Drywall News and New Products

Premo Rockout Review
The owner of a new product called the Premo Rock Out contacted me to take a look at her product video. You can see the Premo Rockout Video here. I took a look at the video and then contacted the owner to see if she was willing to send me a product to test and do a review. She agreed and sent me the product.

This Premo Rock Out product allows you to cut out an opening around an electrical box perfectly without having to remove the drywall from the wall or use a saw or power cutting tool like a dremel and possibly damage wires. Rather, the Premo Rock Out cuts through the drywall like a punch press cuts out jig saw puzzle pieces. You place pins into the outlet box where the electrical outlet will be fastened, press the drywall in place so the pins push through, place a guide plate over the pins, and then hammer on the cutter to cut out the drywall piece. You then pull the drywall cutter off and a plug of drywall is removed leaving a perfect sized hole.

Results and Observations
To do this trial, I fastened a blue plastic outlet box about 3 ft above the floor on the back side of our unfinished basement utility stud wall. I then fastened a half sheet of drywall with two screws up about 2 ft above the floor. What happened was after I pounded a few times on the drywall punch, the sheet shifted down and the top edge of my hole was pushed out. After I realized what happened, I tried again, this time with a sheet resting on the floor and securely fastened in place at the edges (which would be a typical situation for most wall outlets). The product worked perfectly, cutting a clean hole, as shown in the photos below. So in summary, if you use this product, make sure the sheet does not shift as you are hammering. If the outlet is up high - the sheet can be secured with 6 or 8 drywall screws at the edges and perhaps supported from below with a temporary two by four. This product could potentially be a big time saver on large jobs - I think it would be worth a try for professionals or those that decide to put up their own drywall on their new home. Another note: The guide plate makes a reliable guide for cutting a perfect hole, even if you do not use the cutout punch. So even if you decided to not use the punch cutter, the guide plate will serve as a means of always cutting out your hole with precision with whatever tool you use.

A Note About Drywall and Remodeling
One should note that this is a product for new construction. If you are cutting holes around existing wired outlets with receptacles, you can mark locations with a dab of ketchup on a rag dabbed onto the outlets that then allows you to make imprints of the exact locations of the outlets - this works! See my article at Naturalhandyman.com where I used this method.

Premo Rockout Trial Photos - Click On Photo To Enlarge

Self-adhesive paper drywall tape is paper tape with an adhesive side and holes for drywall joint compound to seep through. I have read about this product on handyman forums, and some folks  have stated that this type of tape is problematic. I wanted to find out for myself, so I gave it a try on a trial wall I built.  I attached two half sheets onto wall framing and made sure there was no large gap at the joint between the sheets of drywall. The gap was no more than 1/32″. You can see this from the video below.

I followed the instructions, using a taping knife to press the tape on in order to make sure the tape was firmly attached.  I let the tape sit a few hours before overcoating with the recommended USG All Purpose compound.  Then I overcoated. That was easy, I thought, and it saved a step! All seemed fine until it all started to dry.

Self Adhesive Drywall Tape on Wall Showing Bubbling - Click To Enlarge

As the compound dried, the tape bubbled up at the joint for about half the joint. What I think happened was that under the tape at the joint, compound was not able to get under the tape, thus leaving a small air pocket.  You can see what happened in the picture shown here. I know from experience that the only way to remedy a portion of tape that is bubbled up is to slice it out or completely remove the tape and retape. Not something I want to be doing to “save time”! And in doing a little searching around, I found a person with a similar experience with self adhesive paper drywall tape.

Several things come to mind as to what may have prevented this. Perhaps I needed to press the mud in over the tape rather than just overcoat it? The directions did not call for this. Or perhaps the bubbling at the joint could have been avoided if I had vigorously pressed the tape in, perhaps by pressing the crease in the middle right in between the two sheets at the joint.  Again, the directions did not call for this measure. And for sure, if you have any type of gap between sheets at the joint, you will need to fill the gap. I am wondering “Will the tape stick to joint compound as well as paper?” It is almost unreasonable to expect that two sheets meet perfectly every time - it is fairly common to have to fill in gaps between sheets.

At any rate, I think I will pass on using this product on an extensive basis until I can try it again using some modifications. I have a whole roll of this stuff, so I will try it again sometime. Perhaps. And if I do try it again, I will post the results.