Taping – which of these is the fastest
I’ve promised my sister I’d do the drywall finishing in her really big studio (with 12′ ceilings). She lives an hour away and is getting locals to hang it. They’re also going to finish the ceiling. (YES!!) But she wants to save money so that’s why I promised to do a freebie. Plus she lets me hunt her woods so I guess I owe her.
So the goal is: How fast can I possibly get this job done without causing future problems and having her tell me about it for years to come. She’s not too picky and it’s a messy metalworking studio so I don’t have to worry about any high end snootiness.
The way I see it, I have 3 options and wondered if anyone had an idea of which one would be quickest and have the least potential for trouble. I’m more worried about the first part though than the last part.
I do a pretty clean job without a whole lot of sanding needed.
1) Fiberglass tape and hot mud.
2) Wet N Stick tape and hot mud. Downside – you have to prefill all the joints. I did a test without prefilling and it didn’t work. After 3 mud coats you could still see the crack.
3) Banjo and hot mud.
I want to finish everything up on day 2 except for the sanding but there shouldn’t be much needed. She can do it herself if she gets fussed up over a few bumps. 🙂
I guess everyone has a preference…I don’t like fiberglass tape but whatever is the fastest is the most important. I’m thinking the fiberglass tape and hot mud is going to be but wanted to see what others that are more experienced have to say.
Maybe other ideas I haven’t thought of?
Replies
She's not too picky + fastest = gorilla tape.
#1
Paper in the corners though.
Finish last coat with green compound, so scratch and second with hot.
I like Durabond 90
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It all depends on you.
Some people just can't get the hang of hot mud. Guys who use it regularly can finish what you're talking about in one day.
If your taping skills are lacking and you end up with a lot of sanding, hot mud can be much harder to sand.
I'm an intermediate taper and would simply use 90 minute hot mud for filling large gaps prior to taping, taping and the first cover coat. The first cover coat after taping is applied with a curved trowel that provides a consistant crown over the joint. I'd need two additional coats with topping mud.
Hot mud still has water that must evaporate for the topping coats to dry quickly so turn on the fans and crank up the heat!
Best of luck
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
jdarylh1, I assume by "hot mud" you mean setting type compounds, there's "easy sand 90, 45, & 20, each with the indicated working/setting times, as the names imply, it's sandable after it's set, Durabond 90 on the other hand is not sandable, except maybe with a rasp!, I'd go with the fiberglass tape and easysand 90 on all your flat stuff, but unless you feel real confident go with paper and joint compound on the inside corners. I have used the fibeglass on inside corners but you gotta be real careful about getting it tucked into the corner, but like you said, "she's not picky". You can usually get two coats on w/ the setting type compounds in a day, then your final coat can be with joint compoud, since your doing a very thin layer to finish. Don't be to concerned with voids or "pulls" in the first coat, concentrate on "smoothness", voids , or air bubbles can be filled on the next coat , just get it on smooth and minimize the need for sanding, just do a light scraping with your taping knife prior to the next coat.
Geoff
P.S. don't mix paper tape with setting type compounds or fiberglass tape w/joint compound.
don't mix paper tape with setting type compounds or fiberglass tape w/joint compound
Why not, what happens if you do either?
Why not paper with hot mud? I've done it before and had no problems. Maybe I was lucky?
We do this a lot. We backfill with 20 minute easy sand. Come right back with tape and 45 minute easy sand. A few hours later a coat of 45 minute again. Last either 90 minute or green lable bucket mud if the air is warm and dry. The green lable is easier to sand but the 90 isn't bad.
We have never had any issue at all with paper tape and setting compound and do it almost weekly. DanT
You backfill everything? Isn't that double work? When you put your bedding coat down, that fills the joint just like the backfilling does. Since you're going fast, there must be a reason for doing it, I'm trying to figure it out.And you'd probably use hot mud in a banjo for taping since you're using paper?
Edited 11/17/2006 6:14 am ET by jdarylh1
We generally use a bucket full of water and a brush. I like it better than a hose personally.
We do backfill anything bigger than a 1/4". I just prefer to make sure. Back filling isn't a lengthy deal if the rock is hung fairly tight. We hang our own board so we can control that too.
Nope, no banjo. We still hand tape, mud but do sand with a PC power sander. I have looked at mud boxes a few times but we just don't do enough volume for it. DanT
Got another question...how do you do your hot mud clean up when it's winter? Bring a hose and hook it to the client's hose bib just like in summer? Some folks turn off their outside water in the winter.One trick I did when I had to do some cleanup at my house was to hook a "Y" adapter with adjusters on it to my washer hookup, run a hose out the basement window, then I had nice warm water to do the washup in.
With your method, how many boards (or sq. ft.) do you think an average taper could finish in one day, ready for sanding the next? Assuming a normal number of butts and corners and assuming he was buy himself and had to do all the cleanup & mixing?
We do a lot of bathroom remodels and few kitchens. Small stuff compared to a lot of guys here. So I would have no honest idea. We have done a few jobs that had 80-100 sheets. But they were done in stages. But in a bath we or kitchen we can obviously have it ready to sand in a day as long as the air is dry enough. Tempature has limited affect, humidity is where it is at when it comes to mud drying time. And that is true with setting compound as well. DanT
Man, trowels are tough to use. I got rid of mine. I've got a bunch of different size knives that I like better. I put a center bend in one but took it out after a while, I just didn't like using it that way.
For myself the curved trowel is the #1 tool that speeds up the process. Just having a uniform crown over the tape is a lifesaver. Then the following coats are all essentially applied flat from the crown to the rock with a knife. Gone are messing with coats that are too thin (down to the tape) or too thick (causing bumps), or guessing how much crown is being left.
The guys I've seen that can't get the curved trowel to work try to use it to apply the mud as well as strike it off, while the mud is more quickly applied with a 6" or 8" knife. The curved trowel only shapes it to the 3/32" to 1/16" crown.
Sometimes guys will also have trouble by worring about getting smooth edges with the curved trowel. It's only purpose is to leave behind a uniform crown, and the edges can be a rough as a cobb without problems since they get filled completely on the next coats.
What I can never get to work well are the standard corner trowels. For really straight corners I use a flat knife until the last coat, but usually cuss the corner trowels the whole way.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
I've never seen a corner trowel on tapers jobsite.
blue
I've never seen a corner trowel on tapers jobsite.
It's rare to see any kind of trowel with todays high-tech taping tools.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
"I've never seen a corner trowel on tapers jobsite."Odd...all the free hand tapers I know have and use them including myself. You get good with one, you can do it in one pass.Most the pro taping I see anymore is done with the bazooka and mudbox. I use a banjo, they're nice.
I like the corner trowel too. One pass and it's done, especially when you're bedding the tape. My narrow one is worthless. It's the wide one that does the best job. I don't think you get quite as sharp a corner with it though. But maybe no one would notice the difference except another taper.
Well, maybe I'll try it again sometime. I watched one guy on a crew who was really good at it. He used it to apply the mud also and his edges were pretty smooth. It looked so easy, that's when I went out and bought the one I had, which I then promptly got rid of. A lot of stuff that looks easy, ain't.
4) Pay a local "pro" crew yourself (can you tell I hate taping?). If they're anything like the DW crews around here, they're mostly recent immigrants whose paperwork status is ambiguous at best; i.e.,., they do very good work for reasonable $$$.
Naw, I'm too cheap to spend the money on that - I'd rather spend it on another tree stand. Plus I like taping real well. Unless it's a ceiling.
be care full somtimes working for family causes problems good luck