I’m getting ready to mud some drywall. This morning. I’ve never done it before. Any advice?
I’ve put newspaper on the floor. The room is above the 55ºF minimum temperature, and I’ve turned on the space heater. I have a pail of premixed ‘mud’. My plan is to mud the gaps in the joints (which I’ve kept small), apply the tape over them and the edges/corners, apply more mud, let it dry, sand it, apply another coat of mud, let it dry, and sand it again. Repeat until I can’t see the tape seams.
Cover the vents everywhere, not just in the room you’re working on. Drywall mud dust is finer than the hairs on a grasshoppers ass and will get into the ductwork if you don’t block it.
Thats basically it. It’s a frustrating learning curve. It sands down easy so anytime it doesn’t look right sand some down and try again. If you are doing beveled seams it is just a matter of building it up flush. Non beveled seams can be a pain to get right. you often have to go pretty wide to hide it.
My be to late now but in the future I recommend the fiberglass tape. It is more expensive but it is some much easier.
I’m just finishing up a patch project and I have some serious advice. If you are not mating new wallboard to new wallboard you will not have a beveled edge. Without this bevel the joint will stick up and you will have to repeatedly mound over the job until you can blend it in nicely.
If I were to do it over again I would have beveled the old surface with a sander so I had a slight valley to tape up. As it is, I’ve had to layer it up to blend it all in and it’s a flaming pain in the ass. I think I ended up with 6 layers of mud over about 30 feet of joints. That may not sound like much but it’s a ceiling.
If nothing else, make the first coat is really thick and don’t worry about blending it in until after the first sanding. Your task in this case would be to create enough space above the tape to avoid sanding through it (the reason for the bevel in the first place).
Good luck and cover everything including vents and the door to the room. Also try not to vacuum up the dust. It’s hard on electrical motors. Sweep as much of it as you can and sponge mop the rest.
Do as much as you can to finish the surface while wet. Look up wet sanding.
This part can not be emphasised enough. The dust is very fine and gets into everything. Only an airtight seal will keep all the dust out of something. Put any electronics or valuable things in sealed garbage bags.
Wear a protective air mask when you dry sand.
Don’t wash gear in the house. Plaster dust will set up solid in your plumbing. Wash gear off in a bucket.
If we’re talking about regular joint compound in the 5 gallon pail from Home Depot, then that is not a setting plaster. It simply turns back into mud when it gets wet.
This brings up a different topic: using setting joint compound (a different animal). This is a good choice if you think that there is a risk of the joint ever getting wet or if you are looking for more strength in the joint.
It’s a sweet pain in the ass to use because you have to mix up a batch by hand before using and it is somewhat more difficult to sand than regular joint compound, but there are places where it’s worth it. This stuff truly is like plaster or concrete and does set up permanently. You need to have more care in washing up your tools. Look for little 25lb (?) bags of the stuff in the same area as the regular joint compound.
In general, I recommend getting at least three taping knives, going from a nice 4 inch one out to 12 inch. The 12 inch blade will do wonders on your final coat.
The corners of the taping knives are square and sharp – in order to make less of a line at the edges of a stroke, you can stone down the corners a little to round them some.
Get a good mud pan. It will serve you well.
The fiberglass tape is pretty good, but it does no good in corners. You can fold the paper tape on the center crease and do a proper job of taping the corner.
Just looked at the pail. It’s joint compound. I thought about seeing how nice a finish I could get, but in the end I didn’t try too hard. I’ll just sand. I’ve got this nifty little sander with a screen on it that I used after a guy did some work on the bathroom. Seems to work pretty well. I’m sure my arms will be tired though.
Sounds like ggod advice with the mask. I’ll have to get some. And I’ll take the iMac and the bed out of the room.
No vents in the room, as the room was originally heated with an electric wall heater. It’s been disconnected, since the oil-filled space heater does a good job and costs less to use. Although my cabinet surrounds the water heater (weird, having a water heater in a bedroom; but I didn’t build the place) I’m not anticipating anything getting wet. If it does, I’ll have more to worry about than a little drywall.
So… How long does it take for this stuff to dry? I thought I’d check it tomorrow.
I always go with the method of putting a layer up then waiting a day. I know you can do it in a shorter period but I have better things to do.
If you need anything done quickly it is worth having people who know what they are doing come in. They can finish a whole house in two days.
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Depends how thick you apply it. You should be able to do 2 coats a day.
As an added thought. I use a shower cap. Doesn’t matter if wash off the dust it’s still very caustic on your skin and your scalp is touch to apply moisturizer to.
When I did my TV room I did not dry sand, I used a plain old sponge to “wet sand” instead. Worked like a charm, zero dust, zero mess. No need to seal everything up, cover yourself in plastic wrap or anything else like that. Just get the sponge damp and wipe carefully, really knocks down the high spots and blends them into the surrounding area very well.
To texture the walls I used a regular paint roller and drywall mud (instructions, minimal as they are, were printed on the side of the bucket). Nothing to it, just glop some into a paint tray, I used a 3/8" nap roller and put on a thin coat, let dry, then repeat. Gives a nice texture, just enough to break up the utter flatness of bare drywall, and it hides any imperfections in my joints and whatnot. Unlike using a texture gun it was also very quiet and clean. Don’t move the roller too fast or you might get a little splatter, that’s about my only advice.
I am not a contractor or drywaller or anything, just Joe Homeowner who wanted to save some money. Did the whole room myself with no drama, it was very inexpensive and there’s only one joint that didn’t come out very nice (and it’s pretty much hidden by stuff anyhow).
Like I said look up wet sanding.
Are you going to texture it?
Nope.
Don’t let any pieces of dried joint compound get on your tools or in your mud. It’ll leave little trails when you’re trying to smooth out the joint which will require yet another coat to get rid.
Sorry I’m late to this drywall party. For joint taping and deep (1st) applications, I prefer USG blue drywall coumpound. It’s a little stiffer, but contains less moisture and doesn’t shrink as much as does green. For folks who aren’t used to do drywall joints, I’d advise to measure and tear your paper, then soak it in water for a few minutes. Squeege the excess water from the paper with your fingers before placing it in the base coat of mud. Then smooth that with your knife, and overlay it with another layer of mud. The pre-wetted paper is less likely to leach moisture from the drywall and lift or bubble.
I don’t sand after the first coat-just scrape off any little bumps with a 10" knife and lay on my second coat, now using green mud. It’s wetter, takes longer to dry, but smooths out better than blue mud, hence it’s use for finish work.
The ultimate for finishing is a vacuum sander. Powered by a shop vac, it pulls the dust through a ventilated handpiece and traps it in a water bath. Reduces cleanup to a minimum.
This thread reminds me of why paneling appeals to me over drywall.
Johnny, seriously, put down the trowel and back away slowly. Call a professional. Honestly, there are some things I’m not a bit afraid of – electrical wiring, plumbing, defusing nuclear warheads. But some things just require a professional, and taping-and-texturing is one of 'em.
Good luck!
I would say otherwise, (unless Johnny doesn’t have any time to waste and would rather be out riding his motorcycle than messing with drywall).
The activities you mentioned all have far more serious consequences than a botched drywall job, and once one figures out how to do a nice tape job, it is a very rewarding experience to be able to do horrible things with a wall and then make all evidence simply disappear.
This is a skill worth having if you are a homeowner. Especially good when your kid rides his scooter into the living room wall and leaves a hole the size of a dinner plate, which you don’t really want to have to pay $$$ to fix.
Yeah. It takes a long time and many jobs to get good at it. But I will also agree that this is something that every home owner should know. It gets your heart in the home.
I’ve done a lot of drywall work for a programmer. And the next job is going to the professionals (provided that they show up, but that’s another story).
I could spend all summer working on it (vaulted ceilings lots of cut outs), or I can pay somebody to do it in 8 days. As much as I sometimes hate calling the professionals, it is sometimes a real, real good idea.
I like working on my house, it’s my hobby. But sometimes, ya just need a bit of help.
I agree. Considering I had to redo a professional job at my mother’s house because the company that installed her new tub totally screwed up the finish work. Yes, she could of sued them. I wanted it done right.