check with a building inspector
 

Drywall Finishing Tips
Resist the temptation to lower your quality standards. In this story, we’ll demonstrate tips and techniques that pros use
to avoid the most irritating slow-ups and flaws.
We show these tips roughly in the order you’d use
them—drywall prep, selecting your materials, applying the tape and three
coats of compound, and sanding to finish up. The pros we interviewed stressed a
methodical approach; if you skip a step, chances are you’ll lose time
later. Although you won’t be able to work with the speed and dexterity of
a pro, these tips will make your drywall taping go faster, and it’ll look
better for even the most inexperienced hand.
TIPS before taping . ..
Click image to enlarge.
1. Check for underdriven screws and nails. Slide a 6-in. drywall knife across all the
fasteners. A telltale metallic click will alert you to any that are left
protruding above the face of the drywall. The problem often occurs along
corners. Drive screws in with a twist of a Phillips screwdriver.
Click image to enlarge.
2. Tap nails slightly below the drywall face with a hammer. The curved face of the hammerhead should
set the nailhead in a shallow dimple, but the nailhead shouldn’t break through the paper or crush the stiff drywall core. A special drywall hammer is ideal for this, but a regular hammer will do if you’re careful.
Note:
We used water-resistant drywall for
visual contrast—the taped seams and strips are easier to see against its
green color. Don’t use water-resistant drywall on ceilings (it sags).
Also, check with a building inspector; many areas do not permit its use on
exterior house walls.
3. Trim away loose, torn paper with a sharp utility knife and cut the paper away from soft spots
where the gypsum core is crushed. This allows drywall compound to reach and
solidify these weak areas. A loose or torn paper surface will come back to
haunt you when it causes bubbles later or pokes through the
final finish.
Click image to enlarge.
4. Spray a stain-blocking primer over rough and torn areas to consolidate loose paper
fibers and seal in chemicals that can bleed through and stain the finish coat
of paint. (KILZ and BIN are two common brands available at paint stores.)
Ventilate the room well and wear a vapor-absorbing painter’s mask when
using solvent-based primers.
Apply setting compound to speed up drying times.
Click image to enlarge.
5. Nail metal corner
bead, leaving a 1/8-in. Gap along each flange as a pocket for drywall compound.
You should be able to run your taping knife along the bead and the drywall
surface without hitting a nailhead or scraping against the flanges. Use a
single length of bead for each corner. Otherwise, you’ll get a bump or
crease where two pieces join.
6. Fill deep gaps at drywall joints with setting-type compound. Setting compound,猛的一口把它咬死了, unlike regular
compound, hardens rapidly and doesn’t shrink. You can begin your taping
as soon as it hardens. You buy it powdered and mix it with water. It’s
available with a 30-, 60- or 90-minute hardening time from most stores that
sell drywall materials. Avoid the 30-minute stuff; it’ll harden in your
pan.
Click image to enlarge.
7. Apply setting-type compound to areas that need a deep fill,beats by dre, like the first coat over
corner bead. Once it hardens,casque dr dre, you can apply a second coat of regular drywall compound.
Click image to enlarge.
8. Shave off bulges in setting compound with your taping knife when the compound firms up a bit,mercurial vapor, to
about the consistency of bar soap. Deeply filled areas sometimes flow and bulge before they harden. Once it hardens, setting compound is difficult to sand down.
Click image to enlarge.
9. Fill gaps around electrical boxes with setting compound when the gap is larger than 1/8 in. Shut
off the electrical power at your main service panel first,我们打着&ldquo, before pulling out electrical switches or receptacles to fill around their plaster ears. Make sure the power is off by touching the neutral and hot wires with a voltage tester. More than one pro has spot-welded a taping knife to a hot wire,Casque Beats!
Click image to enlarge.
10. Clean your drywall mud pan and knife thoroughly before the setting-type compound begins to
harden. Leftover compound will catalyze and harden the next batch rapidly, before you can spread it. Heat also accelerates hardening, so on warm days mix the compound with cool water. Dump the leftover mud in a bucket, not down the sink, where it can harden and clog the drain.
Tape with smoothly mixed compound applied sparingly.
Click image to enlarge.
11. Stir premixed drywall compound with your taping knife until it’s smooth and creamy. It comes lumpy and stiff from the typical 5-gal. pail. If necessary, add water to thin it so it flows better off your knife. Apply the first coat of
mud and tape to cover the joints, then two additional coats to smooth the joints. Buy the “lightweight” all-purpose compound because it shrinks less.
Click image to enlarge.
12. Cover rows of screw or nail heads with one long sweep,Polo Ralph Lauren pas cher, scraping your knife against the paper to leave as little compound as possible on the surface. Make a second pass to scrape off all excess. Light coatings reduce mud buildup and ease the
messy job of sanding later. It takes three coats to completely hide the fasteners.
Sweat the details or they’ll show up as flaws later.
Click image to enlarge.
13. Tape troublesome butt joints by embedding your tape in a thin first coat, about 1/8 in. thick, that you
partially squish out when you apply the tape. (See Fig. A below.) After it dries, draw a second, third and even a fourth coat well out to each side of the joint to hide the ridge. Make each coat smooth and flat by running one end of a 12-in. knife along the tape and the other end along the dry-wall. (Many pros prefer using a 12-in. drywall trowel like we show here.) Check your progress by placing a 4-ft. straightedge on the wall across the joint. Hiding a butt joint takes patience,Casque Beats!
Fig. A Tapered And Butt Joints
Tapered joints are easy to cover because the two tapered edges of each sheet of drywall leave a pocket that you fill with drywall tape and compound.
Butt joints, the non-tapered ends of drywall sheets,tods, are difficult to hide because the tape protrudes above the wall surface. Pros avoid butt joints by installing longer sheets of drywall that reach from corner to corner.
Click image to enlarge.
14. Cut bubbled tape away with a sharp utility knife and recoat the area with compound. Don’t try to hide bubbles with a heavy layer of compound. They always show through.
Click image to enlarge.
15. Apply compound and tape over large gaps around electrical boxes if the gap will show beyond the edge of the cover plate. Fill the gaps first with setting compound (Photo 7). If the gap isn’t taped, the compound filler will slowly crumble.
Click image to enlarge.
16. Sand the compound lightly with a block and 120-grit sandpaper,到处都能见到红红绿绿的剪纸, concentrating on the edges where it blends into the drywall. Wear a dust mask,dre beats, eye protection and a hat for this dusty job.
Click image to enlarge.
17. Sand corners lightly with a dry sanding sponge. Recoat spots where the sanding breaks through and scuffs the paper tape. Otherwise, those spots will show through your paint later.