can i cover bare wood with hotmudd

flu

I had a contractor knock down a wall and put a header in. He finished it by mudding directly over the bare wood because the header he built was too wide to hang drywall over. The mudd did not adhear and cracked throughout. I have since cleaned it all up back to square one but don't know how to proceed. There is only about 1/8 in. room from the surface of the header to the outer surface of the surrounding drywall. The best i can figure is i need something thin enough to hang over the header to subsitute for drywall or some kind of precoat that would allow the finish coat to adhear to the bare wood. Would some kind of mesh work here?

troubleseeker

Hope someone else has a magic solution for you, because I don't know of anything you can do that is going to keep the skim of mud from cracking due to the wood movement. Why didn't you get this clown to build the header correctly?

Ron6519

They have 1/4 " drywall. You should be able to feather out the 1/8" projection.
What was the reason the header was made too large? And it wasn't because it was needed. I don't care what the contractor says.
Ron