I’ve got some wavy walls and when I the trim up, there are gaps. Most gaps are very thin and can be filled with caulk. There are some parts that are really wide though…more than 1/8″, some 1/4″.
How do you guys fill the gaps? Joint compound? Wood strips?
Please don’t say mighty putty. I don’t care if that stuff works, I won’t use it based on ethics. I think those commercials should be banned.
Is there a wood putty product that can be kneaded and worked into the gaps? I have used wood putty to fill nail holes but it doesn’t seem to be kneadable product.
Replies
Try some Durham water putty. It's a dry mix that you add water to and it makes a very hard wood fill. Elmers also has a water putty that works well and it sands a little easier.
Since you're adding as much or as little water as you like, you can make a loose or stiff mix, but I wouldn't call it exactly kneadable.
Agree with Don. It's called Durhams Rock Hard, comes in a round red and yellow can like a big beer can. Great stuff.
Be careful when you mix it, it takes less water than you think. I have heard stories of people who added too much water, and then discovered there wasn't enough dry powder left in the can to get the mix right. So then you loose the whole batch. Never happened to me, but I have heard the story from a reputable source."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I'm with Don, Durham's is pretty versatile stuff and cheap n ez.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
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Fill the gaps by floating the wall with joint compound. Nobody wants to see the edge of your trim vary by 1/4".
did you try to find a stud to nail to where the gaps are maybe you need to find the closest one and push and nail, I agree with the putting on some mud theory, but 1/8 inch is easilly caukable hard to notice that.
I gotta ask
paint grade trim or
stain grade trim
huge difference
silver
Backer rod.
If your trim job requires backer rod you might want to consider another profession....
DITTO that..............
Thanks all. I'll look for the Durham.
It's paint grade trim. fyi - I've also started floating the joint compound to minimize the gaps too. Finally starting to get decent at feathering jc. Wish I did that in other rooms.
mornin'paint grade-no worries...fuggetabout the water putty-too much like work
INHOcaulk the gap with dap dynaflex 230-brilliant white. Wipe off excise with a damp rag. Will fill up to 3/8" no prob.Mark where the casing goes...score a line 1/4" in from line-smash drywall with hammer or block...should reduce all dw gaps to 1/4" or less.Also smack casing with block to help suck in it-then minimal caulking...and the dap makes paintgrade casing and base look seamless.get a bigger hammer cheers,
silver
I really hate the jobs where the base just ends up snaking in and out. I will usually advise the HO or supervisor of the situation and suggest fixes as floating mud out, caulking, cutting in, etc., and the resulting appearance of said fixes. I have had a couple situations where we went back and fixed the framing. On new work the wavy thing is unacceptable.
I made some dome top mdf casing once and when I went to fit it the rock was out 3/8" to 1/2" around the top of the window.So I set up a dado in the tablesaw and rabbeted the outside edge of the round casing 3/8" deep by 1-1/2" wide...after I beat the drywall and a bit of caulk...no problem...seamlessIn my wurld if caulk can't fix it, the tablesaw can. <g> silver
Do you feather with a sponge? On textured DW you can't get rid of that visible edge with a blade, so I use a sponge - after the compound has dried - to feather the edges smoothly, working from inside-out. Then a bit of texture spray overlapping the boundary and the patched area ends up hard to find.
BruceT
I have a section of a wall where the drywall is like an ocean wave. The drywall was laid horizontally one on top of the other. The top one is noticeably "inward" compared to the bottom.
I've been feathering by applying very thin coats of jc and working outwards from the joint...I'm talking really thin and I'm up to about 5 coats. The spackled area is now about 18" top to bottom but it's really smooth and there is hardly a wave. I checked after each coat using my level as a straight edge.
I used a 12 inch putty knife to spread/feather and then used the fine grit side of a drywall sanding sponge for the final sanding. It's really smooth now so I'm all set to prime it. Crossing my fingers because that's the biggest wall / joint compound patch I've ever done.
Edited 9/14/2008 4:39 pm ET by emaxxman00
working outwards from the joint...I'm talking really thin and I'm up to about 5 coats. The spackled area is now about 18" top to bottom ..... I used a 12 inch putty knife to spread/feather
A butt joint (or other bad joint) commonly is 24" wide when finished, but we do it in 3 or 4 coats. Nothing wrong with using more and thinner coats except that it takes a long time. You might also want to invest in a 16" gyprock trowel (not a knife) for those big joints. Makes life a lot easier and gives better results (less sanding required).
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Here's a related question- what about gaps due to drywall finishing rather than wavy framing?
I know most here favour horizontally applied drywall, but then your window and door casings had better be pretty flimsy and flexible or else they're going to be gappy above/below the horizontal butt joint in the drywall- with one of those gaps being pretty near eye level.
Vertical drywall means no (or fewer noticeable) problems for the casings, but lots of gaps in the base, unless it's flimsy stuff. But at least that's down low where it's not as easily noticed!
I had the latter, with very stiff poplar baseboard, and was cursing the drywall finisher while I was trimming. His butt seams were all very heavy at the base. And it was easier to argue with him than with the framer, because I framed it!
Don't follow you on the butt joints, molten. Horizontal hanging leaves the vertical joints as butts, not the horizontal ones. And with vertical hanging there won't be any butt joints at all...which is why I almost always hang vertically. Only place I'll hang horizontally is in a closet or other place where the sheet spans the entire width of the wall.
A good taper will leave the surface of a tapered joint dead flush with the DW surface from top to bottom. There shouldn't be any gap or bulge where the baseboard is applied.
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
Dinosaur: sorry for the brain fart on my part: you're right- vertical = no butt joints, since it's all factory edges. Except my taper wasn't so skillful...it seems he bulged EVERY joint, whether it was factory or butt.
The good horizontal guys "cheat" the butt joints by forcing the sheet material to bulge inward so they can finish it flush. And they leave only factory joints under the casings. Or they use really long sheets and eliminate the butt joints on all but the longest walls.
The good horizontal guys "cheat" the butt joints by forcing the sheet material to bulge inward so they can finish it flush.
Yeah, I've seen that. You put a back-blocking cleat between the studs/joists and screw the cut edges to that, so the joint falls in the void and is hauled back into the stud bay a tad. But there are no specialty gyprock suppliers in this area and getting anything fancier than Strait-flex corner tape just doesn't happen. (Typical response from the idiot behind the counter: "Back-blocking cleats? Gyprock shims? Whatchu talking about, Wilbur? I never heered of 'em. Ain't no such thing....")
There's ways to do that without factory cleats, tho; here's Myron Ferguson's method using nothing but gyprock scraps and a piece of lath:
Screw a couple of 3"x48" scraps to the insides of the studs; set them 5/8" from the front edge of the stud. Then place a 48"-long scrap between the studs so it sits on those ledgers. Float some mud on that with a notched trowel, then hang your full sheets of 'rock so the butt edges wind up right in the middle of the stud bay, bedded in the mud on the backer. Place a 48"-long piece of ¼"x1" lath right over the butt joint, and then screw a temporary brace made of scrap gyprock over the joint to force it back inwards. The lath will push the butt edges back below the face plane of the 'rock and into the mud behind them. Once that mud is dry, you pull off the temporary brace and the lath and should have a recessed butt joint that can be taped like a tapered joint.
(Even Myron admits this is complicated and time consuming, tho, LOL....)
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not broughtlow by this? For thine evil pales before that whichfoolish men call Justice....
try mighty putty ;)
yep I change my oil every 3000
miles or when I get bored...
which ever comes first