Drywall Finishing Made Easy - CertainTeed Gypsum

professional drywall finishers use a variety of techniques tools and products that allow them to attain quality results in a short period of time they're in it for the money but this requires specialized training but that doesn't mean that you can't do it at home yourself with a few basic principles some quality affordable tools some easy to use products and a healthy dose of patience and practice the average homeowner can do much first take note of the recommended tools you should have on hand we recommend the use of three taping knives a four inch knife a six inch knife and a 12 inch knife next you will need a pan a cutting knife and a dust mask it's also good to have a tape holder and a pole sander next let's take a look at the materials you will need certainteed makes an excellent all-purpose joint compound that will serve you well for each step of the finishing cycle you will need a small amount of ninety minute fast setting compound this will be used for the wall preparation stage you will also need paper tape also you will need 120 grit sandpaper drywall finishing can be broken down into five basic stages of progression the compound must be dry before moving on to the next stage be sure to accomplish all the tasks in each stage before moving on to the next stage here are the stages first there is the wall preparation stage second there is the application of all the tape third there is the coating of that tape fourth there is the finish coat which is a very thin coat often referred to as a skim coat fifth there is the finish sanding and touch-up stage before doing the actual taping you must first prepare the wall surface about 3/4 of an inch of clean cold water in the bottom of your pan add in the powder from the fast-setting compound and mix together with your 4-inch knife until you have a pasty mixture examine every square inch of your walls and ceilings locate gaps holes and breaks in the board where necessary use your cutting knife to cut out breaks you can also use the butt end of your knife to push in damaged areas that protrude next fill in all these areas with the fast-setting compound making sure that the fill is flush with the board if you avoid leaving excess compound on the drywall board you won't have to sand before moving on to the next step and believe me if there's one thing you want to avoid its sanding now our primary concern is applying tape to the joints starting with your flat joints apply a generous bed coat of thin down all-purpose joint compound with your 6-inch knife ensuring that the center of this coat corresponds to where the joint is make sure there are no dry spots place the tape on the center of the bed coat and cut it to length next holding your knife with fingers placed as shown and at this angle firmly wipe out the excess compound from under and around the tape at the corners you can gently tuck the tape in by delicately pushing the excess out with your knife like so notice how you can finish wiping joints that end at the floor without getting compound all over the floor next using your 4-inch taping knife apply a bed coat of compound on either side of your angle joints crease the tape and set the tape into the corner firmly wipe the tape down making sure that you leave the surface clean especially where your angle tapes intersect now is a good time to apply the first of three coats on your fastener heads that's easy to do using a four-inch knife simply apply compound over one or more fasteners and then completely remove the compound thus only filling the dimples left by the fasteners now is also a good time to apply the first of three coats to your corner beads using your 12 inch knife load up half of the bead first making sure that your knife never wanders off the actual bead then feather the far edge forcing the compound back toward the bead now wipe it flat one last time once again never allow your blade to leave the bead repeat the process for every corner bead remember to keep your work nice and clean if you leave unnecessary compound on the drywall board it will be slowing you down later and you will be doing unnecessary sandy now that the tape is up and dry we need to code it the tape was used to strengthen three distinctly different types of joints first bevel joints these joints are created when to bevel edges of the drywall board are butted together thus creating a recess for the tape and the compound second butt joints butt joints are any flat joints that do not benefit from the recess effect of the bevel joint third inside corner or angle joints each of these three types of joints is coded differently let's start with butt joints because butt joints don't benefit from the bevel the tape is actually sitting on top of the board thus creating a bump we can't remove that bump what we have to do is trick the eye into not seeing it and the way to do that is to feather out compound far enough on the other side so that there's a gradual slope up to the high point this will cause the once obvious bump to seemingly disappear first apply compound directly over the tape of the butt joint with your 12-inch knife make sure to hide the tape with a small amount of compound that is the same thickness the whole length of the jump be careful not to expose the tape next apply another coat on either side overlapping approximately two inches try to maintain the same thickness of compound for each begin to feather either side by forcing the compound toward the center remove any excess compound in the process now run your knife flatly and firmly evening out the center not following this step closely will result in removing too much compound and thus exposing the tape repeat this for either side once you get comfortable coding butt joints you'll find coding bevel joints easy apply an even coat over top of the tape on your bevel joint feather on either side forcing the compound inward and removing the excess then flatten the center again now we need to coat our angle tapes angle tapes should be coated by coating one side letting it dry before coating the other side using a four inch knife apply a coat over one side of the angle tape keep the thickness of this coat consistent next even it out then feather the edge by forcing the compound in word and thus removing excess compound at the same time then flatten it out the purpose of the coating stage is twofold first of all you have to hide your tape and second of all as you're coding your joint you want to make the wall appear flat if you don't accomplish both of these things in the coding stage you'll have to do another coat afterwards to accomplish it so if you notice for example that you've bared some tape fix it right away don't leave it before moving on to the next stage you need to do two more things first give a second coat to your fasteners doing so in exactly the same manner as you did the first time and second you need to coat your corner beads a second time you will do this in exactly the same manner as you did the first time but first give it a quick sand to knock down any rough spots or ridges this is the easiest of all stages really a skim coat is nothing more than this put it on take it all off when done right a skim coat can save you a great deal of sanding later however to begin this stage we actually start with a bit of sanding this is called scuff sanding lightly sand over all of the area previously coated except the fasteners the goal here is simply to knock down any high spots or ridges in the dried compound nothing more for a skim coat you want to work with compound that has been watered down apply your thin compound making sure to overlap at least an inch over the edge of any previously applied compound then simply remove all the compound without leaving any on the wall this will fill any imperfections in the previous coat do only a small portion at a time so that the compound does not begin to dry before you have time to skim it off proceed this way with all but joints beveled joints and corner beads for angle joints use a six inch knife to skim both sides like so finally apply a skim coat tear fasteners in much the same way you did the last two times now that your skin coat is dry it's time to finish sand a perfectly good drywall job can be ruined by bad sanding techniques so you have to be careful of a few things first make sure that you are using a 120 grit sandpaper or higher second be careful that you do not sand so much that you are exposing your tape or roughing up the paper of the drywall board third if you are using a pole sander never run the head completely vertically or horizontally but rather at an angle like so fourth always sand in strokes that run parallel to the joint you are sanding never cross sand a joint like this except when sanding out specific ridges sand out any ridges or lips in the compound that you can see with the naked eye or that you can feel by touch if you can see it or feel it you will likely be able to see it once it's painted for your angles you may wish to use a hand sander and/or a sanding sponge as these allow for greater control and don't forget to wear masks as you complete your finish sanding you will likely notice there are a few areas that still need to be touched up using your thin skimming compound add a bit of color chalk line dust to it and mix it in go over every square inch of your work and wherever you find imperfections simply apply the compound with a knife and remove it just like a skim coat now once these touch-ups dry they'll be easy to find because you color tinted the compound then all you'll have to do is go back with a sanding sponge or a hand sander and spots and them and there you have it with this simple training some quality products from certainteed and professional tools drywall finishing need not be only for the pros we hope you enjoyed our program drywall finishing made easy a crash course for homeowners

Channel: CertainTeed

Views: 1,676,681

Rating: 4.7593284 out of 5

Keywords: CertainTeed, drywall, drywall installation, drywall diy, drywall step-by-step instruction, drywall finishing, installation, install, finish

Id: _ZXmZBjEc3c

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 28 2014