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Sanding Drywall
How
to Sand Drywall Mud to Achieve a Perfect Wall Finish
By Mark J. Donovan
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Sanding drywall is messy and dusty
business. Make sure to always wear a dust mask and eye protection when planning
to sand drywall mud and have a filtered shopvac nearby. One of the best secrets
to sanding drywall is to tape and mud the walls and ceilings so that limited
sanding is required. If you ever watch the drywall pros you will observe that
the amount of drywall sanding they do is quite limited. In many cases they limit
drywall sanding to after the final skim coat of mud has been applied.
If your drywall sanding plans are limited in scope, such as a small drywall tape
repair project, I highly recommend moving furniture and neighboring wall
decorations out of the room to avoid having them coated in dust.
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Also, put drop clothes down directly
underneath where you plan to sand drywall mud. I also find it best in these
cases to have someone running a shopvac just below your hand that is sanding the
drywall mud. Much of the dust is collected in this way.
For best results when sanding drywall use a pole sander and/or a hand sander. In
addition use an abrasive drywall screen and a 6 inch drywall taping knife. A
grout or sanding sponge can also come in handy. Unlike sandpaper, drywall screen
won’t easily clog up or rip. In the event a clog does form on the drywall
screen, with just a few flicks of the wrists you can remove any clogs that do
form on the drywall screen. Normally if the joint compound (mud) is fully dry
the drywall screen won’t clog up.
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Stage 1 of Drywall
Sanding
After hanging the drywall and bedding
the drywall tape into joint compound you can often skip having to sand the
drywall at this stage. Instead, once the first coat of mud has dried, simply run
your 6 inch taping knife over the seams and filled in nail spots to remove any
high ridges. If your taping knife did not sufficiently remove all the high
spots, then lightly run your pole sander or hand sander, with attached drywall
screen, over the mudded areas, paying most attention to the edges.
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Stage 2 of Drywall
Sanding
After the second coat of mud has been
applied and is fully dry, again go back and lightly sand over the seams and
covered nail spots. Focus your sanding energy near the edges of the mudded areas
so that you blend them into the surrounding drywall area, however start the
sanding process at the center of the seams and work your way outwards towards
the edges. When sanding the seams be sure to only lightly sand directly over the
taped area of the seams so that you do not sand down to the drywall tape.
Likewise go lightly when sanding directly over the nail holes.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
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Final Stage of
Drywall Sanding
After the third and final skim coat
layer of mud has fully dried, repeat the drywall sanding process of focusing on
the edges of the seams and nail spots. However with this final skim coat of mud
it is important to just very lightly sand the drywall seams.
As an alternative to sanding the final skim coat of mud, use a damp sponge
instead. After dampening a small section of a mudded drywall seam with the
sponge, lightly work the sponge over the dampened seam from the center outwards.
Work in small sections at a time when using the sponge. Use the same process
over the nail or screw hole areas.
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- If you have a large hole in your drywall and need to repair it,
you can
either call in a drywall contractor and pay an arm and a leg, or you can fix
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repair your damaged wall so that it looks as good as new.
See HomeAdditionPlus.com's
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