By Jerry A. Blackburn

Installing drywall is something that takes patience and detail. If you’ve never installed drywall you’d be surprised at how easy it is but how important it is to do correctly. How well you apply the mud will really determine the final look of the walls. Here are some tips to mudding drywall.

Make sure you have the right tools for the job and familiarize yourself with them. These include course taping compound and the smoother topping compound. Other tools include taping knifes, sand paper and putty knives for smoothing surfaces. Jointing compound (the mud) comes in a few different forms. There is powder that needs to be mixed with water and there is pre-mixed, both of which come in different textures.

Before applying the jointing compound, make sure the surface is completely flat and smooth. All the nails and screws should be flush (if not a bit indented) with the wall. You can run a putty knife along the wall to if any nails snag. Putty can be used to smooth out indentations from nails or you can use a bit of the joint compound.

Use the course taping compound to cover the seams and apply the jointing compound to all seams and over tape, nails and screws. Everything must be filled and the surface level and smooth. This coat must dry 24 hours and this process repeated another two times. After each coat, a longer taping knife should be used to smooth the compound to ensure your wall is even and level. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of patience to get the application of the compound right. You have to apply pressure to your knife in different places depending on the angle and amount of compound needed.

Before applying the fourth coat, use your tape knife to scrape an excess dry compound to ensure the surface is completely smooth. Apply the final coat with attention to detail. You may want to thin out your compound stage; it tends to smooth out easier. After the final coat is dry (24 or more hours later) you’ll want to smooth out your surface with the tape knife and sand paper before applying a primer.

The key to mudding [http://www.insidewoodworking.com/drywall/howtoinstalldrywall.html]drywall is patience and that can be difficult since you’re usually at the end of your project and ready to prime and paint your wall. Make sure you do all four coats of compound and wait the 24 hours between applications. After the final coat, make sure everything is completely level and smooth. It may not appear to be a big deal but mistakes will show once you paint or apply wallpaper. Mudding drywall is easy but it takes patience and attention to detail.

Being really interested in drywall and types of drywall, Jerry Blackburn has been publishing many informative papers in this specific area. You might come across his observations on how to install drywall and types of drywall at http://www.insidewoodworking.com

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