c/drywall-installers

TIL I hit 10,000 sheets hung without a single callback

Made it to 10,000 sheets of drywall hung last month and not one complaint came back to me, so why do we always focus on the screw pops instead of the wins?

Overheard a guy at Home Depot say taping is 'just mudding with extra steps'

I was grabbing some 90-minute compound yesterday in the aisle and this dude tells his buddy that finishing drywall is basically the same as hanging it, just messier. Like, has he ever tried to get a crisp corner bead or feather out a butt joint without sanding through the paper? Makes me wonder how many folks out there actually think this trade is just slapping mud on walls.

Worst drywall week I've had in 8 years started with a bad batch of mud

Got 40 buckets of all-purpose compound from the lumber yard last Monday and every single one had these weird tiny lumps that wouldn't break down no matter how much I mixed. Has anyone else run into a bad batch from a major supplier recently?

Noticed a big change in how fast my mud dries between summer and winter jobs

I've been doing drywall for about 8 years now, and this winter I finally paid attention to how much longer my mud takes to set when it's cold. In July I could do a second coat after 45 minutes, but last month in a basement with no heat I waited almost 3 hours. Has anyone else tracked drying times based on temperature changes?

Old timer on a ceiling job told me 'stop fighting the board'

I was wrestling a 12-foot sheet on a stairwell ceiling near Raleigh and this guy watching just said "let the board do the work." He showed me how to angle it so the weight carried it into place instead of me pushing. Anyone else had a senior hire drop a tip that totally changed how you handle big sheets?

Had to choose between mesh tape or paper tape for a ceiling repair last week

I was doing a 12x14 ceiling patch job and couldn't decide which tape to use. Mesh tape is faster but paper tape is stronger for flat seams. I went with paper tape because the guy at the supply house said ceilings sag if you cheap out. Big mistake - the paper tape bubbled up on me after the first coat. Took me an extra 2 hours to sand it down and redo it. Should have just used mesh tape and been done with it. Has anyone else had paper tape fail on a ceiling like that?

Showerthought: Are we overdoing mud too much on butted joints?

I read on a manufacturer's spec sheet that drywall compound only needs to be about 1/16 inch thick to actually bond and hide the seam, but I've seen guys lay it on almost a quarter inch thick. Does anyone else think we're wasting time and materials smoothing out extra mud that just cracks anyway?

Had a nightmare day at a reno job in Portland last Tuesday

I was hanging 50 sheets of 5/8 fire code on a basement ceiling alone, and my lift blew a hydraulic line at 10 AM. Took me 2 hours to find a rental lift from a place across town, and the whole job ran 4 hours late. Has anyone else had a piece of equipment tank their whole day like that?

Busted a brand new drywall lift on my first job in Denver last Tuesday

Pro tip: Skip the self-tapping screws on metal studs

Switched to a collated screw gun with standard bugle heads and my speed doubled in one week. The self-tappers kept snapping on 20-gauge studs. Anyone else ditch those things yet?

Debate: Old timer told me to stop using mesh tape on corners, said paper is better every time

I was working a job outside Cleveland last week and this guy who's been doing drywall since the 80s goes off on me for using mesh on inside corners. He said paper holds mud better and never bubbles, but I feel like mesh is faster and I've never had a call back. He's got 40 years on me though, so who's right? What do you all use for corners, paper or mesh?

The pre-fill vs. on-site mud debate: does pre-filling screw holes actually save time in the long run?

I've been at this for about 8 years now, and for the longest time I was a strict on-site guy. Mix up the mud, fill every screw hole by hand, tape, then coat. But last month on a 2,500 sq ft new build out in Maple Ridge, I tried pre-filling all the screw holes with a fast-setting compound before taping the seams. It cut my taping time in half, but I ended up with more sanding on the second pass because of some tiny bubbles in the pre-fill. So here's the debate: do you pre-fill all screw holes first, or do you just tape and fill as you go? Which gives you a cleaner finish with less sanding headaches? I'm leaning towards pre-fill but I'm not sold yet. Has anyone else tried switching and stuck with it?

The day I realized I had been measuring ceiling angles all wrong for 8 years

After a builder on a custom house in Portland pulled out a roofing square and showed me my butt joints were off by 1/8 inch on every corner, I went home and measured 3 of my old jobs and found the same mistake every time-has anyone else had a pro call them out on something that obvious?

Butterfly joints are a scam until you learn this one thing

I spent 5 years struggling with butterfly joints on ceiling cracks. They always looked like garbage and I blamed the tape. Then my old foreman Mike in Denver showed me he pre-wets his paper tape for 10 seconds before applying. Total game changer. Anybody else have a dumb simple trick that took way too long to learn?

Question about fiberglass mesh versus paper tape on butt joints

I used paper tape on a whole basement job last month and had to come back to fix three cracks, thinking about switching to fiberglass mesh for the next one, anyone have better luck with one over the other on ceiling joints?

Overheard a kid call drywall mud 'spackle' and it got me thinking about how this trade is changing

My foreman had to correct him on the job last Tuesday, but the kid didn't even know why it mattered, and it made me wonder how many shortcuts the new guys are picking up from YouTube instead of from someone who's been hanging board for 25 years, anyone else seeing this on their crews?

Had a ceiling job go sideways in a Bellevue condo last spring

I was working this high end condo in Bellevue, beautiful place but the ceiling had these weird tray details everywhere. The homeowner kept asking me to make it perfectly flat, no tape lines showing. After three days of mudding and sanding I finally got it right, but only because I switched to using a 12 inch knife for the final coat instead of my usual 10. Has anyone else found bigger knives make a difference on those tricky ceilings with lots of angles?

Watched an old timer do a butted seam with a 6-inch knife and my bead game instantly got better

I spent 3 months fighting with blisters and bumps on my inside corners before I saw a dude in Tulsa just use a 10-inch knife for the whole pass and now I'm wondering why nobody told me sooner, has anyone else had a basic trick like that totally flip their finish quality?

Dropped $180 on a fancy stillson wrench and it slipped on the first job. Gutted.

Bought a high end stillson from a tool truck last week cause my old one kept losing grip on pipe clamps. First use on a commercial job in Phoenix and it slipped right off a 3/4 galvanized for a fire sprinkler tie in. The teeth just didn't bite at all. I'm back to my beat up Rigid from Home Depot that costs like 60 bucks. Anyone else get burned by a pricey tool that just didn't perform?

I finally stopped using the cheap tape and mud from Home Depot on every job

For years I grabbed whatever 5 gallon bucket of premix was cheapest, usually the USG all-purpose, and standard paper tape. I figured drywall is drywall, right? Then I did a ceiling repair in a client's house last spring where the tape started peeling within 3 months. Had to go back, cut it out, and redo the whole patch for free. The owner told me he'd used FibaFuse on his other rentals and never had a problem. Now I spend the extra $12 per roll on mesh tape and use the green lid compound for flat work. Has anyone else had a job come back to bite them over cheap materials?

I tried to skim a ceiling with a 14 inch knife and it was a bad idea.

Had a job last week where the ceiling was a bit wavy and I thought a bigger knife would help me get it flatter faster. I grabbed my 14 inch finishing knife instead of my usual 12 inch. The extra length just made it harder to control the pressure, and I ended up putting too much mud on in spots. It started to sag before it could set, and I had to scrape a whole section off and start over. Wasted about an hour and a half of my day. Learned that a bigger tool isn't always better, especially when you're working overhead. Has anyone found a sweet spot for ceiling knife size, or is it all about the technique?

The time I used a pizza cutter to fix a bad tape line

I was in a real bind on a Reno job last Tuesday, my taping knife was busted and the hardware store was closed. I grabbed a clean pizza cutter from my lunch box and it actually gave me a super clean, straight line on the corner bead. Has anyone else tried a weird tool in a pinch that actually worked out?

Question about the weight of a full sheet of 5/8 drywall

I was moving some leftover sheets in my garage yesterday and looked up the exact weight online. A 4x8 sheet of 5/8 fire-rated drywall is over 70 pounds. I always knew it was heavy, but seeing that number surprised me. It makes sense why my back feels it after a long day. Do you guys have any good tricks for carrying these sheets up stairs by yourself?

My dad always told me to never trust a stud finder for a ceiling job

He said to just measure from the walls and snap lines, but I figured the new digital one I got for 60 bucks would be fine. Last week in a Denver remodel, I marked a whole grid based on the finder, cut my sheets, and then found out the joists were running the other way. Had to scrap two boards and start over, costing me half a day. Anyone have a better method for finding ceiling joists in old houses?

Just realized those magnetic corner trowels I thought were a gimmick actually saved my butt on a tricky angled ceiling in an old Denver bungalow.

I was super skeptical about the magnet holding the blade, but after fighting with a regular trowel for an hour on a 22.5 degree vault, I borrowed one from the guy running the supply truck and it made the mud go on so much smoother and faster, so has anyone else found a weird little tool that turned out to be a game changer for a specific situation?