Drywall Finishing....Learning from a Master

hi guys diy mark i love to tackle most any project but when it comes to drywall finishing my experience is limited drywall finishing is one of those projects that is just as much art as it is procedure i've convinced my drywall contractor louise and his son to give us a glimpse of what he does every day louise has been installing drywall since he was 17 years old i spent some time with his team and picked up so many tips and tricks plus i was just amazed on how efficiently they get the job done i've tried to capture some of their actions here so we can all improve our game this job is a remodel of a small apartment that had to strip all of the common walls down to studs to improve the soundproofing i hope to make a future video that will go over all the construction details of what we did to mitigate the sound transfer between rooms all of the drywall has been re-hung and there were a lot of patches to the ceiling and adjacent walls louise starts with filling all the screw holes in the drywall and fixing any defects the patches created or done during the drywall hanging using a smaller six inch knife he makes quick work of the screw holes running his knife across the screws in a single sweep he then begins the taping process all of the joints where two pieces of drywall come together will get a tape joint that includes the walls to sealing transitions he first lays a fairly wide layer of compound on the surface then rolls out the paper and cuts it to the right length then embeds the tape into the compound he prefers using paper on new drywall over mesh tape he tells me mesh tape or what he calls fast tape is best for old work such as patch joints paper provides a smoother finish on new work one key difference between my amateur experience and louise is all of the joint compound he is applying is fast set compound fast set mud or sometimes called hot mud uses additives to regular joint compound to make it harden faster only about 20 to 40 minutes rather than drying overnight this allows him to quickly transition from preparing the walls to the ceiling without a long delay to wait for the mud to dry luis explained to me that he will refloat the entire ceiling to create a smooth surface even though our patch is only damaged a small portion of the ceiling in order to create a consistent look it's best to re-skim the whole ceiling to avoid any seams from showing through and create a uniform textured surface it starts with mixing the hot mud compound since it hardens so quickly you only have about 15 minutes to work with before it starts to set up since this is a small job and luis is working alone today he'll be mixing up a single tray at a time since it sets up so quickly he uses a recipe of one-half regular pre-mixed joint compound and one-half 40-minute quick sec dry compound luis first adds a couple of cups of clean water to his tray then adds about two scoops of dry 40-minute set compound and mixes it to consistent pace he then mixes an equal amount of pre-mixed compound to the fast set mixture he tells me he likes the mixture of the two because it makes it easier to apply but it still hardens fast once the compound is smooth he starts work quickly so you're kind of starting the corner and then pulling away from the corner right using what a 12 inch knife inside [Music] now as you put it on are you trying to get it even or you're just trying to get it up on the on the ceiling no even get it all even right away each pan covers about 25 square feet and then he mixes up another pan the whole mixing and application process takes him less than 10 minutes i notice as he works he flips the tray one edge is for loading the knife and the other edge of the pan is for scraping the knife a subtle trick that years of experience has made it an unconscious habit for him the end result is a ceiling that is smooth and flat and ready for new texture the next day his son arrived on the job to prepare for texturing the walls and ceiling to match the rest of the house the walls will have a medium orange peel texture meaning the texture that looks like the skin of an orange and the ceiling will have a heavier knock down much of the texture work is preparation junior covers the entire floor with plastic sheeting the texturing process is messy and fills the air with gypsum he then covers all the walls with plastic as well he uses a staple gun with short leg staples to hold up the plastic he showed me a tip where he shoots each staple through a small piece of drywall tape as he fastens the sheeting to the top of the wall the tape reinforces the plastic where the staple is applied preventing it from tearing through prematurely he also takes the time to cover any other openings such as canned lights hvac registers and wall outlets with paper the texture will get everywhere once the spraying commences all of the walls are covered with the ceiling exposed luis starts with the sealing texture because a bit of overspray on the walls is of no consequence sealing first then walls spraying texture is a two-man job you have to work fast and with purpose junior mixes up the compound using a drill paddle and a five gallon bucket working together the mixture is sifted through a kitchen strainer before it enters the texture gun hopper luis shows me the large unmixed particles which he calls trash that would otherwise clog the gun nozzle during spraying a single hopper of texture would cover about 30 feet with luis's gun it looks to be about a gallon and a half the compound is very wet about the consistency of pancake mix how long before you uh how much time do you have before you have to knock down about 10 minutes and you want to do the walls before you get this knock down the ceiling yeah yeah i have to do the walls because if i don't do the walls before that i'm going to get over spreading the sitting gotcha that's fast yeah immediately after texturing the ceiling luis begins pulling down the wall plastic as junior mixes a wetter thinner compound for the walls as he pulls down the plastic he uses the overspray to fill the small holes the staple holding up the plastic has created the process is the same the two of them work together to mix and fill the gun hopper the only change is the large amount of air he allows to flow into the gun if i just do one coat it just doesn't blend in like even it just looks splattery huh after the second application of wall texture the real artistry begins as luis turns his attention back to the ceiling with a 10 inch knife in one hand and a six inch in the other he begins to trowel the tips of the ceiling texture knocking down the peaks it is fascinating to watch him work there are no knife edge marks as he progresses and he works fast the texture will be in this perfect semi-dried condition for just a few minutes like over here yeah and you can see like like this is getting like ready you know it's getting dry here so you need to go it's good to do like this little spots here you know but you can see like this is wet ah he moves from one part of the ceiling to another looking at the reflection of light off the ceiling to determine if it's ready for troweling i notice he keeps eyeballing the knife and i ask him what he is doing no because the knife is not straight like all the knives are like like like this gotcha so you have to go like you want to keep the where you have to use this the middle part of it yeah he explains that the knife has a crown to it something i did not know he wants the crown of the knife to make the contact with the ceiling as he drags it across to create a smooth finish without knife lines once completed the ceiling is flawless it will take a good 36 hours for all the water to evaporate and be ready for primer and paint i want to thank louise and his son junior for letting us see a drywall master at work i have an even greater appreciation for the artistry that goes into drywall work i hope you've learned a tip or two and can appreciate the trade a bit more too often a trade like drywall goes unnoticed often when the drywallers arrive it means a day off for the rest of us but behind the scenes these guys are making all of us look good i'd like to hear your thoughts and maybe tell me what other trades are the unsung heroes at the job site as always thanks for watching and i hope to see you next time

Channel: DIYMark

Views: 39,131

Keywords:

Id: sh225F9_yPE

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020