If your joint looks like this after you prime, NEVER be afraid to add more mud and/or do more sanding.
The time to do the mudding is before the texture and paint, not after.
Each phase of drywalling is delicate.
- You need to start w/a solid foundation. Remove everything that’s SOFT
- Then fill in all valleys and…
- Feather out all humps
- The object here is to make everything flat or at least the optical illusion that it is flat, to the eyeballs
- You can prime and then touch up after the fact
- After you spray the ceiling texture you can do pole sanding on the walls, especially if k.down on the ceiling
- You can sand walls after k.down texture on the ceiling, but you need to sand through the texture over spray (which is not ideal)
- Important point: When touchup(sanding/mudding) , you want to get rid of:
- Hollow valleys (low areas)
- ridges and lap marks
- Again…everything relatively flat. Of course you will have a little here and a little there which if minor (you can’t feel it w/your finger), then it should be okay
- If you can’t see it w/a 500 watt halogen light then you should not be able to see it after it’s painted. In this case shine the 500 watt halogen light down the wall at a slight angle (so you can see optimally down the wall)
- If you want slight advantage do your sponge sanding after power/pole sanding and before priming. After priming do your touchup sanding. Or… if you want to wait to prime later… maybe sponge sand and then come around for a 2nd time and touchup w/mud. I actually used to do both@same time but sometimes more is not better. You decide.
- The object is when sanding to not grind off the good mud, just the mud that creates ridges and lap marks mostly.
You can also skim coat if you desire. What are the advantages of a skim coat v.s just touching up?
- you hide minor imperfections
- you float out the seam wider
- you eliminate the need for most/all of the touch up
Some of the mechanical tools that we run are not always going to put the mud on without leaving ridges or if you use the brake on the 10 or 12 box then it can leave score marks on the perimeter, which may need to be touched up or skim coated.
Even if you coat fasteners, if maybe a rookie is not able to wipe them tight, may leave a ridge that needs to be sanded. The power/orbital sander (in my opinion) works about best for this.
All these mechanical/power tools are meant to save on your body. So if you’d rather wear out the machine v.s your elbow or knee, then you want to use the tools, especially if you do this kind of work every day.
It’s much easier to replace a tool than your body part. Think about it… how much does surgery cost? Even if you have insurance, how much is your out of pocket on a deductible? 10% maybe? You might work a whole year just to pay for one surgery.
That is why we charge for what we charge boys… We work hard, stuff wears out or Gets Stolen… a lock keeps the honest thief out 🙂
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day as it is the only one that will ever be this day again.
Peace,
Kel