Tape, Mud, And Sand Drywall, step by step

Over the weekend we wrapped up our how to hang drywall adventures in the laundry room. It was a humbling experience, but we are feeling nothing short of glorious about how it turned out. In fact Sherry and I spent a few minutes doing this in there on Sunday.

Julie Andrews Sound Of Music Meme Look At All Of The Walls I Made

Project Completion Euphoria. It is a real thing. And it can make a grown man twirl.

Doing Our Research

We are not ready to put “pro drywaller” on the ol’ resume quite yet, but I do think we will go into our next drywallstravaganza with a lot more confidence. We devoured YouTube videos and online walkthroughs for about an hour one morning, and swiftly learned that there seem to be simply as many variations on proper technique as there are opinions (reminder to self: never read YouTube comments). We at last chose to generally follow this video, since it was clear and seemed consistent with the most common advice. So this post will show you the process we went with, and what techniques seemed to be the most effective for us. We even threw in a couple of videos for you (although none of them have our Sound of Music reenactment).

before and after of room without drywall and with wrapped up drywall

Before we began this reno, I was swift to tell Sherry that my vote was to heavily consider hiring out the mudding/taping of the drywall. It is simply a skill we have limited practice with (patching a hole here and there mostly) and it truly is an art when you watch the pros. My biggest encounter to date was 5 years ago during our first bathroom gut job, but it was simply doing a handful of seams. Somewhere along the line, I felt my opinion starting to shift, and as we chose to take on more of this renovation ourselves, I realized this would be a good room for us to build our drywall finishing skills. There would be plenty of seams to practice on and if they did not turn out so hot, we would have various items like baseboard, crown molding, cabinets, appliances, and backsplash tile blocking some of them – and it is not like it is a major gathering spot (like a kitchen or living room for example).

father and son installing drywall in old house's bathroom

Materials To Tape, Mud, And Sand Drywall

So let us start with our materials, most of which should be available right in the drywall section of any home improvement store:

Rosin paper or some other paper to protect your floor from drops, splatters, and dust (even if it is simply sub-floor, you do not want it to get bumpy from dried joint compound)
Joint compound (i.e. Mud) – I used this based on reviews I read that warned against the “UltraLightweight” stuff. I heard you want 1 gallon for every 100 square feet of drywall. For me that meant 4 gallons, but we ended up using closer to 5.
Mud Pan
Drywall Knives in various sizes – the one pictured is a 6″ knife, but we also used 8″, 10″, and 12″ ones (although the last was likely overkill)
Corner Trowel (not pictured) – this helps you get into corners and was awesomely helpful (it is in one of our videos below)
Drywall Tape (not pictured)
Bucket of Water (not pictured)
Work Light (optional, not pictured)
Stepladder (not pictured)

drywall mud or sheetrock join compound with spackle knife and mud pan

The mud pan is not only a handy way to not have to lug the whole bucket around with you, but it also has some metal edges so you can keep your knives clean and scraped off throughout the process.

Mudding Over The Screws

We began with the straightforward step: covering the screw heads. Having used a drywall counter-sink bit during installation, our screws were already set into the drywall slightly (kinda dimpled in there) making it swift and straightforward to slop on a bit of mud and scrape it flat.

grid of mud being applied over screw head in drywall installation

There were plenty of screws to cover, but Sherry took two sides along with the hallway and I got the other two and the laundry room ceiling so it went fairly fast that way.

John applying mud over drywall screw head marks

Taping The Drywall Seams

Next up was taping the joints or seams between sheets of drywall. There is mesh tape that has an adhesive built in, which we have used before and found tough (if you sand too much, the mesh texture comes through easily), so we chose to use paper tape this time, which requires a bed of mud to stick to the wall. That application method was an extra step, but nearly all of the pro walkthroughs that we watched used it, and it ended up being a lot easier to work with in our opinion (we did not have that mesh-showing-through issue – so it made for a smoother result).

drywall tape shown torn and ready to apply

First I applied my “bedding layer” on the horizontal seams. The drywall boards taper slightly on the edges, so this whole process is meant to bridge the gap between boards and flatten the taper. Once I got a decent layer of mud applied, I dragged my 6″ blade across it to smooth it out.

applying thick layer of drywall mud as bed across drywall seams

Once it was smooth, I took my piece of tape (already ripped to the length of the seam) and lightly pressed it into the layer of mud. It takes simply a soft tap for it to stick to the mud. Note: I saw some walkthroughs suggest wetting the tape first. I tried this once and did not find it any easier, simply messier, so I worked with mine dry.

hand pushing drywall tape into bed of drywall mud along seam

Once lightly adhered across the seam, I dragged my 6″ knife across the seam with a little bit of pressure to smoosh it down into the mud. It helped to start in the middle of the wall and work out to one corner and then repeat that on the other side. Since the tape may drag when you first start, it helps to put a finger on it to keep it in place when you first pull your knife across it.

drywall knife smoothing tape into drywall tape and bottom layer of mud

With the tape embedded, I then used a slightly larger knife (an eight incher) to put and smooth another layer on top. By using a larger knife it helps feather out the edges so they blend more seamlessly with the wall, all while disguising the taper of the boards.

larger drywall knife being dragged across tape to apply another layer of mud

Here is my horizontal seam after my first round. It in fact was not that hard at all, so it had me thinking I could do this all day…

wrapped up first layer of drywall mud over taped seam

Taping The Corners

… and then came the corners. The brought in corner element certainly made them more of a challenge. I would not rate this step as a “panic and throw things and curse the Hands-on Gods” undertaking, but I think a “you have to concentrate more and it takes more time” descriptor is fitting for this part (I’d call it a 6 on the Hands-on difficulty scale, while the flat seams are a 2). The process began off fairly much the same as the flat seams. I could even use the same tape, since it comes pre-creased for corner applications.

hand folding drywall tape along seam before pressing in corner

Simply like before, I applied a bedding layer first – which involved running my mud-filled knife down each side of the corner.

flat drywall knife putting joint compound into corner of room

Once both sides of each corner were covered with a fair amount of mud, I broke out my corner trowel to smooth it out. The corner trowel is a lifesaver when it comes to getting a sharp angle in the corner and smoothing both walls simultaneously.

corner trowel smoothing thick first layer of drywall mud in room corner

Then on went the tape with a light tap, simply to keep it in place.

handing pressing drywall tape into corner layer of mud

Next I pressed the tape into the mud with another swipe of the corner trowel. Since it was hard to get my finger and the trowel in the top corner (to keep the paper from dragging), I found it sometimes helped to dip my trowel in water first to glide along the tape more smoothly.

corner trowel pressing tape into corner of drywalled room

The corners ate up a lot more time than the flat seams since we had four vertical corners in the room, four horizontal corners around the ceiling, plus nine more around the doorways in the hall. But hey, at least we had 17 corner seams to practice on! Note: I will explain in a little more detail what else was challenging about the corners in a second, complete with a video to show you what ended up working nicely, so stay with me.

small room with one coat of drywall tape and mud applied

Oh and I thought it would be helpful to mention that my first round of mudding took longer than the 12-24 hours to dry that most walkthroughs suggested (Sherry began a second round after 24, but noticed it was pulling some damp mud up in a few areas so we chose to wait one more day).

Appling A Second Coat Of Mud

Once everything was dry (you can tell because the mud will be one consistent color) we put another coat on our seams, this time using a slightly larger 10″ knife to further spread the edges out a bit.

John dragging large drywall knife over seam in drywall to smooth mud

We also tackled another layer of mud on our screw holes together, since you could tell our first pass had shrunk a little bit when drying.

screw head with dried joint compound over it that has shrunk slightly

With that done, it was time to face the corners again. I in fact watched a few more videos with pointers before beginning, which seemed to assist – and I even made a video to show the technique that ended up working for me in the hopes of passing it along to you folks. I did not let Sherry record me until my third (and final) round of mudding, simply to be sure I had a good handle on it – so forgive the time jump. It is also on a ceiling crease, but it works the same way on vertical wall corners.

Note: You can also watch this video here on YouTube.

For those who cannot watch the video, I will do my best to explain it with photos. It began like I did the first time – slopping some mud on both sides of the corner with my 6″ trowel, followed by a pass with the corner trowel to smooth it out and wipe off excess.

John smoothing drywall mud in corner of room using corner trowel

The issue is that the trowel edge tends to leave ridges where the excess is pushed out, but not smoothed down.

arrow pointing to ridge in drywall mud after scraping excess

So to take care of those, I used my 6″ trowel to flatten them and feather the edge better. The challenge here is that you risk creating another ridge with the trowel (in the case of the photo below it would be the left corner), in short creating a vicious cycle of ridges that are left behind. But if you hold your 6″ trowel at a slight angle, that can assist you apply pressure on the outside edge so you can eliminate the first ridge without making a new one (or at least a quite big one). This takes some finesse, so forgive yourself if you do not get it right away, but once it “clicked” for me it was a lot easier.

flat drywall knife dragging along outer edge of corner with pressure applied to outside of knife

After eliminating (or greatly reducing) the ridge, then I went back and did one more pass with my corner trowel, simply to be safe.

dragging corner trowel down corner of drywalled wall

Here is the room after two rounds of mudding. Fortunately, the second round was much faster since (a) we were not taping and (b) I was getting better at those corners (cue the Rocky music, folks).

Wet Sanding The Drywall

After 24 hours, it was sanding time. You can see in the photo below that my best efforts to smooth everything out with those trowels were not ideal and I still had some defined edges that needed to be smoothed out and blended into the wall better.

rough edges of drywall mud dried on wall

I was in fact excited to try out the idea of “wet sanding” to assist eliminate some of the dust that threatens to coat everything in a normal “dry sanding.” I’d heard people use everything from a sponge to a t-shirt for wet sanding, but I went with this sanding sponge that was sold alongside all of the other drywall sanding materials (since it has a coarser side for scrubbing). I also kept an 120 grit sanding block nearby for any tough spots.

materials for wet sanding drywall sponge sanding block bucket of warm water

Well, I have to say I was not quite impressed with the damp sponge. It did the job, but it took a lot more effort than I had expected.

using yellow songs to wipe rough ridge of dried drywall mud

So I chose to try something distinct – which I explain in the video below – that ended up working truly well.

me>

Note: You can also watchi this video here on YouTube.

Again, if the video is a no-go for you. Here is the gist – I used the 120 grit sanding block as a sponge, since it retained water AND had a little more scrubbing power than the plain sponge did.

squeezing water out of sanding block like a sponge into a bucket

I did not want it quite wet at all (that could rub off the drywall paper) but simply damp sufficient to moisten the dried mud (and so that that the dust from sanding stuck to the surface of the block, which did not happen when it was bone dry).

rubbing wet sanding block on drywall mud to smooth

I would not call this method “100% dust free” by any means, since once the block got coated with a layer of dust it began to toss it around a bit. The difference was that the dampness caused the dust to simply fall to the ground right below whatever I was sanding, rather than becoming a cloud in the room. Once one side of the block got covered, I turned it over to get a more time out of it before having to rinse it in my bucket (it took a bit of massaging to get the dust coat off).

wet sanding block with wet dust coating it after drywall sanding

This step was a LARGE relief, because I was worried about a few corners where my application was not as smooth as the others. Here is one particularly rough spot and how well the wet-sanding step corrected my mistake.

before and after side by side of rough drywall mud sanded smooth

Applying The Third (And Final) Coat Of Mud

Once the sanding was done, we could put our third and final finish coat on the walls. A bunch of walkthroughs suggested thinning out the mud a bit so that it goes on even smoother, so I dumped a little water in…

bucket of joint compound with a little bit of water in it to thin it out

…and blended it with a paddle mixer. You can see I did this in an empty bucket, so we were not diluting our whole stash. It did not make it too much thinner, simply about the consistency of mayonnaise.

mixing bucket of drywall mud joint compound with drill mixing paddle

I will spare you pictures the photos of our third round of application and our second round of sanding (they were identical to the process I have already shown, and this post is already overloaded with pictures) – so let us simply jump to the after.

after of room when drywall tape mud and sanding is done

Priming The Room

Since that is not the most exciting picture ever, let us jump one step further to the primed room. We were so eager to see how our taping, mudding, and sanding held up to the test of being coated with primer that we jumped right on it yesterday. And it looks like a real room, folks! A space that did not exist a few weeks ago is there now – and everything is smooth! We feel like having people over to stand around and look at the walls with us. Is that a thing? No? Ok, we will not.

room primed after drywall taping mudding and sanding is complete

Here are a couple more before/afters for you. We are truly glad with how smooth the transition is in the hall too.

before and after side by side of old laundry room and new drywalled doorway

Here is one last (waaay) before & after to show how this formerly dead end of the hallway has changed. It is going to be funny to look back on old house tour videos and see a laundry closet there instead of a doorway.

before and after side by side of hallway with new doorway at the end

Next up is painting and then installing the floor (we picked tile! more on that soon!). After that we are debating whether we should roll the washer and dryer back in (at least temporarily) simply to have them hooked up again, or if we should hold out to get a few more things done without them in the room, like hanging the doors and adding the molding. Decisions, decisions…