leo238•3d ago

Vent: Spent 3 years over-taping corners before a 20-year vet called me out

I was at a job in Cleveland last month and this old timer watched me tape an inside corner with three coats of compound and said I was wasting a full hour per room. Turns out one coat and a proper crease is all you need, has anyone else been doing it the hard way too?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_bailey853d ago

And you know what really gets me about this? That three-coat obsession usually comes from people who learned on those pre-mixed buckets that shrink like crazy (the stuff that cracks if you look at it wrong). Once I switched to a hot mud for the first coat and just a light second pass with all-purpose, I cut my corner time in half easy. The key is learning to really work that paper tape into the corner tight before you even put mud on top, like really crease it with your knife edge. I bet half the guys doing three coats never even tried that because they're just slathering on mud to hide a loose tape job underneath.

finley9393d ago

You ever actually try working with a hot mud for that first coat? I was skeptical at first too, but it really does make a difference. The shrinking alone is worth the switch, and you end up with fewer cracks down the road. And you're dead right about the tape crease thing, that's a trick a lot of folks miss. It's all about getting that first layer right instead of trying to fix it with extra coats later.