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Dummy does drywall

mwgaines | Posted in General Discussion on June 13, 2010 03:29am

My late father-in-law used to say “four inch putty” whenever he’d make a mistake with a measurement or a cut. Well, I may need a truckload of four inch putty. I’ve been installing drywall in my whole house remodel. Between the substandard framing, and my substandard workmanship, I’m now faced with mudding and taping multiple gaps and a few unsightly butt joints. There are some places where the corners at the ceiling have tapered gaps that get as wide as an inch. In fact, I don’t think there’s a perfect corner anywhere in the house. This is 1200 sq. ft. and I’m redoing walls and ceilings throughout. I’ve only put about half of it up so far, but I’d like to go ahead and mud, tape and sand what’s in place before installing the rest of it. Any products or techniques you can recommend for dealing with sloppy drywall installation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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  1. DonCanDo | Jun 13, 2010 04:35pm | #1

    Durabond (joint setting compound) can cure a host of ills, but a 1" gap is a lot to ask.  In that case, I would make a rectangular cut-out and put a new piece in there.  For gaps up to about 1/2", just fill it with Durabond before taping.  Make sure that there's some kind of backer otherwise you'll be trying to fill the entire stud bay.  It's important to have a secure backer because you need to push on the compound as you fill the gap to ensure that it sticks to the exposed edges of the drywall.

    Once the Durabond is dry, it can be sanded, but it's a lot more work than regular compound so try and keep it in plane as much as possible.  Also, don't tape until the Durabond is dry.  It will be hard long before it's dry so don't let that mislead you.

  2. calvin | Jun 13, 2010 04:48pm | #2

    MW

    Don's got it pretty right.

    I would use board when at all possible-glued and crammed-minimal screws as it'll tear up small pcs.  To get a close taper-mark it out on both sides and score both-pretty deep.  Use a straight edge.  A slight tap evenly on the floor will free it from your bigger pc.

    When prefilling with durabond-you don't have to be perfect-just perfectly flush or slightly shy of the face of the board.  Any that bulges downward (or outward) can be knifed off by scraping like you would the snods that protrude from the board.  Do that after it sets and isn't hard yet.  Peel it off.

    When putting the durabond into the gaps-fill them-pack it in, then clean off to the face of the board.

    Man, best of luck.

  3. Clewless1 | Jun 14, 2010 08:50am | #3

    My suggestion is to change your hanging technique to make life better when you go to mud, so this has nothing to do with mud (your question) and everything to do w/ the rest of your project.

    I hired my last drywall job out in spite of the fact that I've hung drywall off and on over the years for my projects. The guy I hired had a bad leg and worked alone. He hung 5/8 x 4 x 12 on cathedral ceilings by himself up to like 12 ft. He knew his stuff to say the least. I watched him as I tried to keep ahead of him while I finished numerous details in my rough ins. That was tough at times.

    A few tricks I learned that made life MUCH more easy in hanging ... First, don't try to hit the center of the framing member with the edge of the drywall. Let it run long into the middle of the framing bay ... you cut less drywall. Have some scrap plywood available (e.g. 1/2" stuff) that is like 4 ft x 3 inches. Run the drywall into the center of the bay and simply slap the plywood behind, screw the one edge to the plywood, then place your second piece. This saves a lot of cutting and measuring and is really a more stable joint than trying to catch the edge of the drywall w/ a fastener.

    Always hang the upper sheet first. Always take measurements from one end ... don't measure from opening to opening; measure each cut/hole from the same end. I worked with this same guy hanging my garage (he didn't charge me much more to work WITH me :)  ), and these couple of little tips made hanging drywall a sweet thing for me. Before, I seemed to do hack jobs that sound a lot like your stuff.

  4. DanH | Jun 20, 2010 07:47am | #4

    Re the mudding, less mud is more, especially when you have to put it on thick.  Plan on four passes (at least) on anything anywhere near ugly, and don't try to get a smooth finish until maybe the 3rd pass -- set the mud low/thin so you don't have to turn around and sand it off.

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