Drywall News and New Products

I had to cut out a square piece of drywall recently for a repair and neatly replaced by fastening the cutout piece into plywood strips, as I show at http://www.drywallinfo.com/holerepair.html. My regular tools were stored away, so I thought I would try using a plastic taping knife my inlaw bought me as part of a putty knife kit. I thought to myself “I know how to tape and finish pretty well – I should be able to handle this job with this plastic knife OK”. Wow, was I wrong! The first coat went on somewhat OK, but then the whole job sort of turned ugly! This plastic knife can not, at all, be used to knock down the surface after a coat is put on. You can try all you want to “level out” the surface, but the wimpy plastic glides over the top or the plastic itself gets worn down. I did the best I could, and then put another coat on. The result is shown below. What a mess! Now at this point, when I was a beginner in drywall finishing, I would have gotten out the sanding block and gone to town, turning bumps and ridges into hills and valleys, and creating a big pile of drywall dust. But I now know better! Instead of sanding, I got my regular tools – metal taping knives of 4″ and 12″ width. I started with the 4″ knife, using both hands to knock the surface down, as shown in the photo. What this did was make my surface level. It did not get rid of all imperfections, but rather it gave me a surface where a wide thin coat could fill in any imperfections and give me a fairly level, filled-in surface.

And you can see in the bottom photo how I coat the level surface with a few 12″ wide fairly thin coats. After coating, I again knock down the surface and then coat with very light thinner coats applied with either my 12″ or my 4″ taping knives. As I get toward the end of the process, the coats get lighter and more thinned out. To get a perfect result, I use a trouble light to inspect as I touch up the final product. With this method, sanding is hardly needed, and in fact I have skipped sanding all together at times. But if you want, you can lightly sand after all coats are on with 220 grit using a circular motion and a sanding block. 

For many years, I advised those that emailed me drywall questions to avoid texture. I still do. Texture is nice, til you get a hole in your wall. Then repair becomes a big issue. Knockdown is not so bad, since one can reproduce the splattered joint compound that is then scraped down when partially dry without any special equipment, or at the worst, with the fairly inexpensive sprayer used. But popcorn ceiling is sprayed on with an expensive sprayer that requires a bit of skill to master its use. You may rent the sprayer if you have one available  (we couldn’t get one near us) but you still need to master the technique. Another big problem with texture repair is that you have a sharp line from texture to no texture – this takes a bit of prep to smooth out into a nice gradual transition. The only texture we have in our home is the popcorn ceiling texture that was on most of our ceilings when we bought the home – we are stuck with it.

Finally, out of necessity, I had to tackle texturing. We remodeled our kitchen and replaced boxed in areas above our old cabinets with cabinets extending to the ceiling – this resulted in an unsightly 5″ gap of no texture in front. I tried home-store spray can products. What a mess! Then it was suggested to try a paint additive. After a good job of prepping, which is described in detail at the main site drywallinfo.com,  I painted the ceiling with the paint + texture using a special texture roller. It worked like a charm – see photo at bottom!

I still say, however, avoid texture if you can!

Paint Additive & Special Roller

Rolling on The Textured Paint

Texture Repair All Finished!

Many times I have been emailed about what to do when a recess drywall edge is up against a non-recess edge. A photo of such edges is shown below. If you tape this joint as it is, you end up with tape that can not be properly embedded. What needs to be done is to first make the two edges level by filling in the recess. You could use joint compound, but this takes a while to dry and will shrink in and crack a little, so you are better off using a sand-able patching plaster – I use one from DAP. The patching plaster will dry quicker and shrink less. Use a 5 inch taping knife to level the surface, as shown below. Use the higher edge as a guide for the taping knife. After this is all dry, scrape the surface level in case any bumps are sticking up and then tape as using the butt-joint procedure.

In my kitchen remodel project, I generated a good amount of scrap pieces. Instead of chucking them in the trash right away, I laid them out along the edges of my wall. A few of them I had to cut, but that didn’t take long since I would only be using these as a tarp. They absorbed the water and compound quickly, so I ended up with a lot less on my feet as opposed to a plastic tarp. Also, they are nice for when you paint since they hug the wall. When finished with them, they can be discarded since you will no doubt generate a whole new batch of floor protectors in your next job. Or store them if you have the space.

drywall mold

Our Basement Functioned as a Dehumidifier!
In our first year in our new home, we had one of the hottest most humid summers of all our years here. And within the first week of the first heat wave, we noticed that the rug in the basement was wet! Also, we could feel a dampness on the floor and the walls. Also, the drywall near the floor (pictured left) accumulated some mold from both this humidity and also some previous water leakage. Since it was early in the season, the floor and walls were very cold, with temperatures in the 50′s. And that drywall near the floor was cold as well. The air, however, had a dew point in the low 60′s. What we came to realize is that the floors and walls were acting as a dehumidifier! Incidentally, I replaced the moldy drywall shown – see my drywall repair article with step-by-step instructions, including how to tape and finish damage like this without replacing all the drywall.

Solution #1 – Seal off the Moisture & Use a Dehumidifier
We very quickly realized what was going on, so we shut all the doors and windows leading to the basement, and started up our dehumidifier. Within a day or two, the moisture was gone from the rugs, floor and walls. The air within our basement now was drier and had a dew point lower than the temperature of our walls and floors, so the only condensation that was occurring was on the cooling coils of our dehumidifier. And there is a lot of moisture in humid air – gallons of it!

Solution #2 – Add an AC Unit
One of the problems of a dehumidifier is that it creates a lot of heat from the compressor used to cool its coils. Through the course of a summer, this can result in a basement that starts getting uncomfortably warm. So we bought an AC unit from Sears made to fit in a basement window. It was rated to cool about 800 square feet, which was most of our basement, and more than the area of the finished half. In addition, the AC unit will also condense out moisture from the air, helping to dry it even more. This combination of the dehumidifier, the AC unit, and closing off the basement, resulted in a very dry basement with absolutely no mold problems.

Make Use of Mother Nature, When You Can!
You will find that when the air outside is cool and dry enough, there is no need for the AC unit and the dehumidifier. Watch the dew point, as shown in your local weather conditions – Accuweather.com displays such data. If the dew point is below 50, open up the doors and windows and even place a fan to help push the air through – this can freshen up the basement nicely. Then, as the humidity climbs, shut everything up again and turn your dehumidifier and AC unit back on.

Recently, I helped a friend with his bathroom project. His home was very old and the walls and ceiling of his bathroom were plaster. He removed some of the walls to put in a new tub, and I taped the new drywall to the old plaster. But the plaster was not as even and smooth as the drywall, so I skim coated. To skim coat this, I placed a layer of joint compound on a low spot and then skimmed it off level. I added coats where ever needed. I did not put one thick coat over everything. The All-purpose compound shrunk in a bit, so I applied additional coats after scraping down.  Then, when I was all finished with all my joint work and coats, I lightly sanded the ceiling as well as the other work with 220 grit sand paper on an 8-inch long block using a random circular motion.

The result was a plaster ceiling that could pass for drywall that did not require all the additional demo of removing plaster. A video of me skim coating is shown below.

I am now in the process of renovating Drywallinfo.com, in response to what you have suggested and for other reasons. Here are changes that will be made:

• Major drywall taping pages will be cleaned up so the code does not cause problems with alternative browsers. These changes will consist of replacing excessive old code that I put in way back using FrontPage 2003 with up-to-date validated code that uses CSS and is error checked.
• A more comprehensive top menu so you may find this blog from any page.
• Videos converted to Flash format so users with Macs can view them. I did not realize this was a problem til some helpful site visitor pointed it out recently.

Hopefully, you find these changes helpful. It will take a bit of time to do all these changes, but I have already completed the drywallinfo home page and much of the the drywall taping joints page. As always, I welcome any input you have. Also, I will gladly help you with any drywall questions you have on your current drywall project. Contact me at mikesemail2000-drywall@yahoo.com .

Checking To Make Sure Screws Sit Below The Surface

My wife called me up from my office to watch Ask This Old House show how to finish  inside and outside drywall corners.

Outside Corners by Ask This Old House
First they showed outside corners. I was happy to see that they recommended using corner brace that was either all vinyl or all metal with no paper. (Paper-faced outside corner bead is to be avoided!) And I liked how they showed the application of coats. They left out several  seemingly-insignificant details however. First you must always, always, always scrape down the surface level before applying the next coat! A pimple-size bump of mud will give you a nice speed bump when you apply the next coat! It only takes a minute or two to knock off any such bumps before applying the next coat and it is essential to do. Another crucial step left out was to check to see that no fastening screws or nails were sticking up, as shown in the photo here – these will also mess up your job! My outside corner procedure includes these crucial steps.

Inside Corners by Ask This Old House
In their procedure, they recommended the paper-faced metal corner bead. Now this bead works nicely on the perfectly square sample mini-wall they demonstrated on but in reality, most walls are not so ideal. If your 8-ft long corner has even the slightest curve or bend in it, the nice perfect metal corner will not want to conform – the result is a pocket of air under part of the corner bead! Been there and done that! Instead, I prefer paper tape, which will follow the contour of the wall, using multiple steps to make a perfectly straight looking corner even if the corner you started out with was not straight, as shown in my inside  corner procedure.

Moral of the story: Don’t trust everything you see on TV!

Inside corners of drywall seem near impossible for the beginner to quickly tape and finish! This blog post covers some basics that I think will help:

• Use paper tape. NEVER mesh tape! Mesh is easily snagged by a taping knife, and that is very easy to do here since you are skimming down both sides of the corner.
• Do not use metal-backed corners that are mudded on. In theory, these seem like the perfect solution. But if you wall is not perfectly level, the metal will cause the corner to “pop off”, resulting in gaps in the mud underneath.
• Wet down the paper by very quickly passing through a bucket of water. Shake off the tape to remove most of the water. You don’t want the tape to be wet (and shred), just slightly dampened. A spray bottle would also work.
• Follow the procedure shown in the video below (there is audio to go with the diagram). Also, go to http://www.drywallinfo.com/insidecorners.html for detailed steps, photos, and videos.

Often the question is asked “Should I go with 8 foot sheets of drywall hung vertically or 12 foot sheets of drywall hung horizontally?” This article addresses that question and offers advice on a case-by-case basis.

Advantages of Hanging 8 ft Long Drywall

The one obvious advantage of 8 foot long pieces of drywall is the ability of a single person to pick up a full piece and position it in place. Twelve foot long pieces, unless you have unusual strength, are near impossible to handle alone. And if you have to fish a 12 foot long piece around corners and down stairs, it may be impossible.

You may transport 8 ft long drywall pieces within a closed full-sized SUV or truck bed or even in the back of many mini-vans (like a Grand Caravan). 12 ft pieces will require a fairly long trailer or require a delivery charge.

Another advantage of eight foot long pieces of drywall is that when sheets are placed vertically on walls, all seams lie within a recess. And this means you do not need to do the extra work involved in properly finishing a butt joint.

Advantages of Hanging 12 ft Long Drywall

One advantage of 12 ft long sheets is that you may cover an entire wall of a small room (less than 12 ft wide) with only two sheets fastened horizontally! And in general, if the width of an area is 12 feet or less, you can cover it with two sheets and a single recess joint running horizontally down the center.

12 foot long pieces of drywall, fastened horizontally will result in a stronger, more stable wall. I can vouch for this personally even though I use 8 ft sheets for nearly any remodeling job I do: When I hang drywall around windows or doors, I will usually hang the sheets horizontally so as to avoid a vertical seam at the edge of a door or window . This use of horizontal sheets around windows will add stability to the structure and reduce the seam cracks that occur at vertical seams during winter sub-zero temperatures. And, in fact, I have even removed drywall around windows where a vertical joint was cracking and replaced it with a horizontally orientated sheet.

12 ft sheets, hung horizontally will reduce the total amount of taping required.  For an 11-ft wide wall, only 11 total feet of taping is required vs. 16 ft of vertical taping for 8 ft sheets hung vertically. For a 13 foot wide wall,  one would have to use a total of four 12-ft sheets, cut down and staggered horizontally, resulting in 21 feet of taping, 8 ft of which would consist of butt joints. For 8 ft sheets hung vertically, there would be 24 ft of taping, all in recessed joints (no butt joints). So in both cases taping is reduced, but in the latter case, you have nearly as much taping and 8 ft of butt joints.

Conclusions

If you are a DIYer remodeling a wall or small room, 8 ft sheets are your best bet. In a remodel job, you lack the luxury of being able to freely move pieces through wide open spaces. Rather you must somehow snake a 12 ft piece around corners, furniture, etc and you will need help in moving the piece. Also, do you want to mess with a 12′ trailer or pay for delivery of 3 or 4 sheets of 12-ft long drywall? And even though 12 ft pieces offer more strength from being hung horizontally, you may still hang your 8 ft pieces horizontally around windows and doors where that strength is needed. In areas away from doors and windows, I have never noticed strength issues, like buckling or cracked seams, for vertically hung 8 ft sheets. Of course this recommendation is contingent on your local building codes.

If you are building new, I would recommend using the 12 ft sheets. You will most likely opt to have the drywall delivered anyway so that is not an issue. And you will probably not be doing this drywall job alone, at least I would not recommend it! You will probably want to rent or borrow a lift so that would help with the positioning of these longer, heavier, pieces. The 12 ft sheets will give you the best strength and will result in less taping. If you hire a taper, they will probably charge you no more for butt joints than recess joints so less taping could save you a little money as well.