How to Finish Coat Drywall
Finishing a wall or ceiling covered in wallboard is where most people give up and call a plasterer. Once you've got the idea, hanging and taping drywall is pretty straightforward and "mudding" the tape and nail heads with wallboard compound goes pretty easily. But after that, streaks, imperfections and inconsistent thickness of plaster begin to wear down the novice. If you're really determined to try it, here's how to make that finish coat look, if not perfect, at least professional. You can rent most of the tools you need. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- 10 or 12 inch Mudding knife
- Flat board or hawk
- Mud pan
- Drywall mud
- Mixer
- Buckets
- Drop cloths
Instructions
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Check the surface of the wall for irregularities before you begin. Bumps from nails and patches should have been feathered out by your first coats of mud. If there are still irregularities, "cut" them down by scraping over them with a small drywall knife or feather some more compound at the edges with a large wallboard knife to level out the wall. Don't sand because you will fill the surface and make it too smooth to hold the finish coat.
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Mix the finish coat mud. Use water, a cup at a time, to mix dry compound. If you've got a prepared coating that comes pre-mixed in a bucket, you may want to thin it a bit with water to get it to the consistency of whipped icing. This will make it easy to spread. Use a mixer, which looks like an old-fashioned potato masher on a long handle, or a drill attachment useful for mixing plaster or paint. Be sure to lay out drop cloths since drywall compound, like any plaster, can be a mess to clean up.
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Load compound onto a board with a handle or "hawk" to carry compound to the wall. Use the knife to load the compound on the hawk. Unlike a mason's diamond-shaped trowel, a rectangular plastering knife is designed to sweep across the wall. A useful additional item is a "mud pan," a rectangular metal container that is shaped so that you can lay the hawk on the edge and easily shovel the mud on the hawk with the knife.
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Load a bit of compound evenly across the knife's edge. Lay the edge flat against the wall and pull it evenly up and down the wall. Work quickly, but try to lay down a thin, even coat as you go. Work all the way across the wall, then come back to where you started. You'll have about an hour to finish your wall(s), so don't start with too large an area.
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Using a plain knife (no compound), sweep up and to your right at the top of the wall, working from left to right if you're right-handed (reverse if you're a lefty). The point is to "feather" the compound into one uniform, thin, flat coat. Repeat, going in the opposite direction, until the walls are completely flat.
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Go over the surface one last time after it's dry to find any high points. Sand down rough or uneven points with fine grit sandpaper. Now you're ready to prime and paint.
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Tips & Warnings
Some plasterers use only one coat to finish wallboard once the tape and nails have been mudded. If you're going to do a texture on a wall or ceiling, though, you'll need to do a perfect skim coat and then apply the texture as a finish coat.
If the compound begins to set before you finish feathering, wet your knife to soften the area as you work. You can always sand high points after the wall is completely dry but it's easier to get it right without the mess of sanding.
Ceilings are done the same way as walls but require the mudder (you) to work on a ladder or scaffolding (pros work on stilts). If the ceiling is being done, the ceiling mudder generally muds down the wall from the top to meet the person who's mudding the wall. This way, the corner where the ceiling meets the wall is done uniformly around the room.
Be sure to have the home center where you bought your drywall recommend the correct drywall compound to use. Some materials are more compatible than others.
Resources
- Photo Credit Microsoft Office clip art
