Garden Room Workshop: Part 17. Tape & Jointing

in the last video the garden room was fully plasterboarded and in this video i'll be using the practice of tape and jointing and get the room fully painted this is the first time i've tried tape and jointing so i'll focus on the process rather than the technique because i don't have any and at the end i'll deliver my verdict as to whether i think you should give this a try or just get a plasterer in to do a full skim so the premise of tape and jointing is to cover the joints between your plasterboard with joint compound while leaving the main face of the plasterboard bare by building up the layers a convex curve is created just a few millimeters deep sufficiently spread out so that it's imperceptible to the human eye if you're going for full skin instead you can help your plaster out by applying mesh tape also known as scrim tape to all the joints very similar to the alkali resistant tape i used on the cement boards in the shower room you could do this for tape and jointing method two but there's a second option of using paper tape the advantage of mesh is that because it has adhesive on the back it can be stuck straight on the joint whereas with paper it needs to be bedded into jointed compound creating an extra step the advantage paper has is that it's perhaps slightly more resistant to cracks as it doesn't stretch and because it's scored down the middle it makes it a bit easier to create cleaner internal corners as ever with these things there are some strong opinions on either side but on balance i opted for paper the other material we need is joint compound you can get pre-mixed mud but it works out cheaper if you go for the powder and then mix it yourself selco do a range with varying drying times being totally inexperienced i wanted the longest workability i could get so i went for the 60 minute type i added the compound to water and mixed the two together with a paddle mixer attached to a drill until it reached a creamy consistency you may want to lower the viscosity for your second or third layers which need to be spread thinner so more water less powder i think smaller batches are the way to go as even with the 60 minute compound it does seem to go off well quickly when the consistency was right i lifted the paddle out of the mix and span it to remove the bulk of the mud and it's a good idea to have a second bucket full of water stick the paddle in give it a spin and it will clean itself ready for the next batch to apply the mix we need some tools i opted for a four inch joint knife a six inch and a 12 inch taping knife each one loosely corresponds to each layer of compound but i found myself jumping between them as necessary the first two look almost identical to a wallpaper scraper but they're a lot more flexible which helps with feathering i also bought an internal corner trowel and there are lots of other tools you can get but i managed to get by with just these so the first stage involves embedding the paper tape where two tapered edges of the plasterboard meet you have a very convenient furrow that can be filled with joint compound you can then tear the paper to length and use your fingers to push it in i found it was best to have the back of the middle crease inwards towards the wall so i could run a knife along each side to sink the tape in going in one direction prevents the tape from folding up on itself and crinkling the paper has lots of small perforations so any air stuck behind can make its way out once complete i added a thin layer over the top so the paper is well and truly surrounded by the compound i then took a last pass over the top of the furrow with the six inch knife which is wide enough to transverse the furrow and you should end up with two pretty straight lines on either side butt joints where there are no tapered edges are a bit trickier as the first layer will need to bulge out a little bit from the wall the process is the same though but in order to minimize the depth of the bulge we have less compound to work with for both of these joints doing them on the ceiling is identical but with the risk of getting plaster on your face which definitely did happen once or twice for inside corners i use the four inch knife to apply the compound to each side and smooth it out with the internal corner trowel the paper can then be folded along its crease and pressed into place followed up by the corner trowel with the point pressed into the crease to embed the paper tape and create a nice clean right angle then as before apply more compound on top and smooth it out with the corner trowel for the outside corner of my shower room and around the windows i could have used metal or plastic angle bead which can be screwed into place with mesh tape over the top just as you would for a full skin but i was enjoying using the paper so i picked up some paper tape with steel strips and these act to strengthen the corners and avoid chipping it's better did in much the same way as everything else and i used a four inch knife to cover it it doesn't have to be too neat at this stage though if you get any on your windows just wipe them down with a wet sponge and it comes right off finally we have the screws to cover if we did our job right in last video these should be below the surface of the plasterboard so the hole could be filled it's worth pushing the compound in with the corner of the blade otherwise air can get trapped behind which comes the surface as the compound dries and i found i had to go over quite a few of them a couple of times so that's the first layer done and it should look something like this at this stage i could give everything a very light sanding so there are no high spots that will interfere with the next layer just make sure you don't sand down to the paper i found that some of the internal corner joints didn't need a second layer whereas the butt joints needed two or three more of course the more experienced you are the fewer layers are required before it's looking good but the premise is to widen the coverage and start finessing the finish with a taping knife to do this you have to tilt the knife so that it's flush against the plasterboard on the side and then lifts off towards the center and then keep that tilt whilst pulling along the joint i really don't know why i still own this t-shirt it looks like we've lost a fight to the bear anyway it's an awful lot harder than it looks but i did come up with a little trick i'll share with you in a moment between layers and after the last layer you need to sand the amount of sanding you need to do is inversely proportional to how good you are taking jointing i had a lot of sanding make sure you use a dust mask for this as it really does snow i used a pole sander for the ceiling and a sanding block on the walls for more control especially around the external corners sanding takes off the high points and it should be pretty smooth but i found i had some low spots some divots and dimples you can find them more easily by using a torch to create shadows so instead of doing a whole new layer i just filled them in individually after a final sand it was looking pretty good and i was particularly pleased with how sharp the corners turned out though the proof will come after painting before painting though i used a product called drywall sealer because i watched a video by the company that makes it that said that it prevents the different shades of the plasterboard and the compound from showing through the paint but maybe that's just a big swizzle it does have two other purposes though the first is that if you wallpaper the walls and later want to take it off the sealant prevents the plasterboard paper face from coming off as well and the second is that because it's like a sort of plastic it works as a vapor barrier but only if you use two coats as i have a vapor barrier under the plasterboard i just did the one coat but in the shower room to make up for not using moisture resistant plasterboard i did do two coats so finally we can paint i wasn't very adventurous so i just chose white which is also the cheapest option i've seen enough new builds where the paint rubs off when it's being cleaned or starts to flake after a few months but so far this leyland trade paint has held up really well if you've got kids you may want to opt for something like the endurance or easy care range from dulux so here it is i think this is after two coats and here it is after the third so what do i think well i'm really happy with the finish and i can't tell any difference between this and a full skin so i'm really glad to have given it a go but it took me a long time for a new stud wool i'd definitely try this again but for a garden room with four walls in the ceiling i'll try to make the decision easy for you if you have a small garden room you're on a tighter budget and you have the time by all means give it a go the materials are cheap and you can always get a plaster in if it's not going as planned i'll link a really good channel in the description where you can learn about all the tips and techniques which i don't have if however you have a larger garden room like mine you have the funds or you're shorter on time i'd suggest getting a plasterer in there were definitely times when i was covered in compound or dust where i wish i'd done just that i guess the other options are to try doing a full skim yourself or you could get a pro in to do tape and jointing which might be a bit cheaper than a full skim now that we've got it painted there's one other thing i want to point out back in part nine we compared the pros and cons of slope roof joists versus furring strips and a potential drawback of the former is having a sloped ceiling i don't notice it too often but without wanting to sound too fanciful it's quite nice seeing the structure of the building rather than just having a plain cuboid someone said to me that they really didn't want the extra thickness of a fascia that comes with furring strips nor did they want a sloped ceiling so i came up with this which is to attach the furring strips under the joists but i think it looks fine with a slope all right we're making progress next time we'll be finishing the inside of the garden room this is going to be more of an overview type of video but i'll pick out anything that i think is interesting or particularly pertinent to garden rooms after that we'll be back outside onto the home straight finally i've started on instagram where i've been documenting the cladding so if you have instagram you can follow me there if not videos to come in due course i'll see you next time you

Channel: Ali Dymock

Views: 105,085

Keywords: DIY, tape and jointing, drywalling, drylining, tape and mud, garden room, garden office, shed, summerhouse, garden cabin, home office, mesh vs paper tape, how to build a garden office, drywall corners, drywall sealer, how to tape and joint plasterboard, plasterboard, tape drywall, sanding drywall mud

Id: O10gonWzVmQ

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020