dry wall finishing tips

I have done plenty of it, but mostly in basements where the dust is a little more tolerable. I always get it looking good but it seems like I have to do an awful lot of sanding to get there. I guess I get a little too generous with the compound. Anybody have any tips to keep the sanding down to a minimum? I have watched the pros do it and I am amazed at how little sanding they have to do. One room is in the main part of the house so I want to try to keep the dust down. It is on a ceiling and I only have to do the tapered joints. I hung twelve footers (that was fun) so I would not have any butt joints. Thanks for any tips.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

I keep sanding dust and sanding to a minimum....... I have a friend do the taping and finishing while I work on something else!!

I have found the longer the trowel blade the better I am and I am talking 2 foot blade.

I have also used an orbital sander to hit the high spots and WOW is that a mess...but Fast!

Re: dry wall finishing tips

Try mixing a little water to the mud. If you get it a little bit more runny it is easier to control the amount you are using.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

I worked at a place, where they installed about 1/4 mile of drywall and never used a piece of sandpaper. They did use a damp sponge for minor clean up.

Some I read where novices (which I am) often do not use a wide-enough spreader, to do the joints, which require a thin starter coat and then a wider finish coat.

Practice, practice, practice.

Good luck

Re: dry wall finishing tips

I've sanded with a piece of wet terry cloth on a sanding pad, works well, no dust. Keep a bucket of water close by and rinse often. Also those triangular electric detail sanders work great and not much dust. working on my office project now (incomplete web page)

Re: dry wall finishing tips

It takes lots of practice. I'll normally coat it three times only having to slightly sand a very little bit between the second and final (skim) coat. It is not something you can just pick up and do easily. It can be explained at length and you'll still never get it down till an experienced finisher shows you the way to do it.

The best I can tell you is mix the bucket well before you start. Use a half inch drill and a paddle mixer. Try to keep it from being too heavy, feather the edges smooth as you go, and most importantly once it's on the wall don't keep messing with it, it'll only get worse if you do.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

imported_FLATHEAD said:

It takes lots of practice. I'll normally coat it three times only having to slightly sand a very little bit between the second and final (skim) coat. It is not something you can just pick up and do easily. It can be explained at length and you'll still never get it down till an experienced finisher shows you the way to do it.

The best I can tell you is mix the bucket well before you start. Use a half inch drill and a paddle mixer. Try to keep it from being too heavy, feather the edges smooth as you go, and most importantly once it's on the wall don't keep messing with it, it'll only get worse if you do.

Click to expand...

This is the way I do it also, I've had a lot of practice, and use a wet sponge mostly to smooth it out in between, and after the last coat, if need be I use the mesh type sandpaper, it works best without getting clogged up.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

There are a few simple tricks to it. One of them lies in using a larger trowel for the finishing/skim coat. For the 1st coat you will make better time (coordination wise) using a 6" or 8" trowel. For the finishing coat I always use a 12" trowel and a hawk. As well you can get a 90degree corner trowel which I find kind of handy otherwise corners are a little tricky.
Another important element...maybe THE most important element is to keep your 'mud' clean, I mean GRIT FREE/Sanitary once you have finished with the 1st taping coat. The only time you re-use a 'skim-off' usually is in the 1st coat stage only. Later you will be picking up specs and grit and simply laying them down again somewhere else...hard to beat that. When you are done at the end of the day..throw the remaining mud on your trowel or on your 'hawk' in the garbage....DO NOT put it back in the 'mud' bucket. Keep that clean and all of the edges free of mud which will break/flake off into the mud and create endless grit...watch this it quickly starts to build up and fall back into your bucket and contaminate it. You'll never get it out if it gets in there. This will be very frustrating later when you are trying to finish up your job and hoping for a final pass without a bunch of grit lines being left behind.
Now after the 1st coat, which is where you lay your drywall tape, make sure you go around all of your seams and remove all high leftover ridges etc. Before you even think about starting your second coat use your trowel (not sandpaper) to lightly scrape down all of your seams you did prior. This will not create too much dust but will break off all of the excess bits that will contaminate your new 'mud'.
Remember when you do the 2nd/finishing coat you can always go back and fill in scratches and crevices. No sanding.
As for sanding...why would you sand much? Don't worry about the seam being 'high' or thick so long as it is wide and well tapered into the drywall around it. When you do your thicker 2nd coat try to keep pretty good pressure on the (12"+) trowel and keep it and a pretty steep angle as you pull it along. Do not 'over mud' this coat or as you trowel through it it will be pouring off the sides. If you limit the excess on this coat at best you will have a few voids.....easy to catch and fill a little later in the day. Don't try to re-fill them after you've made a coating 'pass'.
I'll leave off there for the moment but the most important points are:
-have/use a 6"/8" trowel for the 1st taping coat
-have/use a 12" or better trowel for the 2nd/finishing coat(s)
-consider getting a 90degree trowel to help with the corners.
-Never put 'used mud' back into your mud supply...ever. Throw it out.
-Keep all of your tools very clean.....not just at the end of the day but work to clean and sharpen them as you go...you should look like chef constantly sharpening his knife as you finish passes and clear your trowel for your next coat.
-Let grit lines be if you do a pass and they show up....get them later when the coat is dry. They will be easy to fill without disturbing your surrounding work.
-If you are patient with this you can probably get away with a light sand at the end just to take off a bit of the mudding texture.
Good luck...keep us posted.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

I've used the following device:

The sander is hollow and has a tube that comes out of it and goes to the bottom of a bucket. The bucket is covered and 3/4 filled with water. There is a tube that comes out of the top of the bucket (through the cover) and goes to a shop vac.

When you sand, you turn on the shop vac. The dust is sucked into the bottom of the bucket (under water) and then trapped by the water.

It works really well - keeps the dust trapped.

-V

Re: dry wall finishing tips

Thanks guys those are great tips. Bigprarie1 I always used throw the unused mud back in the bucket. Nothing would make me more angry then having grit lines in the seam thanks for the tip

Re: dry wall finishing tips

After I remodeled my first house I swore I'd never finish drywall again ;let the pro's do it. The guy that did my present house had a phobia of sandpaper. Big trowel and sponge.

turfman

Re: dry wall finishing tips

I have done so much drywall in my life, I see it when I sleep.

I started out by hanging... now, I hang and tape both. I don't mind it, but like most have stated, it takes alot of practice to get good... otherwise, you'll be sanding alot. There's nothing wrong with that. You can end up with the same results by sanding a bunch, it's just dirtier, and more tiring.

And, don't even get me started on the masks. "You don't use a mask?" Yeah.... wear glasses to see, and then put on one of those frickin' masks. Good luck with that.

I agree with many. I use a 14" trowel... some use a smaller trowel, or even a wide knife, but I have had the best results with my big 'ol trowel. The longer it is, the nicer your cornerbeads look, butt joints are troweled out further, and the flats are nice and, well, flat.

I put the pressure on HARD on the outside edge of the trowel. I raise it by an 1/8 or so in the middle of the joint. It saves the sanding on the outside edges of the joints. Most bad finishing jobs are usually on the edges of the mud lines. Pay particular attention to these areas. And remember... if you get too much, it's not the end of the world. Just a little more work at the end.

V1_0: When I used our little 'bucket dust catcher', it seemed like it sucked so hard that it pulled the sander tight to the wall. It worked good, but on large jobs, it just got too strenuous. Maybe you're a bigger man (or woman) than I am.

Re: dry wall finishing tips

Thanks for the tips. I have done two coats and all looks well. I used to apply so much compound that I would have to do quite a bit of sanding between each coat. Now I am done with the second and I don't think I will have to do any until maybe after the last. I think my biggest problem in the past was that I could not leave well enough alone. I would keep making passes with my knife, and that would only make matters worse. Hopefully i will get to the finish coat tomorrow that will be the big test. Thanks again

Re: dry wall finishing tips

Another trick is to take a light, i.e. flashlight and shine it perpendicular to the mud joints. You will see where the sanding ridges and shallows are. makes it easy to sand.