Drywall

I have spoken with many who try taping drywalls themselves and end up with a catastrophy. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) did not repair gaps properly which showed through the final result or cracked later on.

2) Put filler on the walls very thick in order to save time. They ended up with a nightmare of a job trying to sand it all down. (most common excuse)

3) Often the sanding was not good enough and would show through the paint or wallpaper.

4) Often the tape was not hung properly which resulted in cracks and tapelines anyway?

TIPS: Think before you start!
1)If you make more money per hour than the profesionels, Then let them do it :-)

2) It always and I mean always takes more time than you first realize!

3) Is all that time and work realy worth it?

4) Maybe it would be a good idea to let the pro do the realy difficult work and I do the rest?

5) I have known people to have nervous breakdowns with all the stress! Maybe you should just leave the whole job to the profesionals? Then you have a guarentee with a great job and you can use your time elsewhere :-)

Ok Drywall taping is a tough one for most who don,t do it on a daily basis. Here are some basic rules to do first if you plan to do it yourself:

YOUR CHECK LIST:

1) Check that the wall does not have any inside damage. Like bubbles or broken plaster under the paper. Tear off anything that looks loose. Also check for wide gaps. Often seen above door ways and in corners. Use a stanley knife or cutting tool and cut along the edge on both sides. Reason for this is so that the plaster has something to cling too!. Make sure all screws are screwed in properly!

2) Fill the wide cracks and holes with a filler rapeir kit or some quick drying hard filler. Ask your local suplier about this if in doubt!

3) Like the photo here its smart to use a piece of drywall to fill in larger area,s. Make sure the edges are not loose though, Cut round them with a Stanley knife or cutting tool.

4) Sparkel/Fill round cracks, keep it thin.

5) On conrners there is often a metal strip for better support. Check that this is pressed well into the wall. Check all screws/nails are screwed in properly.

For translatin reasons I could call this MUD/Filler or sparkel. But here we will call it MUD since there is only three letters :-)

YOUR CHECK LIST:

1) you may have to sand down your repair work a little here and there depending if you remembered to apply the mud thinly or not? The photo here shows tape that is not centered properly. Avoid this!

2) Apply the mud side ways covering the cracks between the boards. Do one length at a time. Remember to scrape off excess mud. All you need is enough mud to make sure the tape has something to stick too.

3) Hold the roll of tape on top and roll it down the middle following the crack line. use your fingers to put it in place. (Alternatively cut of the length you need)

4) use your trowel. press this on the top part and drag it down the tape removing all the excess mud.

5) Normaly two aplications of mud are required afterwards, But pay special atention to side walls by the window. If you stand by the side of the wall and look along the wall, You can see if more mud is needed? When the sun shines in the window the side wall is the one that shows the most!

6) When applying second mud coat, Use a wider trowel in order to cover the tape and minimize uneaven-ness. A little wider with the third mud coat

Tip: I always apply mud thin on thin, that way I have little or no sanding between coats.

Well actualy there is more than one way to tape anything. I mention the easier tecniques here though!

Your check list:

1)Apply mud to the corner. Remember the tape is not that wide so the sparkel does not have to be either. Apply enough mud to cover the whole corner.

2) place the tape into the corner using your trowel to center it. Be carefull not to push the tape too hard as it may split!

3) Remove excess sparkel

4) When dry, Apply mud to one side of the corner at a time and let dry. Its the easiest method, But can take longer time. Alternatively use a corner mud trowel of you have one?

5) Corners don,t normaly need more sparkel than between boards.

Ok you should have a sanding poll. Doing this by hand alone would be a nightmare! I use a machine, But I do this every day. You probably don,t? :-)

YOUR CHECK LIST:

1) Sand all the corners by hand until completely smooth.

2) use a sanding poll to sand the rest. Sandpapir nr120 if sanding on a hard drywall compound. Nr150 if sanding on a medium compound.

3) Sand up and down. Not sideways. The idea is to sand down the edges so that you cannot feel the lines. Sand a little in the middle to to take away the roughness.

4) Watch out for small pouruss bubbles in the mud! It may be that you put on to much mud? Those have to be sanded down.

5) Vacum and prime walls after sanding. Then use a work lamp and go round and touch up missed ereas, Bubbles ect.

For an amatur there are a couple of methods I use when working on the celing/Roof:

YOUR CHECK LIST:

1)Apply the mud the same as you do for the walls Sideways and then even it of. Mud one length at a time. Apply the tape same as for walls. (Alternatively you can also roll the mud on with a roller)

2) press your trowel into the tape and drag lengthwize removing excess mud in the process.

3) After drying apply two more coats. Roofs dont need to be as wide as the walls do though. But if in doubt? too wide is better!

4) Sand as you do on walls using a sanding poll

Tip 1: Tapeing roofs can be very strenous on your neck and arms. Make sure you stretch out before and after. Try not to bend your head backwards too often. This can damage the nerves below your neck at the top of your spine which can lead to other problems!

Tip 2: Try applying mud on one wall or roof at a time in order to avoid too much strain on your neck and back! Or let a profesional do it :)

If you have a room that has been papered before and you are thinking of papering over the wall, Then here are some tips:

1) Make sure all wall fixtures are removed and that you have plenty of space to work.

2) If the paper is easy to remove, Then you should consider removing it!

3) Use good lighting, Like a halogen lamp. Its easy to miss stuff on a wall, Especialy where the sun shines in.

4) If removing the paper proves too difficult? Then you may want to cut circles round all the bubbles. Bumpy area,s can be hammered in or cut out,Remove lining paper behind by wetting it first. Also cut off loose edges like between joints and especialy in corners. A good method of checking just how much damage a wall has is to wet it with a sponge.

5) If your old paper is vinyl or painted from before, Then you may need to prime it first? You can ask your local dealer about this if you are not sure or drop me a line?

6) Apply mud to the damaged area,s. If your paper is bumpy all over, Then you may have to apply a thin layer of mud to the whole wall? See point 2) above again :-) You can also sparkel wide on area,s that may not look straight. You can use a long straight peice of wood on the wall to see just how uneven or even it is!

7) Sand the walls. Preferably with a sanding poll, But go over it by hand too just to check that all is smooth!

8) Sometimes its neccesary to prime ontop of the mudded area,s, But not always.

For other help see my other painting lenses or visit my site Headed Vaktmester on this lens!

A lady came to me and asked why the corners of her wallpaper had ladders/wrinkles in it after hanging it onto drywall. The lady had done her own mud work. But chose not to mud & tape the corners.

In some cases its not neccesary to tape the corners, But that all depends on what you plan to hang on the wall afterwards!. This lady chose a very thin wallpaper. I was surprized that it even lasted 6 months? :-) So here is some more free advice:

If you are doing your own mud work and plan to hang wallpaper, Then it might be a good idea to use a thick wallpaper as apposed to a thin wallpaper and as far as corners go, Mud & Tape them anyway just to be safe :-)

Question:

How wide should I apply the mud??

Answer:

That depends on the area. I make each coat a little wider than the first, But how much you need to apply depends on the area. If you are using the proper tools like the ones shown below on Amazon or similar then use the width of the tools as a guide.

Here are some more helpful tips based on questions from my customers and others:

1) Sitting room wall: If the sun shines directly on a large wall then its smart to apply a wide coat. Why? Because the sun will show all. often you can see this by looking along the edge of your wall. If you are not sure then find a long straight piece of wood and place it against the wall. If the wall is uneven then placing furniture against the wall will be uneven too.

Question:

Do I need to use the same amount of mud on corners?

Answer:

The same amount maybe, But it does not have to be too wide as long as the corner is not too damaged. I normaly apply two coats after the tape is stuck.

Question:

How can I avoid too much sanding?

Answer:

Apply the mud thinly and a little wider on each coat. If you do this correctly you may avoid sanding until the last coat. Also when applying mud to corners just apply one side at a time, Let it dry before doing the other side. This can often make it more easy to sand afterwards.

Question:

Width on a roof/Ceiling?

Answer:

I apply the mud wide on the short lengths and less on the long lengths, But that may differ depending on where the sun shines in. For someone who is doing this at home I would just stick to the same width for everything. Better to be safe than sorry!

Question:

What should I know about screws?

Answer.

They should be rust free. keep a screwdriver nearby. I apply the mud on screws x2 but to make it easier to sand its better to run your tool up the length of the screws. If you mud each screw individualy then you run the risk of having to sand around it instead of up and down the whole length of the wall.

Question:

Do corners have to have metal strips?

Answer:

Yes if you want a strong corner. You can make a corner look good without the metal strip, But it will crack pritty soon afterwards.

Question:

How do I a work with an outward corner?

Answer:

1) Make sure the metal strip is properly atached to the wall. Flatten it into the wall as much as possible and make sure the edges are not loose or sticking out. The reason being that even after you sparkel it can still crack between the wall and the metal strip.

2) Apply the mud side ways down the edge of the wall and then pressing your mud tool against the wall and the edge of the strip, Run it up the wall removing the excess mud. I prefer to use a quick dry harder mud. Years of experience has taught me that using what most tell you too use today does not work.

3) Normaly this procedure should only need to be done twice, But that all depends on the wall. Use your wide mud tool as a measuring device. You will see a gap between each edge of the tool if it needs more sparkel.

I have added some of my own pictures below. Taken from projects I have looked at over the past 6 months. All of this work was done byhome owners. Not profesionals. I was there to fix there mess!

These pictures I took before I began and in each case the customer payed for it because they should not have begun in the first place!