Drywall News and New Products

Held Up With 1 Hercules Hook

Well, I had the opportunity to hang something other than my kids up on the wall in the last few weeks with my hercules hooks. Hung a few small framed photos on the wall. The hooks worked nicely. And then, just the other day, I had to move a very large framed photos weighing perhaps 15 or 20 pounds. This was an artist’s sketch of my kids placed into a custom matte and frame. This picture is of great value to us.

The center location was not on a stud. Ordinarily, in a situation like this, I would at minimum, use a molly bolt rather than a flimsy drywall anchor. And I definitely would not use only a drywall screw for this heavy of a picture. But this time, I simply used a Hercules Hook. I marked where I wanted it and poked it in and gave it a twist and I was done! About 30 seconds!

For hanging pictures, these hooks are the best! Don’t take Billy May’s word, take mine – I would not promote them here if they were junk. I was able to get a large pack of these hercules hooks at ebay for under $10.

Every once in a while, we will watch As-Seen-On-TV infomercials, mostly for entertainment value. Nearly all cost $19.95, are the best thing since sliced bread, and include bonus items that result in a “total value” many times the price. And wait, there’s (always) more. . .

Hercules Hooks, however, seemed like they could actually work. So I ordered a bunch to check them out myself. To test these, I had my kids sit on a very low (and safe) platform that was about 11″ off the floor, supported by ropes hung from two Hercules Hooks.

The first claim I tested was the ease of use. The hooks went in very easily, although I need some practice to achieve Billy May’s speed!

Click on Image To View

Then I tested the weight carrying claims. The As Seen On TV ad claims they support up to 150 pounds, but if you read the fine print on The Official Hercules Hook Website, they say “For heavy objects over 40 lbs. use multiple hooks to distribute weight evenly”. So I decided to use two hooks to see if I could get the 80 pounds of carrying capacity they seem to imply. I had my 60 pound daughter sit on the platform – no problem. Then I had my 77 pound son Mark try it. He carefully lifted his feet off the floor and the platform supported him. Then, I had Laura, who weighed 83 pounds, sit on the platform. Laura was OK until she tried to lift both feet off the floor. Then one side pulled out after the hook straightened a bit. So when they say 40 pounds, they mean 40 pounds! Watch The Video Here!.

Finally, the hercules hooks do not damage the wall much. A little dab of drywall joint compound or spackle, or just some paint alone could repair the holes left. Even where the hook pulled out, the damage was minimal.

In conclusion, I would recommend these hooks for holding no more than 30 pounds per hook. So a single mirror on one hook should not weigh more than 30 pounds. You would not want to push the 40 pound limit, as any external force pushing down (like cleaning the mirror) could result in the hook straightening. The same goes for items hung on two hooks – do not put anything heavier than 60 or 70 pounds. With respect to the 150 pound claim, I believe you could indeed support the 150 pounds with 4 hooks, but the weight would have to be distributed perfectly.  So if two of the four hooks were not quite lined up to support weight, the result could be as much as 75 pounds on each of the other two hooks. Getting 4 hooks placed in the exact correct locations might be tricky for some furniture items.

Basically, all the As-Seen-On-TV Hercules Hooks claims are true, provided you add an asterisk* by the Holds Up To 150 Pounds* claim to include a note “*Do not support more than 40 pounds per hook. Items requiring more than one hook must have weight distributed evenly on the hooks”. From the official Hercules Hooks Website statement, one might get the idea that two hooks could support up to 150 pounds. Even so, this easy-to-install hook can quickly hang pictures and items weighing up to 30 pounds or heavier items up to 60 or 70 pounds if two hooks are used. I would say it is a nice product to have around the house.

Scraping Off The Bumps

When I first tried taping and finishing drywall, it was quite a dusty mess! See my description on My Drywall Story page. Drywall dust is just plain dreadful. In my early days of drywalling, some friends told me about “wet sanding”. This is where you use a wet sponge to smooth out the surface between coats instead of sanding and is a method mentioned on the 649 6th blog that chronicles his home remodel. And yes, wet sanding does cut down the dust to practically nothing.

But . . . for me, anyway, wet sanding tended to take off a lot of compound. And worse yet, and I speak for my own experience, I ended up making gentle waves in my wall with the wet sponge. So I ended up adding a lot of extra compound to flatten the waves out, and I ended up doing a bit of sanding at the end anyway.

The method I finally arrived at, and this took several years, was to not sand at all until all the coats were on the wall. Yes, that’s right, NO sanding! Here is what you do: You put on even coats with slightly thinned mud and make an effort to draw off the coats level with a wide knife.  Then, after this dries, you scrape the surface level with a taping knife (see pic above), holding the knife with two hands if needed. The taping knife will not produce valleys, but will instead knock off troublesome high spots. And low spots or drag marks will be filled with the next coat, which will go on nicely on your nice level surface. Only at the very end do I sand, and then only lightly, producing only a relatively small amount of dust. To get lots and lots of details, see my Taping Joints page and videos.

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.

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.