Taping the Drywall Joints

Just last night, I finished taping the good majority of the drywall joints in the log cabin room. I say majority because I still have to tackle the seams around where the cross beams meet the drywall. There are 30 seams there, so that will take a little while.

This first step in adding joint compound to the drywall looks a little weird. Usually, when people refer to the mud one applies to sheetrock, they think of big wide white areas that run up and down the areas the drywall connects to one another. What I’m showing you above is not a photo of that. What I’ve completed now is only the first step. I merely filled any gaps between the pieces and attached the fiberglass mesh tape to the surface. At this point, it doesn’t look good, but it’s strong.

If you want to see what it looked like before, you can browse through this post:

Installing Drywall Over Rigid Foam Insulation

To tape a joint with fiberglass mesh taping, you first need to attach the tape to the wall, over the seam. It’s tacky on one side, so this is fairly easy. After that, you need to get your joint compound into any gaps that exist so they’re completely filled. You do this by pressing it firmly along the seams with a four inch putty knife. I make sure to cover all the tape carefully and then I scrape away any excess mud. This is what it looks like when the process is completed and the compound has dried.

As you can see, it’s not too smooth. You can still see the indent of the actual joint. The next coat of compound will take care of that and then after that one has dried, the final coat will be much wider and smoother. In general, it takes three coats to finish a seam.

In the drywall world, there seems to be a big debate about which is better, paper tape or fiberglass tape. I think the professionals prefer paper and the DIY homeowners prefer the fiberglass mesh alternative. Personally, I prefer the mesh because it’s easy to work with and it requires very little brain activity to successfully apply. I can see the case for both, but really, the whole thing reminds me of the old Ford vs. Chevy argument, which I became bored with years ago. It’s all good, so if you’re attempting to complete a project like this, close your eyes and grab one or the other from the shelf at Home Depot. This isn’t rocket science going on over here.

Anyway, I wanted to write this post to get some pictures of my progress up on the blog. I picked up a fun new tool that I’ll be writing about next, so stay seated at your computer. It’s very exciting.