Finishing a Drywall Joint STEP 1

Hi, I'm Ryan Voorhees, an instructor in the Construction Technology Department at Ivy Tech Community College. Today I am going to demonstrate the proper methods for taping and

finishing

a standard tapered

drywall

joint

. As an example, we will use a standard tapered

drywall

joint

. I'm going to go over some of the tools we'll use to complete this process. The first tool we plan to use is a 6 inch taping knife and this knife is used to apply mud and remove it from the tape in the first

step

the second knife we ​​will use is an 8 inch

finishing

knife.

All of these knives are very stiff and sharp to allow for a very clean edge and the final knife we ​​will use is a 12 inch finishing knife. knife again a very stiff, strong and sharp knife, you will notice that I am holding a drywall tray, this is to hold my mud while I work on the process, it has sharp edges to clean my knife, also as far as the tools. When we're done and ready to sand, we'll use a wet sanding sponge or a drywall sanding stick with an open-face dry sanding paper, so I'll start with

step

number one. is to apply a five inch wide layer of mud to the joint pretty thick, about an eighth of an inch thick and then I'm going to apply standard drywall paper tape to that joint, this paper tape is pre-crumpled, like this that if I were making an inside corner I could fold this by hand and apply it to the joint, but we're making a flat joint, so I'm not going to fold this tape right now with paper tape.

I have two options. I can apply this tape directly to the compound. or I can pre-wet the tape in a bucket of water and smooth it out and apply it and I'm going to do this demonstration. I'm going to apply this wet tape so to start I have my joint, all the drywall is ready and that's it, I have an empty tray and a 6 inch taping knife. This is a very sharp, stiff knife, so I have pre-mixed drywall compound. You can also mix your own compound here, but I chose to use a premix for simplicity. I'm going to load my pan full of mud keeping a clean knife as I go, as you can see I have about, oh, maybe a cup of a good compound here, this compound is about the consistency of peanut butter, which is approximately what I want to record and I keep everything. one side of my pan to have a clean side so I can always keep a clean knife so I'm going to leave my knife here and I'm going to get my compound out of the way and for this step I'm just going to dig into my compound and I have a knife full of compound and I want apply about five inches, my knife is six inches so if I apply it straight I would have to widen it so I'll choose to apply my mud more vertically across that joint so I can keep the mud right in the center of that joint and again I'm applying this quite thick mud and then I'll take it and remove it with very little pressure.

I'm just trying to distribute it evenly. along this view and then add the areas where it doesn't reach 5 inches. I have some low points here and again as I work here. I keep my knife clean, you know, let me cut what I need if I let the mud stay. the knife will dry out, it will create problems later on, so this is suitable for this particular joint, so at this point I'm ready to get my tape, so I'm going to take my tape, put it on one end of my joint. I can estimate the length of that tape, then just take my fingers and tear this tape like this.

Now again I could apply it dry directly to the joint, but I choose to apply it wet, especially in a dry atmosphere, it helps the tape adhere really well to the compound. Better, then I take that tape, I wet it and I wring it out and it's ready to go on the wall, so I'm going to center this tape on the joint and give it enough pressure to make it stick. I'm not going to push. At this point, with my fingers, I take a clean knife and I'm going to hold one on this tape like it's just to start.

I pull the tape off the wall, holding one end and always starting very firmly in the center. Press at about a 45 degree angle and embed that tape into the compound now that it's stuck. I don't have to hold the other side, so I'll start at the middle 45 degree angle and run the knife through to embed the tape. and I take my excess back to the mold so the tape can stick. I'm going to do this one more time from the center, we always work from the center because if we start at one end we could create a bubble that gets stuck in the center, so we want to start in the center and work to eliminate bubble opportunities and there we have a first layer of mud with tape properly embedded and at this point we will let this mud and the tape dry overnight and then at that point we will be ready for the next step