Happy Friday! Yay, we made it to the end of the week…TGIF, right?! I’m so excited to be able to have some major progress happening in our kitchen and I hope to be able to share some details about our new window next week. Even when you are hiring projects out, they never go exactly to plan so there had to be modifications. But, I’ll save all of that for another day. Spoiler alert – we love the window though. Back to today’s post. A few weeks ago we shared how to install drywall. I told you then that we would be back for the second portion of that post on How to Mud Drywall and today is the day.
Check out this before/after!
Crazy, right?
Ok, let’s back up and show you where we started.
To help minimize the amount of pictures in this post, I’m going to be referring to this general area. We had two more walls that we had to patch and mud as well as the ceiling where we took the bunkhead down.
*Affiliate links below. Thanks for supporting this blog. Click to read my disclosure policy.
So, first things first. Gather your supplies.
You will need a couple different sizes of taping knifes (we used a 12″ and a 8″), mud pan, joint tape and wallboard joint compound (we chose to buy the premixed buckets but you can mix your joint compound yourself and save money if you’d like to go that route). I know that sounded like a lot of stuff, but no of it should break the bank.
The premixed joint compound costs about $15 and it took one whole bucket to do that above wall (ceiling not included). I think we had to buy about five buckets for the whole room.
Next, you need to use your 8″ knife and spread the joint compound over your seams (work with one seam at a time). The seam should be completely covered with extra built up on top of it.
Once you have spread the mud on your seam, follow the mud with the mesh tape.
It usually works best if you focus on setting (pushing in) one end of the tape with your knife and then work from that end down the tape to set the rest of the tape into the mud.
After the mesh is applied, go back over the mesh with mud. Then, lightly smooth out the seam to get rid of any big edges. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Repeat this process on all drywall seams.
You treat corners a bit differently. Mud the corners and then place a drywall outside corner bead on the corner.
At this point, tell your husband that he’s doing a great job and offer to get him some beer for all his hard work. =)
Go back over the corner bead with mud.
Keep going.
*As with every application of mud, try to smooth and arc so that the drywall looks smooth. This will help with the reapplication process.
Once you have applied all the mud, let it dry. Our dry time was 24 hours but they do have some quick set mud if you need to get it done faster.
After you have let the mud dry, next you need to sand. Just FYI – this is super messy like messier than anything we have ever done. Take the time and cover your counters with plastic and hang plastic sheeting to help contain the drywall dust. You will thank yourself, promise!
We used a sanding screen (similar to this one).
After you have sanded, wipe the loose dust off the walls with a large sponge.
Next, we’ll apply the second coat of mud using the 12″ knife. All coats after the first are the same. You just start by applying some mud along the seam, and then use the large knife to gently smooth out the seams and widen the mudded area. This helps taper out the drywall so it covers the seam well in the middle and then gets thinner and thinner the farther away from the seam you go.
Repeat this process until your seams look good. We went three rounds.
After the last sanding you can proceed to painting.
All in all, installing the drywall (check out our tutorial for how to install drywall if you haven’t), and finishing the drywall together are a pretty decent project. It’s definitely a doable project for a DIYer. But, between the install and letting the mud dry between coats; I’d say it’s definitely a two-weekend-type project. For us, it was more like a 2 month project… but who’s counting?
Affiliate links below. Click to read my disclosure policy.
We are hoping to finish the trim for our new window (see peek above) soon, but we shall see! Have a great weekend.
Great job! We did this in our kitchen some months ago and I second the “totally doable but takes a while and very messy” assessment. And the husband needs beer after. 🙂
Yes! I’m thrilled to have it done. Lots of beer might have been consumed during the process… and take-out of course.
I have a few projects I’d like to tackle that require new drywall and have been putting them off because it seems so intimidating! Thanks for sharing this – makes it look a lot less scary 🙂
Go for it! Just be prepared for the mess… that’s really the worse part.
Great job!! I just tried mudding drywall for the first time this month (on the garage ceiling, which the previous owner had just left unfinished). Let me just say… good thing it was just in the garage! This tutorial is super helpful, thanks!
Oh man, that dust gets everywhere. I’m thrilled to be moving on.
You guys did an amazing job! I hate doing this type of work and usually try to have someone else do it.
It’s such a hard decision for me whether to try to DIY it or pay it out. This one was definitely doable but a HUGE mess.
Just a note for the next time you finish some drywall. I have done enough drywall, both on the job and as a diy-er, to have learned a few tricks. Plus, my dad is an expert. You should tape your joints with a 4″ knife. Save the 8″ for the second coat. The 4″ knife is made to fit in the tapered joints of the drywall, otherwise you’ll end up bowing the wider knives permanently after a few uses. And you can just stick the mesh tape directly to the drywall, then mud it. You only need to run a pass of mud for paper tape. Otherwise you’ll be sanding a lot more.
Thanks for your advice, Tim! All of that is great to know. Sanding is so annoying so anything that saves time is amazing!
Leave the drywall to the professional, what I see, read or listen to here is wrong. I’m a 45 year veteran and know exactly what I’m talking about
One piece of advice — do NOT sand between coats. After the first coat of mud, knock down the ridges by pushing your 5″ knife over the mudded area. Then reapply a second coat of mud. Repeat again after the second coat of mud is dry. Save the sanding until the last finish coat is done! Much less cleanup and the mud will stick to the slightly rough texture of the previous coat far better than to a sanded coat of mud.
oooh, thanks for the tip! We are BEGINNERS when it comes to mudding drywall but have been pleased with the outcome so far. I will definitely try it your way next time around though. Thanks for stopping by!