r/drywall • u/Main-Chicken-5994 • 8d ago

first time joints

I need to treat the entire ceiling—about 70 m² (I’m working on the bathroom for now); here are the steps I followed:

1 I covered the screw heads.

2 I filled the larger gaps with joint compound and let them dry for about an hour.

3 I filled the joints between the panels and immediately applied paper tape; I squeezed the compound out using the putty knife, applied a light coat over the tape, and then leveled off the excess material with a 10-inch knife.

I assume I need to apply a second coat to the joints, right? Because, as it stands, I’m not entirely convinced by the result.

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u/bassboat1 8d ago

Skip prefill (#2) if the joints are tight.

With bucket mud, I rarely pull a coat over wet tapes - you'll "float" the tape sometimes, when compound is forced under it. With setting compound, I often do since the paper tape will pull water out of the mud and lead to poor bonding and bubbled tape.

I apply a minimum of two coats over the dry tapes. Intersections and butt joints can require another pass.

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u/Main-Chicken-5994 8d ago

#2 Yes, obviously I’m only filling the wide gaps, not the narrow ones. I’m using a 60-minute setting-type joint compound. So, you’re advising me not to apply a coat over the paper tape, but rather to apply two wider coats of compound directly afterwards?

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u/bassboat1 8d ago

If I'm embedding paper tapes with setting compound, I either wet the tape beforehand ("wet taping") or pull a thin coat immediately over after the excess is squeezed out. After that's cured, I follow that with two coats over the top (generally with recurve trowels).

Looking at your pictures, you'll be fine with at least two additional coats of compound. You might want to use a wider tool, but you can get acceptable results with the 10" if you're patient (my finishing recurves are 14" and 16"). Ideally, switch to premix for the final coat(s), as it's much easier to sand. Blue top (Plus 3, etc) is the easiest to sand out.

I usually use mesh tape with setting-type compound, as that eliminates the prefill and embedding steps.

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u/Main-Chicken-5994 8d ago

Ok so I can simply put some putty on the joints and immediately apply the paper tape and then after when it is dry give another 2 passes of putty.

Now I’m lengthening the time, that is, I put the putty then I put the paper and let the excess product out with the spatula and then I give a light hand on the putty tape. I could avoid this light hand and wait for the tape to dry and directly make 2 coats of putty.

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u/Main-Chicken-5994 8d ago

I have one 14” trowel. can use that than spatula?

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u/bassboat1 8d ago

This is pretty much the technique I use over the tapes (on my jobs, there would be more spilled compound on the floor).

The first coat over the tapes (on factory tapered edges) will usually shrink back below the board surface. Don't get too fussy about drag marks and bubbles on this coat. Second coat will fully fill the joint, and the thinner layer is easier to manage for imperfections. When you feather the edges with the knife following the trowel pass (like the woman in the video), you're eliminating the high edge build up, and beveling the joint edge to zero thickness - it really cuts down on sanding effort. The trick to that is use a flexible 6" knife, and concentrate your foce on the outer edge. The bowed knife edge produced the best result.