Post Your Drywall Tips Here

[ClayW]

Post your drywall tips here.

I imagine that plenty of guys will eventually tackle some drywall, at least for a small repair or two in their garage or elsewhere. On some level, we all end up reinventing the wheel, so it might be nice to have a thread with some tips.

For beginners (like me), this is a pretty good DIY video: http://www.homedepot.ca/know-how/videos/how-to-tape-and-mud-drywall

I am in the process of doing my first major drywalling effort: a basement renovation. As one might expect, I am doing a ton of sanding, because I **** at drywalling. So, my contributions are as follows:

1. Take your time to ensure that you frame the walls and hang the drywall flush with adjacent pieces. You'll save yourself a tone of time finishing.

2. Make damn sure that your joint compound is completely dry before sanding. If your joint compound is too thick (because you're a first-timer like me), you should wait a day or two, just to be safe.

3. Buy one of these drywall sanders with the vacuum attachment. It may sound stupid, but drywall dust gets everywhere without one. Of course, you're going to want to get a decent filter for your shop-vac, too.

Add your advice below for us novices.

 

[pacecar]

I gotta guy that's good and very affordable

after i spent a couple days doing a room, and then watched his guys go, for the money its cheaper than my time

My advice is to get a good 12 inch trowel and a 4 inch for taping, Thin coats

its a lot like body work, I can figure it out and get it done, but if its affordable sometimes its nice to have somebody that can get it done quickly

then I don't have deal with the dust either!!!


edit: also, I prefer the paper tape

 

[Steevo]

Best tip is to sub out drywall work.

 

[IHI]

If you chose to use premixed bucket or boxed mud...you never..I repeat never ever use it straight from the bucket...you always put some in your pan and add a tiny bit of water to thin it down to a mayonase consistencey. Why do novice mudder sand so much? Cuz they use the stuff without thinning it down and it goes on thicker than it should.

Want to go from fresh drywall no mud or tape in the a.m. and have it taped textured and primed by 2pm....hot mud (and experience)

Learn to hold your knife right and use thin flexible blades...along with thin consistencey mud. You mud your joint and then put pressure on outside edge of knife blade on the unmudded wall and drag it over the freshly mudded edge...this knocks down that high edge and feathers it in.

Apply thin bedding coat and knock down clumps before they set up. Let first coat dry and don't sand....use your knife to cut/knock off clumpy spots and ridges...then apply second coat of mud. We never sanded a thing until the last coat and that was only to feather areas in.

You'll know if you got it when the only reason you sand at all is to feather the edge and blend them into the taped seam.

 

[steel 35]

Easy fix for small cracks that keep coming back; wallpaper seam repair adhesive, it works very well.

 

[InPrimer]

As stated, spread on thin coats, the biggest and most frustrating thing is a glob coat that has to be sanded... that's when the trouble starts......I've done countless sq ft of drywall, some new, some repairs. It's been my experience that after "it's ready" I walk into a room with a bare light bulb, It shows all the imperfections and shadows unseen before, at that point I touch the "flaws" and give it a coat of primer.

 

[never enuf time]

Always keep tools & mud clean. Disgard any mud with clumps, On my last coat, knife the joint , then spray it lightly with spray bottle, & knife one more time.

 

[zporta]

Best tip is to sub out drywall work.

Same thing I was thinking. The only thing I hate more then mudding drywall is sanding it

 

[IHI]

Same thing I was thinking. The only thing I hate more then mudding drywall is sanding it

I hated it to until I learned how to mud efficiently, application is everything. For an example, you shouldn't spend more than an hour, if that, sanding a 24x24 garage-walls and ceilings....unless your going for a level 5 finish, which is basically the riddler award to cars fit and finish since a perfectly smooth wall takes hours of work to be perfect, and the people that pay for perfection, demand it...hence the serious upcharge to deliver it

Want to eliminate cracking in corners, or help thwart them 90% better...hot mud for bedding coat, hot mud for skim coat, then feather anything afterwards with a lightweight premixed compound that's wetted down to smooth consistencey. Hot mud dries through chemical reaction, like concrete, and does not shrink like premixed joint compound does, and is much much stronger...but believe me, you don't want to have to sand this stuff anymore than you would ever have too..definitely not a product for newbies/guys that **** at mudding.

 

[Capt J.D.]

For small repairs I don't sand. I use various porous sponges, from very soft to very stiff. NO dust. Actually I have done a complete room like that and yes, it does take a little longer.

 

[pearltsi]

Guys around here charged about $300-400 for mudding/taping/sanding on a 12x12 room with ceiling. Best money ever spent.

 

[WQ59B]

If you chose to use premixed bucket or boxed mud...you never..I repeat never ever use it straight from the bucket...you always put some in your pan and add a tiny bit of water to thin it down to a mayonase consistencey. Why do novice mudder sand so much? Cuz they use the stuff without thinning it down and it goes on thicker than it should.

Not my observation. It's all in the application. Sure, some straight-from-the-bucket mixes are dryer than others, but the 'novice sands so much' based on his knifework rather than mildly-thinned (not that I'm calling that wrong) spackle. I primarily mix/work it in the tray rather than the bucket, tho I do both.

You'll know if you got it when the only reason you sand at all is to feather the edge and blend them into the taped seam.

Agreed. I use a 6-in knife for everything and all I sand are the edges on the last coat.

I wouldn't even consider this a tip, because IMO it's not even an option, but never use drywall NAILS. Everybody has at least a can of them sitting around, but they pop over time and are the bane of drywall finishers. Throw 'em out: SCREWS ONLY.
Keep the top of the spackle in the pail smoothed over when done- it exposes less material to drying than deep knife gouges.
If you have larger gaps between sheets, like 1/4-in, push a 'backer coat' of spackle in and let it dry before you tape it. Large gaps allow the tape to 'pucker' sometimes.

 

[66 GMC Truckin]

www.drywallschool.com really helped me out a lot when I was learning how to mud. The other thing that helped the most was buying the right tools for the job. Don't buy cheap plastic trowels, buy the nice 10" and 12" metal drywall trowels to feather your tape joints out nicely. Small knife for use over screws and for first coat of tape mud only.

 

[1953mercury]

Best tip is to sub out drywall work.

This. I've done a lot of it over the years, and I can do nice work, but at my age, I'm done. Same for flat work. Mike

 

[Beaumont67]

I use:
- "Durabond 90" non-sanding on first 1 or 2 coats & fiberglass mess tape, rather than paper seam tape
- besides the extra wide trowel and a 90 degree corner trowel, I have the 4 piece stainless steel puddy knife set from Harbor Freight (cost $5.99/set)...all my mud applicators are s/s...makes cleanup easy & drywall tools never rust
- on a slight structural crack in plaster or drywall, I "V" the crack out and coat it first with PL adhesive
- add a tiny bit of string/snap line chalk to the last batch of mud, to easily identify the touch up/small repair spots once dried, that need final sand...colored mud is easy to see afterwards
- if I am fixing a hole in the wall (like from a door handle)...first I drywall screw plywood behind the hole...useless filling it with paper backing or spray foam
- check bottom wall corners with a metal carpenter square for trueness, otherwise the baseboard trim may not fit properly after painting...never want to loose the exact 90 degree corners, near the floor
- use a 2 ft. metal carpenter square (flat edge) to check mud leveling on wall seams
- low & high spots get market with a lead pencil, and fixed...an old 14" long auto body lead file works perfect to easily correct high spots, with little or no dust created, shaving mud off the wall, nice & flat

^^^^ Tips for a level 5 mud job.
- above technique is the skill set I recently trained my reno hired man with

 

[kbs2244]

Two things I won’t do.
Cement work and drywall.

In my mind it is as much an art as a science.
And I respect the art part.
There is a reason why cement guys sit around after a pour waiting for the “right time.”

Some of those guys I wouldn’t trust to replace the spark plug on a lawnmower.
But, if they have earned it, I will walk away, trusting them doing a multi $K job.

If you want to learn how to do it, more power to you.
Give me your phone number, I may call you.

 

[BD1]

Hang it and get a pro to do the tapping . Money well spent .

 

[Jason280]

Yes, hire someone else to do it...I hate anything drywall related!

 

[theknurl]

If you chose to use premixed bucket or boxed mud...you never..I repeat never ever use it straight from the bucket...you always put some in your pan and add a tiny bit of water to thin it down to a mayonase consistencey. Why do novice mudder sand so much? Cuz they use the stuff without thinning it down and it goes on thicker than it should.

Want to go from fresh drywall no mud or tape in the a.m. and have it taped textured and primed by 2pm....hot mud (and experience)

Learn to hold your knife right and use thin flexible blades...along with thin consistencey mud. You mud your joint and then put pressure on outside edge of knife blade on the unmudded wall and drag it over the freshly mudded edge...this knocks down that high edge and feathers it in.

Apply thin bedding coat and knock down clumps before they set up. Let first coat dry and don't sand....use your knife to cut/knock off clumpy spots and ridges...then apply second coat of mud. We never sanded a thing until the last coat and that was only to feather areas in.

You'll know if you got it when the only reason you sand at all is to feather the edge and blend them into the taped seam.

I hated it to until I learned how to mud efficiently, application is everything. For an example, you shouldn't spend more than an hour, if that, sanding a 24x24 garage-walls and ceilings....unless your going for a level 5 finish, which is basically the riddler award to cars fit and finish since a perfectly smooth wall takes hours of work to be perfect, and the people that pay for perfection, demand it...hence the serious upcharge to deliver it

Want to eliminate cracking in corners, or help thwart them 90% better...hot mud for bedding coat, hot mud for skim coat, then feather anything afterwards with a lightweight premixed compound that's wetted down to smooth consistencey. Hot mud dries through chemical reaction, like concrete, and does not shrink like premixed joint compound does, and is much much stronger...but believe me, you don't want to have to sand this stuff anymore than you would ever have too..definitely not a product for newbies/guys that **** at mudding.

+ 1,000 listen to the man

you're sanding a bunch? you put too much mud on......its way faster to put a 2nd coat on than sand a thick one off

 

[EdT]

I have hung a lot of sheetrock for an amateur and I have learned that, if you can afford it, hire a pro. It'll go faster and come out better. If you can't afford it, or you just like the challenge read and heed all of the above. I especially like "hot" mud for the bedding and all other coats except the last one. It really speeds things up and it doesn't shrink much because, as mentioned above, it cures rather than drys. From watching some pros working on my son's house I had an epiphany of sorts. One would normally think that mudding is an additive process and, at the end of the day, it is. There is more stuff on the wall than there used to be. However, the process of getting it there is subtractive. That is, generally cover the area being worked on and then, using a wide knife remove the mud down to the right level and, after each leveling stroke, put the excess mud back in the mud pan. Thats why the plastic ones have metal edges. So you can scrape the knife clean. Don't leave any mud on the surface that you don't want to be there. Don't try to do the whole job in one pass. It'll probably take three or four applications to get it flat.