i was union carpenter drywaller for 10 years i own my own company now empire drywall group inc and ive learned how to be a taper from you and now im doing remodels from framing to knockdown thanks ive learn alot from you
I found the easiest way to mix mud without making a mess or working myself too hard, is to hire someone to do all my drywall work. That frees up time for me to drink a beer while supervising the progress.
Thank you bro, your the reason I'm good at mudding and drywall for my own business. It seems painters and carpenters consider drywall and Mudd as its own trade. But I prefer to do everything! Thank you again.
Great help. You’re right on about the small things you have to see. Please, please, do a side-by-side comparison (in bucket, on hawk, on a sheet of wall board) of the correct consistency for the various tasks (skim, beads, framing, etc). That’s the hardest to grasp. Thanks. I love your presentations.
I've been following you for a couple of years now and I always learn new tricks and techniques from your videos. I've been basically a framing and decking carpenter for about 40 years and my biggest weakness has been spackling. I cant tell you how much my abilities have improved by watching your videos. Keep up the good work and thank-you!
Not very religious my friend but bless you. Your have saved me from going over to the dark side with drywall joint work, compound mixing and all the other helpful information you've taking the time to share. I'm just in old fart remodeling a inexpensive house & God himself plugs his ears whenever he sees me getting ready to mud. Thank you so much,
We sometimes add dish soap to the skim coat. It really helps smooth out the mud. * bonus* it smells good too!! It’s Nice to smell something different than farts and sweaty armpits.
@ Waynes World Studio surprisingly it does not add bubbles. It just makes the mud easier to work with. I believe USG adds soap to their mix to begin with, and I’m sure the other companies do as well.
To comment on a previous video, that I can no longer find but I watched because like all your videos, bloopers and all, I find them very helpful. I was mixing quickset with well water and found out just how fast that actually sets. I was so used to using city water that I wasn't thinking, so I realized too late that in little less then 30 minutes I turned 45-minute mud into a solid brick...
I just want to say thank you so much I watch so many of your videos. And I was amazed on the quality of my work but I got great training thanks to you. You don’t leave any useful details out nor do you just talking my ear off.
The presentation of your videos is amazing. To the point, let mistakes flow, and keep right on rolling with the instruction. Being in a real world application helps, at least me, understand the how'/why's of what you are saying. Keep up the excellent presentations!
I just got into this world of mudding and am thankful for these kinds of tips. I have tried the buckets of pre mixed, the dry 90 min, and now the boxes which are my favorite...but don't like how they dry with a yellow tinge. Only tip I can give so far is to make sure to mix with pure clean water or you might accidentally add an accelerator into the mix. I have had buckets turn into 10 min drying mud from what I think was a rusty trowel and a bag I draped my salty wetsuit over.
thanks for the video! I'm procrastinating some home projects and I didn't know how to mix mud. If I get this step wrong, it only makes the job more difficult.
So I just learned that you need to use a drill like Ben has in this video for mixing, he's happens to be using a DeWalt model DW130V. This is a high-torque low-speed drill suitable for mixing. If you use a common 1/2 drill you could burn it out! "Ask me how I know." 🤔😆
Yeah, I have a full size, Milwaukee fuel brushless 18v and it just BARELY handles it with the 9AH battery. Have to keep my hands off the vents and give it little breaks or it’ll get hot.
Years ago I bought the cheapest black and Decker matrix corded drill Although for the past few of the years I've been using mostly better tools for everything, the corded drill has been soldiering on despite having let the smoke out of it about a dozen times 😂😂😂😂
When I set a block wall for the first time, I was surprised to learn that the most skill based thing of the whole process was getting the right amount of water in the mortar and getting it mixed thoroughly. I’d thought the fancy tricks with slapping the mortar on a block with the side of the towel would be the tough part, but it really was just getting the right mortar consistency. And that really was the factor that made a course go easy and look good or difficult and not come out great. No surprise it matters a lot with drywall too
I just finished my first box of mud yesterday spooning the mud out with my knife into my mud pan to mix in water there. Bought by next box today and this video is going to save me SOO much time and effort. Thank You!
Ben - We're doing our biggest renovation project yet on our 100 year old house, and your videos have been a huge help! Seems like you've got one for every problem we have to address (which are many!). How about one on how to estimate quantities when mixing compound? I always end up mixing waaaaaaaay too much!
I think you need to switch to building cabinets with how much you have shoulder issues and such. I'm not a fan of drywall but youve been amazingly helpful, thank you!
Yeah man you got me with the box first bag 2nd. It’s relaxing after a hard days work watching someone take the same keen eye, I approach the job site too.
"I only use this color" Makes sense. I get different color buckets for different purposes, quick identification - white food, orange tools, dark mixing. Darker colors for mixing to make it easier to clean, see the leftover bits.
This is helpful but take some out and put on a hawk. Like what you use for final coat, corners etc. Need to see what the consistency is of each type and how it moves around on the hawk would be even more helpful
Yo I just stumbled across this channel and knew I recognized you from somewhere but couldn't find skate videos on this channel and was questioning my entire life before I found your other channel
Tip for mixing, mix the mud first before you add the water, doesnt matter how hard the mud is, that way you dont have nearly as much splashing and the mixing process goes MUCH faster.
What's your tip for that 1/2 bucket of mud that's always leftover? I always just put a lid on it and save it for the next job but of course I get some crusties.
Can you please clarify the difference between a finish coat and a skim coat? My understanding is that if you have an area with repaired sections plus intact, previously painted surfaces, then in order to have the new paint job for the whole room not look different on the two different surfaces, that doing the whole room with a SKIM coat before you paint, helps even out the appearance. Is that correct?
I use zero water In my finish coat mud about 1cup of dish soap per box of mud takes care of 95% of fisheyes and finishes amazingly. Try it out I was skeptical prior but now I swear by it
I thought it was interesting that he only had his grade buckets except for this one yellow and then in the background there’s an orange Home Depot bucket (prior to the one minute mark)
Always so look forward to your videos Ben. I generally mix smaller batches but everything you said still applies thank you. Do you ever mix more than you need and try to save it for the next job? Sometimes I’ve kept mixed mud for weeks and add a little more water and make it work, but Im usually just patching small jobs no bigger than a few sheets. Do you just toss the extra and begin again??
I found topping mud has some sort of lubricant that gets sloppier, but other mud is fine. But after a while I always get mold. $15 a box, not really worth it if it’ll be a long time.
@@vancouvercarpenter as a painter who used to work with a crew but now works alone...you do an incredible job! Your videos are the best on youtube I've found. You stick to business and you keep the info coming in fast and concise. There have been many times I can literally have my stuff set up and I just do exactly what you do when you do it. Its fantastic! You have helped me in my career immensely! Cant thank you enough for sharing your theories and knowledge...Salute brotha. Keep up the great work!
You have the best videos on drywall! I seem to get air bubbles in my plus 3 mix. And when I slap it on the wall I'm troweling and troweling to push the bubbles out. Do you remix your mud everytime even the next day, when it still looks great. Thanks
Might seem strange.....removed a double vanity, of course some bad dry wall, more so there’s a pvc clean out that sticks out from the drywall by 3/8”, and exposing inside the wall from both sides, how can I fix this disaster???
The first minute of the video is further proof to me that the phrase 'a good craftsman never blames his tools' is a load of crap 😂 I buy good tools to get good results. I bought stainless to not get rust stains. I'm looking at a magnesium hawk to prevent aluminum stains and powder. Tools are important shit.
Even after mixing good, I sometimes get small dough balls in my mud. They smooth out if pressed and worked but theyre a pita and I'm curious why I get them. Is the mud too stiff or drying out?
Thank you very much for your videos; they are incredible useful. I have to build a wall starting from an outside corner. How do I make sure that the new wall is flush with the old one? Would you tear out the corner bead? Would you rip out that one face of the old wall (it's not a long section of wall) and just install a continuous piece? To further complicate things, the studs might be metal studs (I hate those, I always have trouble with those; I'm able to screw my drywall into them, even with fine threaded screws). I was planning on just using wood studs to extend. I might use 2x3 instead of 2x4 to match the rest of the walls; TBD.
Is it allways premixed with water? Here in Germany these Products in most cases dry powder where you add all the water. We also have premixed / premade, but thats mostly for small jobs and people who use this verry irregular.
Hey VC, kinda off topic, but do you have any tips on priming/painting pre-primed MDF baseboards? Should I still prime if it’s pre-primed, and what kind of paint to use? Should I sand, etc. Thanks.
Just wondering, don't you use powder? So mix water and powder and you got your mud. Here in Belgium we have 2 kinds of powder, one that sets in 45minutes and one that sets in 2 hours.
The Home Depot bucket I would use only to hold water, not mix mud. Home Depot lids are a lot of work to put on and remove. I use the Certainteed buckets because they have good lids that are easy to remove and replace, are better balanced for mixing and are ideal for saving mud.
Thanks for all of these videos. I’ve learned a lot and ready to put some of this to practice in my own house. I was hoping you might be able to offer some advice. I have a window without any trim molding, and there are cracks in the drywall along side and top. Would I use tape on these areas and if so how do I handle not being able to center the tape based on position of the crack?
Hi Ben. I love your videos! Is there a way to fix a short crooked wall? I have a 2 feet long wall between a corner and closet molding. It's crooked like a banana. Floor molding makes it look terrible. I'd like to avoid fixing the wall all the way to the ceiling, just want it to blend better with the molding. I would appreciate your advice. Thank you
Hey Ben, Thanks for another great video. I'm not in the profession, just a simple home owner DIY'er. I bought a large bucket of mud a while back to do some significant rework around the house. I didn't use it as fast as I thought I would, and some mold started to grow on the mud. There wasn't much so I simply scraped it off. I need to thin it out a bit and I was wondering, would it hurt to add a small amount of bleach in the mix to prevent the mold to from growing on the mud again? Thanks
For years I've been spraying mould-killer into buckets of mud that I know won't be used for a while. Just a couple of trigger pulls before putting the lid on. Never any problems.
@@DiscoFang Maybe you can help me out with this issue. I have paint cracking along one edge of the tape on an inside corner. It is the whole length of the corner. What is the best way to fix something like that... thanks.
Gene DuClos Sounds like you have movement between the tape & the drywall which likely means the tape wasn’t bedded well enough. I think the only real solution is to cut out but you could try setting a run of tape & plaster right down the crack.
@Vancouver Carpenter - what do if I accidentally allowed those bubbles to dry? I sanded and now left with small craters throughout. Can I just skim over it one more time to fill the holes? Thank you in advance.
Try this trick!!! Take bag o’ mud out of box, pour like 400ml of water in bag, grab the top edges of bag on each side and work it so water evenly dissipate’s around the bag. Once it’s mixed nice , pick bag up with two hands and pour into 5 gallon bucket! Then mix with paddle & DeWalt mixing drill. Then PRESTO 🪄
This guy is good at what he does but he's a basement taper I respect it lots of money to be made, fast money. I'd like to see you run machines and do bigger scale jobs, perfect the craft that taping is today expand your horizons my friend. Thats where the real money is.
To back up what you are saying, let us know what your personal net income from taping these bigger jobs was last year. After all, we need some numbers to compare. hmm? (Maybe you'll shock us)!
My winter project is to finish my basement, so I was wondering why you need 2 classes of drywall mud? I do not know anything about this that is why Im asking
Multi - purpose mud is best for taping. Green or Black lid. It has more glue "or so I'm told" It will shrink more to pull the tape tighter into the flats. I use the mid-grade mud, which is either Red or Purple lid. It's still tries fairly hard and is still durable and easy to sand. Green and Black lid dry hard as a rock and is way harder to sand. But much more durable. Light Blue mud is very easy to sand and much less durable than the other colored lids. General rule of thumb, The heavier the bucket the harder it is to sand.
