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Tips and Getting Started
First Coat: Embedding the Tape
The “first coat” consists of applying the mud-saturated tape to all of the joints and corner beads and filling screw or nail holes for the first time. Begin with the butt joints first, then the horizontal tapered joints, then the angles and finally, the corner beads.
The easy way to apply the tape is to use the banjo, which not only dispenses the tape but also evenly saturates it with mud while you pull it off the spool. If you’re just working on a small area like a closet, skip the banjo and stick the tape on by hand into a layer of mud, then spread another coat over the top and embed the tape with a knife.
You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll learn to play the banjo. The key is to mix the first coat of mud to the consistency of honey (it should be pourable) and spoon it into the hopper underneath a loop of tape. The right mix will result in even, complete mud coverage on both sides of the tape as you pull the tape out of the banjo and feed it onto the wall. Don’t be afraid to get your fingers dirty. As you feed out the tape, press and smooth it onto the centers of drywall joints with your fingers, then use the lip of the banjo to cut the tape to length. While you have the banjo in your hands, stick tape onto several joints at once, and then press the tape flat onto the joints with a 6-in. knife and tool off any excess mud.
After all the joints are covered, apply and flatten the tape over corner-bead edges. Although some pros skip this step, a layer of tape is easy, cheap insurance against cracked corner-bead edges later.
Second Coat: Covering the Tape, Building Up the Joints
Some pros use special wide taping knives for applying second- and third-coat mud, while others use conventional cement trowels like we did. If you’ve used knives successfully, great! But if you’re a first timer, you’ll probably find a trowel easier to master and less fatiguing. Both take patience and time to get the right touch. When you’re first spreading the mud onto the wall to distribute it, hold the trowel at an angle away from the wall and slowly lower the leading edge as you empty the trowel. After the mud is on the wall, go back and hold the trowel flatter to smooth it out.
The second coat is the toughest coat to apply, especially on the butt joints. Don’t be shy about spreading this coat over a wide area. It really takes six passes with the trowel to handle a butt joint: three trowel-wide passes to apply the mud and three more to flatten the middle, smooth out the mud and feather the sides. When you’re through, the center should barely cover the tape, while the two sides feather out the center mound.
Different joints require different strategies, as we show in the series of photos. Butt joints, which join untapered ends, are by far the toughest because you have to build a wide, gradual “plateau” of mud and feather the edges to make the joint appear flat. In contrast, tapered joints along the long sides of drywall have recessed manufactured edges that are much easier to fill and level. They’re handled the same as butt joints, but the second coat doesn’t have to be nearly as wide or as built up because of the recess of the tapered edges.
Filling corner beads is about the simplest of taping tasks because you have the hard, defined surface of the corner bead to guide application. Just make sure to feather the edges flat to the drywall. Angles only get one additional thin coat of mud—on one side during the second coat and on the other during the third-coat layer —with each side done alternately so one side is always dry when you coat the other side. That way you have a hard surface to drag your knife against. Again, feather all outside mud edges flat, then refill all the fastener holes.
Third Coat: Fill and Smooth Low Spots and Other Imperfections
Before getting started on the third coat, scrape down or sand any projecting ridges over seams and excess mud on the corner-bead edges. If you did a competent job of applying the second coat, the third coat will entail filling in imperfections such as low spots, craters and tool marks. Use a “raking” light to highlight areas that need special attention. Hold the light against the wall so it shines across the surface to make all the problem spots apparent before you start. The second coat shrinks as it dries, so fastener holes and corner beads need to be filled with a third coat of mud.
Time to Sand—Yuck!
Sanding is the last step in achieving smooth walls. It’s also the least pleasant. Buy yourself a pole sander for the large areas, a hand sander for detail work and 120-grit paper and a medium 3M sanding sponge for cleaning up the angles. The $25 total investment will be money well spent.
Use the raking-light technique to constantly check progress and highlight irregularities that need more work. Be very careful not to oversand, especially in angles and on butt joints where mud layers barely cover the tape. Quit sanding the center of butt joints as soon as inconsistencies disappear. Angles only need light sanding. Try not to sand onto unmudded paper drywall surfaces too much or abraded paper will show through the paint. If you expose tape while sanding, you’ll need to add more mud and let it dry before sanding again. Exposed tape will show through multiple layers of paint.
Bob, our expert taper, gave us this list of important tips for rookies:-
Cut corners off corner beads at roughly 45 degrees because sharp corners tend to curl through the mud.
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Feather the outside edges of each and every coat wherever you’re taping so they’re flush with the drywall.
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Never leave up any tape that has a dry bond against the drywall. You’ll be able to tell by the light color. Peel back and fill tape that’s still wet, or cut out and replace tape that’s already dried.
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Don’t worry about eliminating small ripples, ridges or craters during the second coat. They’ll get filled, scraped or sanded off during the third coat. Just try to get the distribution as even as possible.
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Never return leftover mud to the pail. There are bound to be chunks in it that’ll plague you the rest of the job.
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Spray texture won’t hide poor taping, so don’t get sloppy on ceilings.
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