a 1 x over the beam. The wood would then be a bit proud of the drywall. A bit of caulk and done.

Thank you for this idea. I can imagine layering a 1x working well in terms of it being proud of the sheet rock. I think I’d still have the ragged sheet rock edge, though, and I also would need to stain the 1x to harmonize with the other existing beams in the room that aren’t shown in the photos I provided with this post, which would be some work. Nevertheless definitely an idea to keep in mind.

I would use a liberal coat of Gardz on the raw edge of the sheetrock to stabilize it, install the 1x and then caulk along the edge of the drywall.

Alternatively, use L bead if there are big gaps between the drywall & the beam & then install the 1x.

Yes, you would need to stain the wood. But if the 1x and caulk works, then you avoid needing to add L or J bead & mudding, sanding & painting. Stain & caulk is easier.