ceiling drywall

[Oh_Jeeze]

So I tackled a project to fix a spare bedroom in my home over the christmas break. The short story is... The room looked and smelled horrible. I removed the balerina wall paper and painted the walls and I removed the old dingy carpet. After removing the carpet I realized that I would have to replace several pieces of plywood on the floor becuase they have been treated with cat pee. In the process of replacing the flooring I tripped over the shop vac, stepped on one of those nail strips that are used to hold down carpet and fell between and opening in the floor, through my ceiling, and into the livingroom. My wife nearly had a heart attack and I quiet simply have never been so embarressed in my entire life. Anyhow, after my wife got tired of screaming at me I started repairing the the hole in the ceiling. I cut a 6ft rectangle into the ceiling and I screwed in a 6ft peice of drywall into the hole. Then I buttered the seams, added the drywall tape, and put a layer of joint compound over the tape. I have not yet put the third layer of joint compound on the seams because the tape is puffing out in the center and it is still visible. What do I do? I have never fixed a hole that big before. Nor have I ever fixed a hole in ceiling drywall. Any tips.

[Matt]

They make a mesh type joint tape you might want to use, made out of some sort of fiberglass or plastic. Self adhesive as well. I've always found it to work better than standard paper joint tape.

[John Harlow]

A small piece of duct tape would have covered the "screaming" wife's mouth rather inexpensively. ;)

[scott_z500]

Personally, I don't even use drywall tape. Just taper the spackling and sand. Works for me.

[John Grabowski]

You should have waited for the first coat of mud under the tape to dry completely before applying the second coat on top. The only fix that I know of is to pull off the tape and start over. Always wait for the spackle to dry completely in between coats.

What did you decide to do about the bathroom fan?

[Mikepier]

If the puffing is not that bad, cut the bubble with a utility knife and try to get some spackle underneath the bubble and go over it with the spackle knife making it flat. Wait a day for it to completely dry before going over it.

[Pop]

Wow, while her arms and legs were still free? No thanks; I'm just dumb, not stupid!

LoL

[jeffc]

Be very wary of anyone who calls it "spackle". You don't need to wait for the mud under the tape to dry before covering the tape. That should all be done in the first pass, out of 3 total. A couple of things might have happened. Your joint compound might have been too watery, or the paper tape was not fully embedded in the compound underneath it, allowing a bubble of sorts, or the gap between your new drywall and old might have been too big.