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Tips for finishing drywall
Once you have your drywall hung, here is the way to achieve a great finish, and it will involve a lot of dust, so cover and protect the floor and any openings into adjoining rooms. Remember throughout this process that the key word is thin coats.
The first thing you must do is to ensure that all of your nail or screw heads are recessed in the drywall surface. Whether you use nails or screws, go over your work carefully. You will need to run your hand over each screw head. If you didn’t do this as you installed them, do it now. Use a large hammer such as a drywall hatchet/hammer or a framing hammer, and pound the screw heads until they are recessed. Don’t worry if you dimple the board doing this, the joint compound will smooth it out.
You will need a new bucket of joint compound. If you have a leftover bucket that your Uncle Willard gave you from his bathroom project last month, thank him (he is your Uncle, you ungrateful kid) and throw it away when you get home. A new bucket of “mud” will not have any leftover dried up lumps and buggers hidden in it that will haunt you for the remainder of the project.
Collect your tools when you get your fresh mud. You will need a stainless steel mud pan, a six inch drywall knife, and a twelve inch drywall knife, both stainless steel as well. Don’t skimp and buy the cheapest tools, they will rust, and you will regret it every time you use them. Purchase sufficient paper drywall tape to cover all of the joints. Have your retractable razor knife handy, with a fresh blade installed. Have a drywall sanding pole and 60 or 80 grit sandpaper or screen for the sanding head, as well as a sanding sponge for hand work.
This is very important, discard any mud left in your pan at the end of the day, do not put it back in the bucket, it will have lumps, and you might as well have used Uncle Willard’s “bugger bucket”. Never scoop mud directly from the bucket to use on the wall, you will inevitably drop a hardened lump into the bucket, use your mud pan. Clean all of your tools very thoroughly after use with water, dry them off. Close the mud bucket securely at the end of the day with a hammer.
The next step is called the base, or scratch coat. Purists and pros alike will usually use paper tape for the jointing of boards. So, we’ll cover that method.
Use your six inch knife and scoop joint compound into your handheld mud pan. Some people will say that you have to mix the mud in the original bucket, using a drill and a paddle mixer. Years ago, that was true, but these days mud comes from the factory pretty smooth, so we’ll skip that step. Once you have mud in the pan, use your six inch knife, and spread it over the joint, following the direction of the joint. Press the mud into the joint, but leaving some mud on the surface of the board. Remember, thin coats. Once you have the joint covered, apply the paper tape, with the seam in the center of the tape facing into the mud, pressing it smooth as you go with your six inch knife, cut the excess paper ends with your razor. Mud goes past the tape ends. Go over each nail head with the mud, pressing the mud into the dimple and removing excess with the knife edge.
Leave your work alone for at least 24 hours to cure and harden. There is a lot of mud in those joints, so don’t rush it. Attach sandpaper to the pole head, lightly sand the joints and dimples. Then use the six inch knife to put more mud into the mud pan, use your twelve inch knife to spread a light coat over your previous coat. Once again, thin coats. Let this dry at least 6-8 hours before sanding as a final step. Be careful not to “burn” the paper drywall board surface by over sanding. Use your hand to check your work after sanding, feather out any overzealous edges with the six inch knife and more mud. You may need to repeat this step, depending on your skill level. Always, thin coats.
Any further imperfections in your work will show up when you prime the boards before painting, this is the time to perform any touch up for a perfect job. Go over your work carefully, and circle imperfections with a pencil so you can repair them all at the same time.
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