My foreman swore by using joint compound straight from the bucket with no mixing

I got on a crew last summer where the foreman told us to just scoop and go with the joint compound, no water no mixing. After three days, every flat box I did had pinholes and bubbles like crazy. He said it saves time, but I ended up redoing 200 feet of tape on a basement ceiling in Des Moines. Has anyone else dealt with a boss pushing shortcuts that just make more work later?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahcampbell7h ago

Three days in a row we had the same issue on a church remodel in Omaha. The old timer next to me swore mixing it was for amateurs, but I watched him fight bubbles on every second coat. I finally just added a splash of water when he wasn't looking and it saved the whole job.

ray_webb612h ago

Tbh I read somewhere that mixing compound for at least a few minutes let's the polymers wake up and helps with shrinkage. Straight out of the bucket sounds like asking for trouble.