A guy on a job in Spokane showed me a trick for cutting around outlets that blew my mind

I was helping out on a big apartment reno last fall, and this older installer named Carl was working the unit next to mine. I walked over to borrow his mud pan and saw him cutting a sheet. Instead of measuring and marking the outlet box, he just held the drywall up to the wall, gave it a firm tap right over the box to make a dent, then flipped it and cut out the perfect shape from the back. I mean, I always used my tape and pencil, which takes a minute. He just looked at me and said, 'Why measure when the wall can tell you?' It took maybe ten seconds total. I've been doing it his way ever since, and it's way faster, especially on rooms with a dozen outlets. Anyone else pick up a simple trick like that from watching someone else work?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancys906h ago

My first boss called that the "knuckle knock" method. I felt like a complete idiot for a week after he showed me, considering all the time I wasted with a pencil. The real trick is not hitting it so hard you crack the board.

matthewperry6h ago

Complete idiot" seems a bit much for a pencil thing. It's just drywall.