Lessons Learned

gdoucette

Spent the day learning lessons the hard way ...

Lesson #1 - To find out who your real friends are ... ask for help with drywall.

Lesson #2 - I will never buy premix compound again. Tried setting-type, what a difference in drying time and workability. The premix I applied yesterday was still very moist today. So much for painting by tomorrow.

Lesson #3 - A little water goes a long way and the weight shown on the box of Durabond is approximate, and even when mixing small amounts, add powder slowly. Bought a 2kg box, which should have required a bout a liter of water ... used less than a liter, and dumped the whole box in ... ended up with Durabond soup. Before I could get more powder, the whole bucket set, now I have a giant Durabond hockey puck. Second attempt was much better!

Lesson #4 - Don't forget to wash your bucket before you mix another batch of compound. Wasted a whole trough of mud because it was full of chunks from the previous batch. And I don't know if it was because of the set material that got mixed in, but the new batch started to set in about 10 mins, instead of 45, which was okay because it made it easier to scoop out into the trash.

It just wasn't my day! Oh, what will tomorrow bring.

JakAHearts

Ill add my lessons from today too.

1. When cutting drywall that has angles in it, make sure you cut it so the the finished face will be facing the right way when done.

Also, never have your wife help you try to drywall a ceiling that has 3 different pitches in it and expect to be married when done.

Shane

canadaclub

Lesson # 6..mud gets cured faster on the hawk than the walls..hmmm..go figure

KennMacMoragh

If you do a lot of drywall, you'll find that you can do a faster and nicer job with cold mud (pre-mixed) compound. With the setting type compound, as you mentioned, you have to spend more time cleaning buckets. And you get a much nicer sand with cold mud as opposed to hot mud (setting type compound).

Setting type compound is good for doing small patches, because it's strong and sets up fast. It's good if you are using mesh tape, cold mud with mesh tape will likely cause cracks. And it is good for one day mud and taping, you can hot mud in the morning, sand right after, then cold mud on top of that in a day.

DUDE!

We all have a "lesson #5" of course but can't tell from reading your post if you are painting after only one coat of tapeing. I don't do taping for a living but I've never been able to put first coat of mud one day and paint the next day. Happy Mudding

__________________
LIVING THE DREAM

gdoucette

Yesterday went much better. Although I did end up breaking down and buying premix for the finish coat. Even got priming started in one room. Would have gotten alot more work done too if my family didn't love me so much, but the Father's day dinner was great and the kids took me to see Toy Story 3 in 3D ... or was it the other way around ... anyway, back at it tonight!

mattsn0w

So true. I was in a bind hanging the ceiling pieces in my bedroom and my best (man) friend and his wife drove an hour and a half to my house on a sunday night and stayed until midnight helping me finish.


I had a rough night and up far too early. this made me laugh.

I second JakAHeart's lesson on cutting angles and making sure the face is outward. luckily I was just working on a small 3x3 skylight which I covered with scrap pieces.

my own lessons learned. I'm a sysadmin by day with no tradesman experience so some of these are newbie or "duh" lessons.

1) youtube has TONS of videos on drywall and taping. watching and learning is great!
2) Google is your friend for learning jargon and finding great tips.
3) Thick coats of premix mud will crack.
4) if you see a bubble in the paper after hanging a sheet cut it out and fill with hot mud.
5) do it right the first time and also be willing to fix things even if you make a mistake.
6) Measure your rough openings(windows, doors, closet doors) BEFORE hanging drywall on/around the opening.
7) Rough openings: Making it smaller is easy... Making it bigger is not!

racebum

youtube is definitely your friend with drywall. i've found a good mud combo at my local lowes. silveset 90 for setting compound, it's hot mud and quite strong, then the same beadex brand topping compound in pre mix for coat 2 and the topping light for coat 3. the light is tannish which makes the 3rd coat really easy since it lets you see the low spots when you run over it with your 12-14" knife. the one thing i like about premix for topping is being able to add water as i go and it's longer life in the bucket. 90 minute hot mud starts getting a bit pasty after an hour