Help - Drywall blunder - doh!

[coolneo]

If you'ev ever seen the commerical with the guy going around trying to kick himself you have an idea as to what I am doing now!

I totally screwed up my drywall joints. I put on way too much compound for the first coat - ugh, wtf was i thinking - anyway, it's so bad I'm contemplating tearing it all out and starting over. I can sand the bad areas down, but like I said it's a really really pathetic job - I'll be sanding for a long time. The other option is to sand it down to something acceptable and then tile over it.

What would you do?

Thanks and please ignoe the "kick me" sign affixed to my back.

-Jay

[DanG]

Is it a matter of looks or is the mud too high? If the mud is too high only you can decide how to proceed. Belt sander, remove drywall and start over, hire someone else all come to mind as possible remedies.

Assume that you bedded the tape and wiped the edges down. You did fine.

Install another coat of compound with the next wider knife. Concentrate on wiping the edges in, feather them to nothing. Do not worry about the center. Lightly sand, again concentrate on edges. Skim with a wide knife, slightly wetter mud, and plenty of pressure. Watch the edges, the center will take of itself.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[mwlogs]

if the mud is too high, rather than sanding and creating all the dust, try a bucket of watter and a large sponge. Rinse it frequently as you wipe down the highest spots. Try to avoid soaking the surroundinf dryawall paper too much.

[Jim Elbrecht]

First- go get yourself [at the very least] a dust-free sanding kit from the local borg. They are about $30 & hook to your shop vac. [If you don't already have one, pick up a good one while you're there]

The sanders have a screen that goes over a shop vac attachment and they take off a lot of drywall in a relative hurry-- with no mess.

Or rent a Porter-Cable 7800 Drywall Sander for a few hours. They retail for $4-700 so you should be able to rent one for $50 or so. Quick work and *no* mess.

Then begin again, only with really thin coats this time.

Jim

[John Grabowski]

I concur with this. The water will soften the joint compound and you will be able to remove the excess high spots while smoothing overall at the same time. Rinse the sponge in the bucket of water frequently. There won't be any dust and you won't have to start over. Use a big sponge and make sure it is not too wet.

[Colbyt]

As other have posted sanding is the best option if the tape is bedded low enough in the mud. I will point out that if the high point of the mud is no more than 1/8" above the wallboard you can just sand the high spots and add more mud in thin feathered coats. If you really screwed this up and have gobs of mud consider using a wallpaper shaver or sharp scraper to scrape off the bulk of the mud before you start sanding. A little bit of mud makes a lot of dust.

Colbyt

[George E. Cawthon]

Yep. No need to sand, just use water, it isn't water resistant. A wash cloth work as well as a sponge.

mwlogs wrote:

[coolneo]

Thanks everyone.

Based on your suggestions I did the following....

First, I tried to wet sand. It would have taken me hours to get it all fixed so then I put on the respirator, googles, and hat and grabed the sander and vac. It took me about three hours to get it to a reasonable state. Then I went back to wet sanding. It's a lot better now - not as good as it would have been if I did it right the first time.

Thank again everyone and happy holidays!