Anyone have drywall mudding and taping experience?

[EldrickOnIce]

Best part of drywall (as far as home repair goes) is you can't hurt yourself and you can't mess something up that someone who knows what they are doing can't fix, if you don't like your finished product.
Good luck!

[puffnstuff]

If you have ridges, just scrape them off with a putty knife, sanding them is too dusty and a PITA
Ive done smaller jobs using a big damp sponge instead of all done with sanding, worked really well.

[automaton 3]

I've done boatloads of this work. Lightly sand around the joints on the painted surfaces first to promote adhesion. Don't use hot mud, it sets up fast and is a pain to sand. The general purpose mud is easier to work with. If you buy it pre-mixed it you'll need to thin it down slightly.

The paper tape has to have a thin layer of mud behind it before application, then another thin layer over top as your starter coat. In our dry climate I tend to apply the tape wet or pre-coated with mud to promote good adhesion. Then add thin layers and feather the edges (you should apply differential pressure on the knife to feather- some really good youtube videos on this).

Keep in mind the goal is to create a very gradual hill over the seam so it become imperceptible, and not to try to make it flat. Do not over-sand. Get a very bright light and hold it cross-ways to your seams. Anything noticeable will show up after paint.

Another tip. If you happen to get bubbles or lifting in the paper it won't disappear with more layers of mud, that part of the tape probably has to be cut out and re-done.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

I've done boatloads of this work. Lightly sand around the joints on the painted surfaces first to promote adhesion. Don't use hot mud, it sets up fast and is a pain to sand. The general purpose mud is easier to work with. If you buy it pre-mixed it you'll need to thin it down slightly.

The paper tape has to have a thin layer of mud behind it before application, then another thin layer over top as your starter coat. In our dry climate I tend to apply the tape wet or pre-coated with mud to promote good adhesion. Then add thin layers and feather the edges (you should apply differential pressure on the knife to feather- some really good youtube videos on this).

Keep in mind the goal is to create a very gradual hill over the seam so it become imperceptible, and not to try to make it flat. Do not over-sand. Get a very bright light and hold it cross-ways to your seams. Anything noticeable will show up after paint.

Another tip. If you happen to get bubbles or lifting in the paper it won't disappear with more layers of mud, that part of the tape probably has to be cut out and re-done.

lots of good information thank you! I was thinking of using hot mud to pre fill the bigger gaps and just trying to leave almost nothing on the flat section like scrapping it all off except the gaps and regular mud for the rest. Seems like a lot of videos recommend this but not sure if its unnecessary.