• 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.

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.

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.