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Correct order of taping and mudding joints ?

Correct order of taping and mudding joints ?


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Old 01-31-14, 11:28 PM
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Correct order of taping and mudding joints ?

Which order is the best for this room? The walls were already finished and painted by a previous owner, so we have the following:

1) Ceiling with butt and taper joints

2) Inside corners where ceiling meets the walls

3) Soffit with inside and outside corners

Thanks.
 
  #2  
Old 02-01-14, 04:51 AM
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I'm not sure what you are asking was the drywall not finished before it was painted What type of paint? enamel or flat?

Normally you prefill any large gaps if needed. Once that has dried you apply a thin layer of mud, press the tape into the wet mud and then smooth it out with drywall knife removing any excess mud in the process. Inside corners are done the same way except you fold the paper tape down the crease. This coat must dry before applying the second!! Generally it takes 3 coats of mud with the final coat being sanded. You'd need to remove the sanding dust before applying texture or primer.

Outside corners require the installation of corner bead.
 
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Old 02-01-14, 06:25 AM
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In the other thread, he mentioned that the new drywall is just ceiling and soffits. Knowing that, the question makes more sense. The walls are finished and painted. The ceiling and soffits are not.

As far as the order is concerned, that's a hard one to answer, since we can't see what you see. Personally, not being a professional drywall finisher and not having the "flat boxes" and "corner boxes" that they do, doing things by hand is a little different.

Taping can be done in any order, although I would probably tape butt joints first, tapered joints second and all the inside corners last. The tape just overlaps better that way, IMO.

Now the order of finishing. There is not "correct order" but the issue for me is dry time. I hate it when one joint crosses another and I'm dragging my knife through what I just coated and then I'm screwing it up. So- that's one of the main reasons I use the dry bag mud on small jobs, and mix up a pan at a time. It's the dry time. (mixing a pan up by hand takes just a minute or two and doesn't wear out your arm) If you mix up a pan of say, 20 minute mud and coat all the butt joints, for example... by the time you mix up another pan, and start to coat the tapered joints (and crisscross the ends of your butt joints) the ends of the butt joints are starting to set up. So the ends of your knife won't make a significant "mark" as they cross the wet mud on the butt joint. For me, not being the "best" finisher, it just makes for a neater looking job and less sanding.

You could say something similar regarding areas where your corner angles will meet any butt joints or tapered joints. I have found that coating one side of the corner angles at a time works best for me, using just a plain old 4" knife for the first coat and a 6" knife for the 2nd coat. Once one side of the angle is dry then your knife won't make such a mess of the corner when you coat the other side.

So if I am picturing things correctly, I would probably do it in this order:

Coat one side of angles (the side that most tapered joints will intersect)
Coat all butt joints
Coat one side of corner bead
Coat all tapered joints
Coat opposite side of angles (on painted walls)
Coat opposite side of corner bead

Maybe you can see how the hot mud would help in the order above. While you are busy coating something else, the hot mud is setting up on the last item... so that when you proceed to the next step, you aren't dragging the knife through really wet mud and leaving lots of grooves in it.

This is just how I would do it, it's certainly not "the way" everyone would. I wish tightcoat would chime in.
 
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Old 02-01-14, 10:17 PM
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Thanks guys. What do you recommend for sanding for a beginner? Sandpaper or 3M sanding sponges? I noticed they are rated as medium, fine, very fine, etc. I don't have a sanding pole. I'm just going to do it by hand.
 
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Old 02-02-14, 04:02 AM
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You really should get a sanding pole or at least something rigid to hole the sandpaper flat! sanding sponges are great but they won't level off the j/c if it wasn't applied level. Generally a novice has to do more sanding than someone with more experience. If the j/c is wavy and you just use a sponge [or sandpaper in your hand], the result will be smooth but still wavy finish.

The coarsest grit you'd use for sanding j/c is 80 grit, no need for a grit finer than 120.
 
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Old 02-02-14, 06:12 AM
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I agree. If you don't want to use a sanding pole (I think after sanding for 5 minutes above your head you will want one) at least get a hand sander that's shaped like a trowel, which holds the sandpaper.

Use a 6" knife to scrape down any gloobies that you can knock off, like on any edges or on corner bead. Drywall sanding screen is usually a little faster than sandpaper. But sandpaper should definitely be what you use last to finish the wall.

Will you be texturing the ceiling at all?
 
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Old 02-02-14, 11:47 AM
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Thanks. No, I don't think the ceiling will have any texture. So using only sanding sponges is a bad idea? I just need to sand an 18' X 18' ceiling(new drywall).

Is wet sanding even a possibility?
 
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Old 02-02-14, 12:13 PM
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Trying to think of how to put this... you probably aren't a professional drywall finisher- and even I am not- and so it is harder for guys like us to get "perfect" results, and a smooth finish on a ceiling doesn't happen by chance. Shadows show up on a ceiling due to the way the light scatters across it. The tendency with a sponge is to only sand the edges that you can see and leave a hump across the joint, which probably won't be invisible. A lot of it depends on your skill and how good of a job you apply the mud. I think marksr said something in another thread about thin coats of mud, even if it takes 4 coats, it's better than trying to do it all in a couple heavy coats which might lead to a lot of sanding.

If you want professional results... professionals use sanding poles and power sanders. A sanding sponge may kill the edges, but you aren't going to sand down a hump with a 2" x 3" sanding sponge. I think marksr already commented on wet sanding too, that it isn't going to smooth out a surface that's still wavy. It all comes down to how well the joint compound was applied. And as a rule, when you aren't a professional drywall finisher it is automatically going to mean you will have to do a lot more sanding and possibly some additional skim coats and then even more sanding to get the same results.
 
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Old 02-02-14, 12:19 PM
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Thanks AGAIN!!

When mudding the wall/ceiling intersection, is it best for a beginner to use a corner tool, or do one edge one day, and the other edge the next day?

Outside corner beads - Are both edges done at the same time, or one edge one day, and the other edge the next day?
 
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Old 02-02-14, 12:30 PM
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Personally, I only use the corner tool for embedding the paper tape in the mud, wiping it down as tight as possible. Even then you still probably will use a 4 or 6" knife to wipe up the mess and go over each side one last time to ensure you didn't miss anything.

For the coats following that, I do just one side of the inside corners at a time. I have had better luck doing that than I have had when using a corner trowel. The corner trowel kind of is hard to wield at the start and finish, and I end up spending more time fixing the mess it makes. Doing one side at a time works for me. Doing outside corners isn't quite as tricky, so you might be able to coat both sides of an outside corner at the same time.

Keep us posted how it turns out.
 
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Old 02-02-14, 12:56 PM
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I've never used one of those corner knifes. IMO it's no big deal to tape an inside corner using a 3" [or slightly larger] knife. It is easier to mud one side at a time for subsequent coats. As in anything - practice makes perfect. The outside corners are easy as you use the edge of the corner bead as a guide, the edge doesn't get covered with mud.

I normally tape with a 3" offset knife, apply the 2nd coat with a 6" and use a 10" or 12" for the final coat. A diyer can probably get by with just a 4" or 5" knife and a 10"

A wet sponge works great when dust needs to be controlled but it will not fix any uneven mud, it only smooths it out. I often use a wet drywall sponge [looks similar to a grout float] on repairs in occupied homes but no way am I good enough to do a whole house that way. A novice would need to be extremely talented or lucky to get a good job without a sanding pole or something to hold the sandpaper flat.
 
 

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