When repairing nail holes, nail pops in drywall, or pre-filling large gaps between sheets or in corners, you may use ordinary all-purpose joint compound. But, this compound takes a fairly long time to dry and also will shrink a fair amount, requiring additional coats (and time). A better way to do these types of jobs is to use a sand-able patching plaster (also known as spackle). There are many suitable products, but the one I tried and found to work well is DAP  Sandable Patching Plaster, available at most hardware or home stores. Just make sure the product states “sands easily”.

I used this product to fill in some nail holes and also I used it to fill in a dent in my drywall made from a door handle. In the case of the door handle dent I placed and excess amount of the  patching plaster (rather than skimming it level) just to see if it would sand off OK. It sanded just fine, almost as easily as joint compound. See photos below.

Another place you would want to use this type of compound would be to pre-fill in gaps between two sheets of drywall before you tape. Joint compound can take a long time to dry, and if the gaps are large, ordinary joint compound can even crack as it shrinks, requiring follow-up coats to account for shrinkage. A quick drying, low shrinkage sandable spackle or patching plaster prevents both of these problems!

It takes me a lot longer to finish my drywall!

That sounds almost contradictory. After all, should one get faster, not slower? Not really.

When I first started, I gobbed the compound on, sculpting the thick layer with my taping knife, leaving it way too thick. Then, I followed with a good sanding. But things did not look right, so I gobbed on some more mud, let it dry, and sanded some more. At this point, I had all the compound I needed, so I just kept sanding. And sanding. And sanding. Finally, as things started to “level out” a bit, I started hitting paper tape and the paper drywall board. Sanded paper = fuzz. Oh well, the paint will cover . . . (wrong again!) I finished my wall in two days but it looked like a 6-year old’s art project.

Now, I put on the mud but take most of it off with a smooth stroke of the wide taping knife. Not two coats, but rather 4 or 5 along with some touch-up mudding. And I don’t touch the sandpaper till ALL coats are on and the surface could almost pass without a sanding. I now “knock” the surface down where needed with a taping knife. So now, it takes me nearly a week to finish a wall. But it looks like it was done by a good professional! (A good professional does not need to cover blemishes with texture). I use all-purpose compound for all coats. I guess if I were doing this for a living, I would use some faster drying compounds for the first coats. But as a DIYer, I am in no hurry.

For a free online 10-step video series on taping and repairing drywall, see Drywall Repair Videos.