Drywall Taping and Mudding

Professional Results

Edmonton Painters Pro is pleased to provide complete wall care service combined with excellent quality workmanship and using the best possible products. At some point in home ownership, you will need to patch and repair walls and ceilings. This process isn’t as easy as one might think – you need to dedicate some time to it, procure the right tools, apply mudding and tape, sand it down, repeat the process, and if not completed correctly, the results will horrible. We have all the necessary tools and supplies for professional taping and mudding services, so why not have Edmonton Painters Pro take care of the process, from beginning to end?

Finishing Dry Wall

When you’re looking for great results, you can count on Edmonton Painters Pro to deliver, every single time. Finishing drywall typically involves several days of work and quite a bit of joint compound. We base our choice of compound typically on the size of the room. The entire process from taping through to finishing the final coat can take four days, because of the drying times of the joint compound. We have to allow enough time to finish each step before commencing the next step, in order to achieve great results.

What is Dry Wall?

In a nut shell, dry wall is a fabricated panel of dried plaster sandwiched between to sheets of thick paper. It’s also called gypsum board or plasterboard, and its brand name is drywall. Once it’s up and walls prepared, changing anything behind it can be a cumbersome and expensive. For this reason alone, it’s very important for new homeowners to make several inspections to ensure all plugs, jacks and outlets are in the proper place.

Drywall Taping

Taping drywall requires a lot of time and skill to have great end-results. It requires much patience and virtue. The entire taping and mudding process will not happen in a single day. It’s best covered over several days, in small steps which allow for sufficient drying time and applying of multiple coats. Rest assured that Edmonton Painters Pro has the necessary skills and tools to provide you with great results.

When you hire us to complete the taping of your drywall you can rest assured that we will apply the best possible products and service to ensure an excellent outcome. Below is a brief summary of our taping service and what you can expect from us:

You will find that you have a couple of choices when taping drywall. Drywall tape is typically available as a plain paper tape or as a mesh fiberglass tape.

Paper drywall does not have an adhesive backing and requires drywall mud to adhere it to the joints. Fiberglass tape, however, has an adhesive backing, making it much easier in its application.

Under most circumstances, we will generally use both types of tape on a room, and that is what we will be assuming below, when working on your project.

Let us explain why we do this. Fiberglass tape is perfect for typically joints:

It adheres well to the wall without joint compound
It is much easier to use on straight joints
It is much more effective at preventing drywall cracks

Some ceiling and wall joints pose a particular challenge so we have paper tape in these areas as it is easier to fold and conform to a nice, tight corner. You’ll find more details below:

Here are some of the tools we use to tape drywall:

Both types of drywall tape - mesh and paper
Drywall knife - typically with a 4 inch blade
Drywall mudding compound which is premixed and just slightly thinned out
Proper utility knives

Step One - Preperation

As with undertaking any project, preparation is key to success. We always ensure all steps have been taken care of up the point before starting your project, and ensure that we have all the required equipment and tools needed before we set off.

We will ensure that all drywall screws and fasteners are properly driven below the surface of the drywall. We do this by running a drywall knife across the surface of the drywayy and listening for anything that catches on the edge of the knife.

Step Two - Taping Drywall Joints

For most straight joints, we almost always use mesh fiberglass tape, which is very effective and self-adhesive, making it a little easier while providing for an excellent finish.

We will cut the tape about ½”-1” short of the corners, to leave enough room for corner tape. We will ensure that we do not overlap with other tape because this creates a slightly raised area that is more difficult to hide later during the mudding process.

Once we’ve placed your drywall tape on the seam and have it centered, we will run a four inch drywall knife along the entire length, pressing the tape firmly against the joint.

Step Three: Tape Drywall Corners

We have to admit that taping and mudding corners is a lot more complex than it looks and when aiming for best results, we want to ensure that this is completed properly. We will start taping corners by bending the tape in half prior to placing tape into the corner seams. With that completed, we will use a drywall knife or flat that is specifically designed for mudding corners to ensure perfection.

Priming the Wall

Once the above mentioned steps are completed, we will roll the walls with drywall primer. Priming will show ridges, holes and dumps that may have been missed prior to priming.

We will us a good light to inspect your mudding job and re-mud as needed. Let the mud patches dry up, then sand, and spot prime the patches. We then follow up by applying two coats of quality paint. As a final step, we pole sand the walls with 120 grit paper between each coat of primer or paint.

Summarization

Pre-mixed drywall mud comes in both boxes and pails. We prefer the pail. Using mud involves an assortment or compound to choose from. All purpose drywall works well for most jobs but you may find that thinning the mud with a little water helps the lays out better.

We will mix your mid with a heavy duty drill and must stirring paddle maker. Don’t thin the mud to much, be ensure to add a very small amount of water at a time – up to one water of cup per gallon of mud maximum. Your compound should be the consistency that works best for you. Our preference is that the thickness of cake icing is our preference.

With that said, thinned mud smooths out onto the wall easier but thinner mud can shrink more than thicker resulting in cracking and extra coats of mud. Even so, when learning how to tape and mud drywall it's best to do what's comfortable for you. If thinner mud is easier to smooth out but requires extra coats it's probably better to go with the extra coats.

We use what’s called a hawk to hold the mud. You don't want to dip your dirty taping knife right into the mud bucket or box, otherwise your clean drywall mud, will become contaminated with old dried out mud and other wall debris. Always keep your tools pail and the pail lid exceptionally clean.

Also, we can buy different coverings for outside and inside corners and drywall board edges which will make our job of mudding and taping a lot less difficult. When mudding corners using a Corner Trowell can make for the best results. With some practice you should easily learn how to tape and drywall in no time. Talk to your local drywall product supplier for help regarding the materials and tools needed for the job at hand.

Dry Walling

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painters, residential, commercial, wallpaper, nock down, textured ceilings, varnish finishing, water damage, stain removal, mold removal, paint restoration, drywall service, feature walls, taping and mudding, plaster repairs

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