Drywalling is not a fancy job. Drywalling is a struggle with dust, gravity, and mud.
Most people hate taping. This phrase I heard many times from residential carpenters and would-be do-it-yourselfer guys that choose to take on a basement drywall project and come out muddy after spending days of non-stop sanding. And the problem here is not the guy or gal performing, but rather the tools that are used by them.
Using a cheapest set of disposable plastic drywall knives found in any hardware shop? Don’t think of succeeding at taping a 50 sheet room – it is impossible. There is absolutely no way to avoid that problem because quality drywall tools provide just one thing – reduce labor time and save your shoulders.
What do you get with that. Every time you change a tool to a more expensive one, you buy yourself extra time. Change from cheap 6″ hand drywall knife to a banjo knife? You save lots of your hours. Replace an inexpensive pole sanding tool with a vacuum system? Lungs and homeowner’s heating ventilation air conditioning system say you thank you for this.
So now we can go into detail of the tools you should have in your set from hang to finish without any marketing stuff.
Hanging the Board: Fast, Flat, Sturdy
In case you end up having improperly installed walls, the task of taping would be a nightmare for you. Improperly installed walls are hard to fix using compound, let alone working on big gaps because there won’t be any possibility of drawing a straight line.
As far as the compound goes, make sure that your boards are placed on the wall before you start working on it.
It is a must-have for installing the ceilings on your own. While it can be rented from stores, buying a quality industrial one is the best thing you could do, especially when you have performed more than three installations during one year. In this case, the likelihood of injuring yourself significantly increases because lifting such a heavy board without tools seems quite dangerous. An industrial panel lifter keeps your panel locked and helps the screws reach their desired spots.
Speaking of screws. Never use a regular drill in order to secure the board. A drywall screw driver is required here. Today, almost any professional construction company uses a DeWalt 20v Max brushless drywall driver. It is used for two reasons – due to its deep-sensing nose piece that quickly screws the screw into position and countersinks it without tearing the paper off. If it is damaged, there won’t be enough holding strength that causes nail pops within one year. Cordless drivers are outdated today – they are not recommended anymore due to their poor performance and excessive wear.
There will be no way for you to cut a clean line on the board. Using a drywall rasp with rails is mandatory at this step. Most people tend to forget the fact that in case they try to shave the factory edge or rough edge using a utility knife, they will tear the paper. Just put the rasp in action for several seconds and you will get a nice clean edge for butting.
The Taping Phase: Where Most People Ruin the Job
Now it’s time to tape the seams.
The moment when most people start questioning themselves. Taping the walls by hand is very time-consuming and tedious as compared to taping with a taping tool, because you scoop the mud, apply it, cover the seams with paper tapes, and smooth everything out. The pain starts at the fourth room; you start feeling the strain in your wrist and arms.
However, there are other options.
Drywall Banjo is a taping tool that automatically applies mud and paper tape at once. It looks like a heavy box of aluminum or plastic. First, it’s necessary to fill the box with thinned mud. Then, the tape is threaded across its front, and when pulled through, it becomes covered with mud in the same proportion. Next comes applying it to the wall seams, pulling it the required length, cutting it and smoothing out. With a good quality and expensive banjo by companies like Marshalltown and Goldblatt, it’s worth paying extra attention. Its high price pays off in a matter of minutes after starting.
Not willing to buy the banjo yet? Consider the alternative, TapeBuddy. This taping tool is even more compact. It stands atop the container, and when pulling tape through it, it coats it evenly with mud. The process of applying tape to wall seams remains unchanged. However, it helps to get rid of a very time-consuming stage – pre-applying mud to drywall seams. TapeBuddy is popular among DIYers. To be honest, even some professionals use it as a simple way to fix their house without bringing an automatic taper to work.
Oh wait, I’ve confused someone. Yes, if you are working in a commercial area, do not even think about TapeBuddy. Use the automatic taper or the Bazooka instead. It’s a very high-performance device of an aluminum construction, able to perform two actions at once, i.e., coating the tape with mud and pumping it onto the wall. To use the machine, you’ll also need a mud pump, which will cost you a lot. In case you order an automatic taping tool in Canada, prepare yourself to pay thousands of dollars for a whole kit.
Mud Pans and Joint Knives: The Foundation
Regardless of how many automated machines you have, you will still require hand tools.
First off, you should purchase a stainless steel drywall mud pan. It is essential. I see guys working from a plastic bucket or a cheap plastic pan. Do not do that. The plastic pan is scratched by the knife blade. Once it has been scratched, dry mud collects inside the pan. You can find dried mud pieces mixed into your wet mud. This results in huge tears on your walls.
Go ahead and buy a good quality stainless steel pan. It is easy to clean. After cleaning, there is no trace of dried mud in it.
The next tool is the joint knives. The putty knives that most people use when doing drywall finishing jobs are too hard. Therefore, it is advisable to look for flexible knives.
If you decide to buy joint knives, you will encounter two kinds of metals. These are the stainless steel and the blue steel knives. The stainless steel does not rust easily. Thus, this knife would be suitable for Canadian weather conditions because the tools stay in a damp van overnight. However, the stainless knife is inflexible. On the other hand, the blue knife rusts if it gets wet. Nonetheless, the blue knife is very flexible. It bends perfectly along the wall to feather out edges. If you purchase the blue knife, then you need to clean it thoroughly and dry it using a rag. Finally, lubricate it with WD-40 before storing it.
Lastly, go for knives that have Durasoft handles. People who use hard wood handles get blisters in eight hours of working.
You need at least three sizes:
- A 5-inch or 6-inch knife for applying the tape and picking mud out of the pan.
- An 8-inch or 10-inch knife for the fill coat.
- A 12-inch or 14-inch knife for the final finish coat.
Finishing & Skimming: Chasing the Flat Wall
After the tape has been buried, the next task is making the joint invisible. And that’s where all the finishing tools come into play.
A finishing trowel consists of a flat rectangular blade made out of steel with an extension on top where a handle is attached. The tools are used frequently by plasterers, but drywall professionals with the highest expertise often opt to use a trowel instead of the wide taping knife to apply the final coat. The method of application using the former creates different results. Slightly angling the trowel creates a controlled, thin coat of mud. After a while, you develop a muscle memory allowing you to create a seamless coating at a very rapid pace.
Recently, the drywall skimming blade has revolutionized the entire industry.
A skimming blade can be described as an extruded aluminum frame containing a very thin, flexible blade made out of steel. The blades can vary greatly in length – from 16 to 48 inches. The purpose of the tool is to smooth out the mud rolled out across the wall surface with the help of a thick paint roller.
In case the wall texture is poor or there is a need for a level 5 finish, which means a whole wall should have a microscopic-thick coating of the compound, then the kit with skimming blades can prove to be truly effective. Companies, such as Columbia, Level5, and Buddy Tools manufacture great skimming blades sets. An extended pole can be attached to the head of the blade to work with walls reaching ten feet in height.
Corner Tool Systems: The Real Time Sinks
Flat seams aren’t so hard. Inside corners will destroy your soul.
An inside corner starts with folding the tape perfectly, applying the tape tightly without slicing your work in half with your knife, and mudding both sides. Mudding both sides at once using your normal hand knife will result in your blade digging into the wet mud from the adjacent wall. Gross.
To save time here, the best method is a corner roller. Once you manually apply the tape into the wet mud, you simply roll up and down the seam using a corner roller. Dual steel wheels press the tape perfectly against the 90 degree corner and force all excess mud out.
Once that is done, you need to use an inside corner tool, otherwise known as a flusher or angle head. This device can be mounted to either a pole or a handle, and features spring loaded design to ensure a perfect 90 degree angle. Dragging this down the corner will result in smoothing the mud down both walls at once in a flawless fashion. One 9 foot corner takes about 3 seconds. Doing it by hand with a 4 inch knife takes about three minutes. And 40 such corners?
Sanding Without Destroying Your Lungs
You’ve reached the end. The mud is dry. It’s time for you to sand.
Sanding can be quite messy. The dust spreads everywhere, damaging floors and windows and even breathing heavily in your lungs. Therefore, you will require proper equipment.
A regular hand sander is a block where you attach a piece of sandpaper or sanding mesh. It works perfectly well for small-scale home repairs. For any other large projects, you will require a pole sander. It includes a head that rotates on an aluminum pole, enabling you to sand your ceilings and walls from the ground without having to climb ladders. Always use sanding mesh instead of sandpaper. Sanding mesh lets the dust pass through the mesh rather than getting clogged by the abrasive particles.
However, as a professional drywall contractor or a hobbyist who cherishes his neat home, you will require a dustless sanding system.
The power drywall sander is an electric-powered rotating disk with a long handle that is connected via a vacuum hose to a special dust collector. The Dewalt 20v Max brushless sander is the machine of choice here. As the rotating pad sands down the peaks in the mud, the vacuum collects 99 percent of the dust while it is still inside the pad.
These machines are heavy. You need some skill in using the sander to make sure that it stays parallel to the wall surface, thus preventing it from creating circular grooves in your completed seams. However, the machine works like magic, and you can sand down an entire room within twenty minutes. Moreover, when you remove your mask, there will be absolutely no dust in the air.
Buying Drywall Tools in Canada
There are some unique characteristics associated with getting them.
On entering a big home improvement store in Canada, you will find some average quality Richard or simple Marshalltown tools. There is no problem with their use in terms of doing patchwork or small scale home renovation work. But if you need something of higher professional quality, like a stainless-steel taping knife kit with leather handles, banjo, and automatic taping machine, then you have to look for drywall equipment stores or purchase them online.
Shipment of tool kits might prove to be expensive; hence, it is advisable to select the supplier from Canada who offers free delivery facilities for bulk orders. Be aware of the cost all the time as a 32-inch skim knife could vary in price by around fifty dollars.
Consider durability before buying anything. As has been noted, the process of drywalling is fairly corrosive. The cheap steel rusts easily by the mud. If you were to drop a plastic corner tool onto concrete, it would shatter. Accordingly, consider buying industrial tools only if you plan on repeating this sort of activity.
There is another important tip when working with drywall in Canada. Be wary of your mud and tools in wintertime. You certainly do not wish for the banjo in your car, which holds plenty of compound, or your wet knives to be frozen. Both of these become utterly useless when they freeze. It turns the joint compound into a cottage cheese-like substance. Scrubbing frozen mud from the sensitive edge of your tool ruins it. Be sure to clean all your tools with warm water each day.
It is such a great feeling when a wall appears smooth and even. It takes preparation. Having the proper equipment—mud pan, putty knife, rasp, and sander—is your guarantee of success. Give up the struggle and surrender to your mud. Let your equipment do the job.