c/drywall-installers

Eight months before someone pointed out my tape was too wet

I was mudding a living room in a new build outside Des Moines and this older guy walks through, looks at my work, and asks how long I've been doing this. I said about 8 months. He just pointed at my pan and said your mud is way too thin, that tape is gonna bubble in a week. I'd been mixing it like pancake batter because I thought thinner meant smoother. He showed me the right consistency in 30 seconds and I felt like an idiot. Anybody else have a basic thing nobody bothered to tell you?

Tried hot mud for taping instead of all-purpose and I'm never going back

I finally switched to using hot mud (20 minute) for my butt joints and the difference is night and day. No more waiting around for days for the compound to dry, I can start sanding the same afternoon. Has anyone else found hot mud way better for production work or am I just late to the party?

Hit 2000 square feet of drywall hung in a single day last Thursday and some folks say that's impossible without a crew of four

I did it solo with a lift and a good mud runner backing me up, but now I'm wondering if I just got lucky or if that's actually doable for any experienced installer, so has anyone else here cracked that number by yourself?

Used to fight with the banjo for an hour every job site. Now I finish in 20 minutes flat.

I used to hand cut every single angle on my banjo box for inside corners. Last year after a job in Raleigh that took me 6 hours just on the rough ins, I finally switched to a roll taping tool with a cutter built in. That thing saves me so much time I actually get home for dinner now. How many of you still use a banjo versus the roll style?

That automatic taper I swore I'd never use

I had a guy on a job in Nashville last year trying to sell me on a self-feeding automatic taper. Told him no way, manual taping gives better control and I've been doing it 15 years. Then we hit a 30,000 square foot hotel job with a 4 week timeline. On day 3 of wrist pain I borrowed his and ran 40 boxes through it. The finish was way more consistent than what I get hand taping, especially on long corridors. Has anyone else found these things actually make your life easier or was that just a one off?

Talking to a homeowner changed how I approach butt joints

I was finishing up a basement in a older house last Tuesday and the owner kept watching me work. He asked why I was staggering my butt joints the way I was and I gave him the usual spiel about strength and avoiding long seams. Then he says 'but you're creating a bigger flat spot problem down the road' and I realized he was right. I always just did it the way my first foreman showed me without thinking about the finish coat. Has anyone else had a customer point out something that actually made you work better?

Just finished up my 100th whole house tape and float job this week

I didn't even keep count until about a year ago when a buddy asked how many rooms I'd done. Started jotting it down every time I finished a full house. Hit 100 on Wednesday and honestly it caught me off guard. That's a lot of miles traveled and mud mixed. Anyone else keep track of how many rooms or houses you've finished over the years?

Remember taping with metal corner bead instead of the paper faced stuff?

I dug out some old metal bead from the back of my truck last week and it got me thinking... we used that on every job back in the 90s, now I can't remember the last time I even saw someone pull it out. Do you guys still use it for anything specific, or has everyone gone fully to the paper faced stuff now?

The difference a new mud pan made on my finish work...

I've been using the same metal mud pan for about 8 years now, and honestly I just thought my taping skills were slipping. Over the last few months I noticed my compound was drying out faster and I kept getting these weird ripples in my coat. Turns out the pan had developed a tiny rust spot right in the corner where it meets the flat edge. I switched to one of those plastic coated pans last week for a job in a new build over on Elm Street. The difference in how smooth my finish came out was night and day, and I saved almost 20 minutes per room on sanding alone. Has anyone else had an old tool sneak up on them like that?

Old timer showed me the trick with hot mud on a ceiling patch in '07

I was struggling with a ceiling repair in a old house in downtown Columbus, and this guy who'd been hanging board since the 70s came over and said "stop fighting the tape, let the mud do the work." He mixed a batch of Durabond 90 right there and showed me how to get it smooth in one pass, no sanding. Anyone else pick up a tip from a random old timer that still sticks with you?

That mesh tape I switched to cost me an extra 4 hours on one job

I kept hearing guys at the supply house saying mesh tape is faster and stronger than paper tape. So I bought a few rolls and tried it on a basement remodel in Des Moines last month. Big mistake. The mesh tape just wouldn't stay flat on the inside corners, and I had to go back over every joint with a second coat of compound. The paper tape I usually use sets up fast and barely needs any sanding. With the mesh, I was sanding for an extra 90 minutes and still had visible bubbles in two spots. I wasted 4 hours total and had to buy a box of paper tape halfway through. Anyone else find mesh tape to be more trouble than it's worth?

Talked to a commercial finisher yesterday who said he never uses a stillson wrench on mud pans, just a 5-in-1 and his palm

He showed me this trick where you tap the pan handle against your knee to knock dry mud loose instead of scraping it out and it hit different because I've been wasting like 10 minutes per job cleaning those things with a sponge bucket.

Spent $180 on a drywall lift and it paid for itself in one day

I was always fighting those 12-foot ceiling boards by myself, wobbling on stilts with a T-brace. Finally broke down and got a panel lift from the rental place, cost me 180 bucks for the weekend. Has anyone else found that the lift saves more time than you expected, or do you still prefer to hand-bang it?

Rant: Sanding dust got into my tape gun bearing on a job in Oak Park

I was halfway through taping a 1,200 square foot basement when the gun started grinding and seized up. Took me 45 minutes to disassemble it on the floor, clean out the crud, and get it running again. Has anyone else had luck with those little dust shields for the intake vents, or is it just part of the gig?

Tried pre-filling screw holes on my last ceiling job and it worked better than I thought

I was doing a 12x14 bedroom ceiling last Thursday and got tired of hitting the same stud and having the screw spin out. So I took a scrap piece and pre-drilled about 20 holes into the drywall before hanging it. It took maybe 5 extra minutes but I had zero screws pop through the paper on the whole sheet. Usually I get at least 2 or 3 that tear and need to be backed out. Has anyone else tried this or am I overthinking it?

Hot take: 5/8 inch fire tape on ceilings changed my finishing routine overnight

I noticed a big difference in how fast my mud dried when I switched to the thicker fire rated tape on a commercial job in Portland last month. The bubbles I used to fight on flat ceilings just stopped happening. Has anyone else seen that change with the heavier tape?

Found out drywall mud actually has a shelf life from a guy at the supply house

I was grabbing a few buckets of compound from the local lumber yard last Wednesday and the old timer behind the counter asked me when I bought my current stock. He told me that joint compound actually goes bad after about 6 months on the shelf if it's been stored in temperature swings. I had no idea. I went back to my shop and checked a bucket I'd been using on and off for probably a year. It was all grainy and had these weird hard chunks in it that I thought were just from mixing bad. Turns out I've been fighting with expired mud that whole time on a basement job over on Maple Street. Has anyone else run into this or am I the only one who didn't get the memo?

Vent: $200 on a 'pro-grade' mud mixer that burned me bad

Picked up that fancy mixer from the supply house last month, the one with the variable speed and the heavy duty motor. Cost me $200 and I figured it would last years on my crew's jobs. First week it worked fine, mixing buckets of all purpose mud like a champ. Then on a big ceiling job in a basement, the gears started grinding loud and it just seized up. Brought it back to the counter and the guy said warranty doesn't cover 'commercial use' even though it's marketed for pros. Now I'm stuck using my old paddle drill and a cheap chuck mixer that cost $30. Has anyone else had a high end mixer crap out like that on a big mud job?

Snapped my T-square in half on a Friday afternoon job in Phoenix

I was leaning too hard to cut a 12-foot sheet and the aluminum just gave out, sent me stumbling into a bucket of mud - has anyone else had a favorite tool fail at the worst possible time?

Had a drywall ceiling collapse last month - realized I was using the wrong screws the whole time.

I've been doing drywall for about 8 years now, mostly basements and garages for a local crew in Toledo. Last month I hung a ceiling in a finished basement, came back the next morning and a whole sheet had pulled loose and was hanging by the corner. The homeowner wasn't even mad, just looked at me like I was an idiot. While I was cleaning up the mess I grabbed one of the screws I pulled out and noticed the threads were shallow, like a half inch from the head. Turns out I had been using coarse drywall screws meant for wood studs on 20 gauge steel track. The threads weren't gripping at all. Switched to fine thread self-tapping screws and the next ceiling went up solid. Anyone else ever make a screw type mistake that took way too long to figure out?

My mudding game changed after I saw a guy in Spokane do his corners different

I used to always struggle with inside corners, they'd crack or look lumpy no matter what I did. Then last fall I was on a job with this older crew in Spokane and one guy showed me how he pre-fills the corner bead with a thin layer of mud before even taping. The difference in the finish was night and day, no bubbles or wrinkles at all. Has anyone else tried that method or do you stick to the traditional tape and mud right on the bead?

My old boss in Spokane told me to never pre-fill screw holes, and I finally saw why.

He said it was a waste of mud and time, that you should just tape right over the screws. For years I did it his way, until a job last month where the homeowner wanted level 5 on all the walls. I did my usual thing, but when those walls got hit with the bright work lights, every single screw dimple showed up like a sore thumb. The head contractor made me re-mud the whole room, which cost me a full day and about $150 in extra material. Now I always put a tight coat over the screws before taping, and the finish is night and day. Has anyone else had to unlearn a piece of advice that seemed to save time but actually hurt the final product?

Talked to a painter in Sacramento who said he charges extra for our bad seams, and it made me mad

Shoutout to the guy at the lumberyard who told me to score the back of a drywall patch with a utility knife before mudding.

He said it helps the mud grip and stops the patch from showing a ghost line after painting, which I tried on a repair in a Phoenix condo last week and it worked perfectly.

Watched a guy in Tampa tape a corner with a 4-inch knife and realized I'd been overworking my mud for years.

He got a perfect feather in two passes while I was still fussing with a third coat. Anyone else find a simple trick that cut their corner time in half?