Best way to tape uneven butt joint

Firehawk734

What is the best way to go about taping a butt joint that is as much as 1/8 off?

I know you could try to fix the drywall install by shimming, but let us say we won't be doing that.

Should one start by building up one side, then getting it even and THEN taping it?

It would seem if you have an uneven butt joint and tried to just tape it immediately, you couldn't run your blade down both sides of the joint becuase the blade would be on an angle. So you couldn't get all the mud out from under it on the side that's in more.

Or, could you tape it right away, then just work on building one side up with coats of mud?

hyunelan2

I don't know what is "right," but I had a similar problem in my first house. It was a townhouse built by a large developer. In the garage, they hung drywall and taped, but did not finish it. On one wall the top and bottom sheets of drywall were off quite a bit - I never verified this, but I suspected they used two different sizes of drywall. Probably whatever was leftover at the end of the job.

Anyway, it was taped by the contractors with the difference in the seem. I was able to finish it and smooth it out by building over the tape. Though not ideal, I think it would be better to tape, then build over that - so the structure and the tape can be applied more to the seam. I think if you build it up, and then tape it, the tape is going to be bonding to your chunk of compound, and not the drywall - leading to possible cracking problems.

But, I'm just a DIYer, not a pro. See what they have to say.

Firehawk734

Can you do me a favor and check your tape in the garage? Tell me, did they run the blade down it twice, meaning you can see the "step" in the uneven joint? Or did they just run it down once? If you run it twice, then you'd basically run it on the one side of drywall, then again on the other, as to give the "step" appearance.

I'm just curious. If it's uneven and you tape it, the blade will rock quite a bit with one pass of the blade down the joint, so you'll have essentially a straight piece of tape on an angle. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, all advice is welcomed, thank you.

nateshirk

They did the same in my garage. I'm pretty sure they mudded, then taped and just ran the knife down to squeeze out the excess. They did not press down in the crease to make it look like a "step down". And I probably wouldn't do that either. I just built mud up on top of what they did, then sanded it. It still isn't perfect, but it's just the garage.

hyunelan2

I wish I could remember. I moved from there a couple years ago, and I finished the garage a few years before that. If I had to guess, I want to say that the seams were stepped, and not bridged with the tape.