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.