Drywall News and New Products

My father-in-law had his drywall professionally finished on his high arched ceilings. And I would recommend the same for anybody else - leave the high ceilings to the pros! The hired crew used ordinary paper tape to finish this ceiling and the corner at the peak was not 100% straight. The result was a joint that noticeably swerved back and forth. Fortunately, most (normal) people don’t focus their attention at the peak of the ceiling so in reality the crooked joint is not that noticeable.

I asked my contractor friend how he finished peaks of cathedral ceilings or any other inside corners of angle greater than 90 degrees. He told me about a product called Straitflex. Strait Flex comes in a roll and is a stiff fiber product with a creasing area in its center. So it makes a perfect crease, and because it comes in a roll, it will tape an entire ceiling with a nice straight joint. So I tried some of this myself. You can see my complete trial at Taping Wide Angle Drywall Corners. This product worked really well! A few precautions to take are to pre-fill any gaps at the corner first, make sure to place plenty of mud at the corner, and don’t expect this tape to conform to the wall like paper - it is fairly stiff and if you imbed it too tightly, it will “bounce” back and create a gap. Still, I would highly recommend this product, or something similar for arched ceiling peaks or other wide inside angles.

A few months back a fellow, Ron Morton, the creator of a new product called the TapeBuddy offered to send me his product if I would give it a try. I told Ron that I would do a review, but the review would not be guaranteed to be positive. To see what this product is about, go to TapeBuddy.Net.

I finally got around to using this product in my last remodeling project. Also, at the same time, my Father-in-law had his own drywall patching project so I had him try it too, and I video taped his experience and the video is posted below. Here are my impressions:

• The Tapebuddy is really nice at putting up shorter strips of tape. It puts on just the right amount of mud, eliminating the mess you might get by mudding the wall manually.
• This device is very light, weighing less than a pound and stays on the floor. Taping banjos typically weigh about 4-5 pounds empty, and since they must be lifted up along the joint, these can get hard on the back when using them all day.
• The Tape Buddy was easy to use. I briefly scanned the instructions printed on the side and immediately was able to put up a short properly mudded strip of tape. My Father-in-Law was also able to use this device properly with no “learning curve”. My Father-in-Law really loved this device.
• A drawback of this device is that you can only draw off a maximum of 4 ft of tape at a time, so this means you would need two strips for an 8 ft joint. Also, you must estimate the length if you use the Tape Buddy device as it is. A work-around to this would be to fasten the device to an 8+ft board with measuring tape attached - you could then draw off a long strip to the exact length needed. I think one could also carefully pick up the long tape and adhere it to the wall. I have not tried this, but for sure if I were in the business (as opposed to a DIYer), I would give it a try.

All in all, this is a nice device for the occasional repair requiring shorter strips of tape, particularly if you have difficulty embedding drywall tape. And, this could possibly be the perfect tool for the professional that can no longer bear the all-day lifting of the drywall banjo.