Tips on taping joints with no beveled edge?

Does anyone have any tips on taping joints that don't have a beveled edge? I have some interior corners and butt joints that I had to cut to fit, therefore there is no longer a beveled edge. I have cut it into the drywall in the past, to make room for the tape. Is there any easier way?

Thanks

 

I've never seen a pro cut into the drywall to make room for the tape. You can bevel the edge just a bit on the butt joints to remove any fuzzy paper and allow room for some mud, but otherwise just keep your mud to a minimum and feather it out properly.

The trim guy knows how to handle angles that aren't 90 degrees, actually he would probably fall over if any were exactly 90.

Bud

 

Your joint compound should be tapered ever so slightly from the paper to the rock. Start with your 6" knife and layer it with slight pressure away from the paper. After it dries you can sand it slightly if it needs it and proceed with a 9" knife, then a 12" knife if necessary. You should be able to lay your 12" knife across the joint and see no light between the blade and the wall. Then you will have a good joint. Takes time, but worth it.
There are more tricks and others will chime in I am sure.

 

I am by no means a good taper, but I often have to muddle my way through some taping. So here's what I know:

The joint you are referring to is called a butt joint, which is just like the joint formed when you butt the ends of 2 pieces of drywall together. Drywall only has tapered ends on 2 edges, the other 2 are not tapered, and when 2 of them meet, it is a butt joint. Butt joints need to be tapered out farther than your tapered edges would, so that the joint is very gradual, and hopefully not noticeable. So your joint usually ends up being about 20-24" wide, depending on the size knife you like to use.

The way I have done it:

1: prefill any gap between the sheets with mud, and allow this to dry.

2: tape the joint, using joint compound that is slightly thinned with water. Press the tape into the mud, and wipe it down tight to the wall with a 6" knife, removing any excess that you can squeeze out from behind the mud.

3: Once the tape is completely dry, I cover the tape with one coat of mud using a 12" knife, applying a nice even coat, being light with the pressure, trying to get the center as smooth as possible. I go right down the middle, make sure the tape is completely covered (trying to lay not quite 1/8" of mud over the tape... the thinner the better, but not so thin that you see the tape thru the mud.) If I leave globs along the edge, I "kill the edge" by running the knife down each side, just enough to get the globs. There is a technique to doing it... press most of the knife on the paper where there is no mud on the wall, and keep the other end raised about 1/4" off the mud, then quickly wipe the edges of the joint to clean them up. But I'm not tapering them perfectly at this point. that's next.

4: Once the previous coat is dry, I go down both sides of the joint with a 10" knife using more pressure this time- wiping the mud down tight so that I'm putting on only as much mud as is needed, not laying it on thick like the last coat... and leaving a space in the middle that is dry. When it leaves globs on both sides, I again "kill the edge" on both sides. I also will try to clean up the center globs by lightly skimming them off.

5: Hopefully the last coat is a skim coat, which is with the 10" knife. I apply mud down the center, wiping it down tight. Then I also skim the sides of the joint again, wiping them down tight. Anytime you leave a glob, you clean it up.

Between all of these coats, I do not sand. If there is a bump or a glob, I scrape it off with a 6" knife. Scraping between coats is always a good idea, IMO.

If any of the pros can give me any tips, I'd certainly welcome them. Not sure if I'm using the right size knife or not for the job. I know pro's are able to do it in 3 coats... tape, fill, skim, but I can never get it to look good in 3 coats. I'd like to know how I can get better at this... but not so good that I'm expected to do it all the time.

 

Your'e kidding? You mean you cut out the surface paper down to the chaulk, to make room for the tape?

I think people can get too anal over the mud tape thickness dilema. When actually, there isn't much of a dilema to it. Paper tape is thin. And it takes very little thickness of mud to get that tape to stick.

Since they invented plastic putty and broadknives, I have actually liked to use a plastic knife to lay the tape, especially in inside corners. No fear of cutting the tape in the corner, as you bear down.

And if say you are doing a vertical inside corner -instead of holding the plastic (or metal blade) level as you pull down - angle it downward toward the corner so that as you pull the knife down, the excess mud under the tape can squirt out the edge easier and quicker without gathering up under the tape, causing the tape to wrinkle.

You can also try to start in the middle of the tape run and pull your knife one direction (left or up), and then go back to the middle and pull the knife the other direction(right or down) to reduce the amount of mud that can potentially gather under the tape.

I have done lots of experimenting with methods over the years in rentals (excellent places to experiment). I have stood back and watched pros, and with several I have seen, I was not impressed, and told myself I was better (a little slower, but better).

I have done jobs so I could actually get away with no sanding at all if I wanted to (in as little as 2 coarts, or 2 coats plus a feather edge coat). I have seen guys who are pros and more 'regulars' at it than I (say general contractors who do lots of remodeling -who gob it on quickly, and then have sons/some young person do the dirty work and sand it smooth.

There are tricks.

Xsleeper sounds like he has a good method down pat.

I learned a trick years ago from a cracker jack carpenter/sheetrocker/mudder who, after he did butt joints, he ran his knife diagonally across the joint. And afterwards, you could not see any ridge! I have since tried that with the same result. Works especially nicely on remodel of bowed wall/crooked houses remodel work.

Also I have leaned that by 'backmudding', where you pull your knife backwards into already final-skimmed mud, that you wind up with no ridge also. You do not wind up with start-stop grooves/lines when you do that.

If you detest any sanding at all, I have found that if you have mud out where it meets the sheetrock, that is a little above the sheetrock paper - take and feather coat mud all your edges with thinned down mud, bearing the knife blade good and tight against the sheetrock paer side. You will not have to sand if you do that. And if you prefer to sand anyway, the sanding will only be just basically so you can feel for any flaws(that your eyes do not see) as you go.

 

Thanks for the input guys. This is the first good size room I have done, and as I am moving along the results are getting better and faster. Now that I think about it, cutting into the drywall is pretty anal!

 

The strength in drywall is in the paper, removing some of it
would be the same as having a 2" spackle patch.