Drywall installation - does this guy know what he's doing?

[Nightstar]

Hi - I am having some repairs done to water damaged walls, by a contractor who was chosen by my Home Owners' Assoc.

I came home yesterday to see that the guy hanging the drywall in the closet had done a very odd thing. On the back wall of the closet he hung two large pieces horizontally that butted up against the side walls. That part was okay. Then beside that to fill in the remaining space, he hung 9 little pieces, approx. 16 inches wide, in a column from the ceiling to the floor. It's kind of hard to describe. Then I noticed he had started globbing on the mud in the seams without using tape.

Later today he apparently put the tape on the seams, don't know if he did ALL 28 seams on the little pieces because now there seems to be a thicker layer of mud on top of the whole area.

Any thoughts on this?

[I-zheet M'drurz]

You're gonna have a LOT of dust!

OK, seriously: There is no rule, written or unwritten, against doing piecework drywall hanging. Whatever the guy's strategy was, it was likely to conserve materials, and that's all well and good if you don't make a pain in the butt of yourself by going through a whole bucket of mud doing all of those seams you just created.

Nothing wrong with a -wider- layer of mud on each seam as he progresses, that's the way it's supposed to be done, but if this guy is skim coating your whole closet with mud (you say "thicker...on top of the whole area") that's just plain wrong, unless he's trying to texture it to match existing walls in the same room. Oh yeah, rough filling all of the cracks before doing the tape application is probably a sign that he thinks the gaps were too big. Something tells me he may be right?

[Tracey]

I'd guess he was trying to avoid buying an extra piece of drywall. Just chant to yourself "Its the inside of a closet, not the front entryway".

[bill a]

the small pieces may just mean that the hanger had no more whole sheets to cut, and didn't care to go get more. With a butt joint 16" from a corner, the area would have been pretty much covered with mud, regardless. Especially in a closet, it shouldn't matter. After finish coats, you probably won't be able to tell that area from the rest. Bill

[Nightstar]

Thanks all, for your responses. The chanting is helping! :-)

[Nightstar]

Thanks all, for your responses. The chanting is helping! :-)