Taping Drywall for Beginners Day 1

hey welcome back you guys this is a beginner's guide to taping drywall I'm going to try and go over everything you need to know for a basic new drywall install so the first thing you need to know when taping drywall is what kind of joint you're dealing with this is a butt joint this is a flat Joint inside corner how do we know what it is okay so a butt joint is made when you join the two butt ends of a drywall sheet you can see it's eight feet long right there so butt joint is a joint that's really flat at first but then you have to put a piece of tape on it and it gets built out pretty wide the flat joint right here the reason they're called Flat joints you can see by this light it has a ruled tapered Edge the tape is going to sit in here and you're going to cover it with mud and this joint ends up actually totally flat and then the other one inside Corners that's pretty self-explanatory and we've got outside corners with butt joints I don't like it when they're actually super tight most people want them to be super tight but when they're really tight you can't get mud into them and my theory on drywall is that if you can't actually get mud in to glue the sheets together it's not going to be as strong as it can possibly be so what I'm doing is I'm doing a very small 45 on here which is going to help allow the mud to get into the joint so this isn't some weird thing I made up this is actually common practice among a lot of drywallers especially the good ones who really care about the longevity of their finished work I only do this to the butt joints the flat joints they don't need it they're a different animal they'll be fine with just mud and tape the other thing that needs to be cut out is damaged pieces of board you'll see how big this one is so there's a big flap here that's going to come right out and you might be thinking well how are we supposed to tape that now we'll get there we'll get there this is all part of the prep work if we don't cut this out and if we just bury it with tape and mud it's going to become a blister so that's why it all has to come out loose paper like this I can't tape on that this is caulking that was left on the wall we need that all off so often when you apply mud to the torn paper like this it'll start to delaminate and blister there's a lot of different ways you can solve this you can paint it I don't have any paint today so I'm just using what I have which is just some Carpenter's glue so that's going to soak in and it's going to firm it up it's pretty quick and easy spray adhesive works there's a lot of different things that work I'm just using what I have on hand today but sealing the torn paper there's a lot of debate as to whether it's necessary but you don't know if it was necessary until after you coat it and get a blister at which point it's too late and you definitely want to make sure you get this stuff off of your knife pretty quick because it'll dry on there and become really hard so this wouldn't be a beginner drywall video without talking about mesh tape versus paper tape a lot of people are going to think that I should be using this when I start to use this stuff almost everywhere but in my opinion mesh tape is weaker because you can see through it right there I am so if the joint has a bit of movement and cracks you're going to see the crack right away whereas paper tape it'll hide it for a little longer and I also just think that paper tape in general is stronger this one it can wiggle it's got all kinds of movement that one is Bridges the Gap much better so one place you should never be using mesh tape is on your butt joints those are the most likely to crack if you use mesh tape if you really wanted to be a cowboy you can use mesh tape on your Flats if you use Quick setting muds we're not there yet though however the one place I often do use mesh tape because it speeds me up is on little patches like this and I do this before I start filling anything in order to actually get this stuff to tear it's just about the angle you pull it back on see where my knife is I pull it back like this real nice and easy that's why people love this stuff so much it sticks to the wall by itself the reason I'm doing this is it's much faster than applying paper tape to all these little things you'll see why in a bit so once you have the joints carved out and all the loose material off it's time to start pre-filling so I'm going to be using Durabond 90. this product can be found in most places this is a setting type mud it comes in powdered form in a bag this one is 90 minute set time it's very hard it's like an incredibly difficult product to sand if you leave any lumps of it or crusties you're going to struggle so another product that could be better would be a lightweight setting compound so there's ones called easy sand USG easy sand it's essentially the same thing it's just not quite as hard so when mixing this stuff you want to start with a little bit of water in the bucket you can also mix up small batches in a pan by hand but I need enough that it warrants doing it in a bucket a great small mixing paddle is this one it can be chucked up into a cordless drill works really nicely foreign hopefully I didn't put too much water in [Music] nope [Applause] [Music] remember you can always add more water you can't really take it out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that looks pretty good it's not drooping too much you don't want it too wet for this stage or it'll fall out of all the holes that cleans it more or less okay so that's a pretty decent consistency it's wet enough that it's going to slip into the cracks but it's dry enough that it won't fall out of them I'm going to be using six inch knife sometimes a trowel this is called a hawk this is a trowel 12 inch wide by five inch okay so big voids like this absolutely need pre-fill I like the trowel because it really forces it in and it's fast you can use this whoop pigeons [Applause] so what I'm being very careful to do at this point is to not leave any thick raised edges or any blobs gaps in top corners like this will also need it the trowel again is a really useful tool to squeeze it in there just easier than the six inch knife but this is the tool that has the Finesse to wipe it out nicely and again you really need to not be leaving big blobs of this stuff as it's difficult to scrape down okay that's good there the flat joints don't typically need it but this one's a little bit open so I'm going to put some in but you don't want to leave too much material in here or all of a sudden your flat joint won't be a flat anymore because you built it out too much so the reason we need to do this is that we are gluing the joints shut I've done a ton of repair work and it's always from joints that don't have enough mud in it so that's what we're doing so for really big gaps like we had on this wall this is why it's so important to use Quick Set you can see it hasn't shrank at all but it's now dry enough that we can scrape off the high points because there's a couple here as you can see it also didn't shrink here even though we had that huge blowout and the beauty of using quick set and mesh tape on all the small patches is while you're doing the pre-fill you can also fill the mesh tape patches so this part's done and I'm not going to be having to mess around with pieces of paper tape and all-purpose mud doing all this little fiddling it's already done so that can be left alone until we coat it on the next stage of the job outside corners like this also need pre-fill real bad because what will happen is if you don't pre-fill that and you just try and do it when you're installing the corner bead it's going to shrink too much in that one spot where you might not even get good adhesion of the corner bead itself and you'll get a blister so that's super important to do on really uneven spots so we're almost ready to start taping but before you do you're going to want to go around and make sure that in case any of the mud kind of fell out a bit or you didn't leave it really flat and smooth that you knock down any high spots so there was a little one there from the mud falling down in the corners you know any little crusties or boogers you want to get that stuff knocked down and taken care of because once you put a layer of tape over top of it it's going to build it out more than it should be and you can't take it out after at that point so once you've done that it's time to mix up the mud and start taping so for taping today we're going to be using all-purpose this is a USG heavyweight all-purpose this is going to be the exact same product that you're going to find green lid all-purpose right same thing super heavy super hard super sticky if you're in Canada you can use a taping mud because you won't be able to find the same thing that's what I usually use it does come a little bit too thick in the Box so you will have to add some water and for taping you want it kind of runny there you go so it's a lot thinner than I had the pre-fill and for taping I like to use a pan a six inch knife we're just doing basic hand taping you guys this is like foundational skills I'm not teaching you all the different faster more production methods this is the Bare Basics that you need to know to be able to tape drywall we are going to be using paper tape on a tape spool you want it so that it comes out like this not from the top okay let's start with butt joints so the easiest way to apply the mud is with a side swipe like this it applies it the fastest and I often will spread it out just a little bit just to make it a little more even consistency you want to make sure you have about an eighth of an inch of mud on here you don't want to be able to see any bare spots get a nice Square end on your tape so in the middle of your mud bath there hopefully it's in the center of the joint you'll find out after you wipe it out and then it's pretty straightforward paper mache for adults so right now I'm not actually wiping it all out I'm actually just embedding the tape so sometimes I'll even let it saturate for a second it's not fast I have faster methods of taping but again this is the basics so now I'm wiping a little harder trying to get most of the mud out from under the tape it's pretty good right there so that's how to tape a butt joint as you can see there's a little bit of mud underneath everything but it's still going to be pretty darn flat next we'll do the flat joints this is generally the sequence that people tape in again the sideswipe method make sure it's even and sometimes it can be hard to find the middle I'll do that occasionally just to make sure I'm actually taping the right spot foreign if I didn't mention I'm using a six inch knife okay now we're just going to wipe the tape out and all that matters is that it's under that recess again we're not trying to take all the mud out the corners are a bit tricky for some people I'll have to do it a little like like that okay that one's good so now we need to check the critical part you can see there's mud underneath everything but what we need to know is that you could still see daylight through there so that there's actually room to bury that tape and mud because when it gets coated again it won't be with a knife like this but when it gets coated again you can see there's actually a place to hide that tape okay next inside Corners everybody's favorite so again I use the sideswipe method it's a pretty handy one and I'll show you guys an easier way to do it too I should really get some benches that make less noise they really creak I don't feel like I have enough mud there yet okay [Applause] and if you have kind of too much anywhere it doesn't hurt too quickly wipe that down all right so generally just kind of flat and smoothish okay and now time for the paper tape so the trick here is fold it it's got a crease for a reason push that pretty close into the corner I usually go right into the corner one thing to note is that the tape will drag as you start to wipe it out so I then pull it out like that I've gone actually almost a little bit too far out just going to pull that off that's better I often use my six inch knife to just kind of embed it a little bit straightens out that corner I almost always start with the bottom first well pigeons so I was talking about Kate's drag I was careful not to pull it super hard and pull that tape into the corner and have it be all bunched up in the top [Applause] those Corners are the tricky part for people who are new just kind of press it all down carefully and that's it next I'll usually do this one and then the final one is the upright one and all of them should go into the corner and kind of overlap it's pretty simple really quickly I'm going to show you another method to do this that's way easier because a lot of people really struggle with applying the mud okay you guys this is the magic tool call the lambswool roller it's not lambswool it's just some synthetic fiber but I dunk it in the bucket I think this is maybe originally for painting but it's used for this a lot so that's a lot easier isn't it and a lot of professionals actually do it this way too it's definitely a tool that'll make a homeowner's life a lot easier I find it kind of messy but it's fast oh I forgot to crease the tape that might cause me grief it's hard to remember to do everything right when I'm busy talking on a video but it wipes out really easy so definitely a very useful tool I think it'll make a lot of your legs easier again Link in the description if you're looking for one if you can't find one at your local hardware store [Music] [Applause] [Music] doesn't have to be pretty for the whole process it should just be clean and tidy when you're done don't want to leave a mess in the corners or you're going to cause yourself great later as you can see that's all looking pretty tidy now that's a very easy way for beginners to do quarters okay next we have outside corners this one's a little bit tall I could get a tape measure but if I recall correctly it's only about an inch and a half to two inches these are nine foot ceilings let's see a little more on the next one I'll know about two inches off right away so you just use a pair of tin snips to cut Corner beads a good pair of tin snips should be able to cut paper this is a great pair I've had it forever and it never seems to get dull I also always take the cut and I put it on the bottom because the cut tends to get a little bit flared out and if you put that at the top you'll often see that the corner doesn't quite have the right shape so apply in a side wave motion and I like to leave a lot of mud under the corner beads so that we don't get blisters so I'm leaving you know a generous eighth right here I try and make sure it gets left pretty flat the flatter your mud is the flatter your corner bead install will be it won't be built out too much in one spot and not enough in another that's pretty good so I like to get Corner beads from the actual Drywall Supply this metal part is usually a little bit wider than it is on the ones that you get from the big box stores the narrower this is the harder time you will have covering this space from here to here and especially if it's 5 8 drywall and you have a big gap that's where you will start to get a blister forming in the paper between the metal and the flange so just sort of right in there if there's not enough mud this part will be loose and floppy and it'll show through on your successive coats I'll often pop it down on the corner there and then push up and then I just kind of give it some Jiggles here we're trying to get it on nice and square and even hopefully the framing's pretty straight I could have checked that but it looked pretty good I'm now just kind of gently embedding the flange into the mud to make sure that it all has contact with it so that there's less of a chance to get blisters okay and now I'm going to start wiping the mud out but not all of it because once we wipe it tight we can't adjust the corner bead and you'll see why we might need to adjust the corner okay so here's what we need to check for there has to be some daylight there and it has to be the same on the other side if the corner bead is out of square you're going to have too much light on one side and not enough here and you will have a hard time hiding the flange and in some cases it can be pushed over so far that you actually have to build out this side just to make it look decent and then your corner won't be as strong so I'm repositioning that making it even on both sides even on both sides check it all the way up and down we're good so once you see that it's square and there's daylight so that you have room to hide that flange then you can start actually wiping it out and now we wipe these out pretty tight it won't take it all out so now again I'm going to check at the bottom both sides I'll check on the way up both sides looking pretty good looking pretty good yeah okay now because I know it's on Square I can wipe this out a little harder to ensure that it's actually stuck down [Applause] okay that one's done so once you've done all that now it's time to do screws so screws need to be quiet so I just got to install another one I didn't use this drill I used a drywall drill but let's say it's like that and you try and coat it oh what's going on shouldn't make that sound should be buried and the paper shouldn't be torn so this is well installed and it's simple so I just need to give this about a quarter turn so if you haven't installed your screw as well you're going to have to carry around a screwdriver with you when you Splash them so the trick here is you go in one direction to put it on and one to take it back the reason you need to do this is if you go in the same direction it doesn't get filled quite properly and there's also often a little air pocket in the x of the screw so you have to wipe in the other direction to get rid of that little air pocket in the X and make sure it's full so it's simple like that you take off everything you put on there's you're not leaving anything and I don't usually do it this way but there is you know the kind of pro way looks fancy I usually do them one at a time it puts less mud on the wall but you know to me it's six of one half dozen of the others but that's how you do screws and I do screws after I tape the reason is there's a lot less screws after you tape see how all those screws are covered by tape in the corners we have a bunch of screws covered by tape so basically yeah you're just going to coat a lot less you don't need to run around coating all the screws in the joints so yeah the general order of things was prep pre-fill take the butt joints take the flats tape the corners tape the outside corners coat the screws that is day one and I did also you know I didn't mention the mesh tape and the patches you can do this with paper tape on the patches but you don't have to anyways this is like the most basic way to tape drywall I have tons I have five years of videos of more complicated or more interesting ways to tape drywall but this is the Bare Basics the fundamentals of taping drywall and um yeah one thing I left out is see this little bit right here where there was that blowout that should have a tape sorry I'm getting 80d on you guys but that is important foreign [Music] it's the fundamentals of taping drywall so be sure to tune in to the following videos because we're going to do day two how to coat drywall day three how to sand and do your final coat and day four sanding drywall all of them are equally as important but this is probably the longest video anyways thanks for watching guys I hope your projects are going really well but I hope you are doing even better until the next one

Channel: Vancouver Carpenter

Views: 635,180

Keywords: drywall, taping drywall, taping and mudding, taping and mudding drywall, drywall repair, taping inside corners, drywall repair patch, drywall repair clips, drywall repair large hole, drywall repair water damage, drywall repair hacks, drywall repair ceiling water damage, drywall repair outlet box, drywall repair electrical outlet, drywall repair after wallpaper removal, drywall repair hole, drywall repair and, drywall repair and installation, drywall repair in bathroom

Id: EASP7bIkk0k

Length: 27min 46sec (1666 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 22 2023