Old school mud taping vs. the new lightweight stuff

Used to mix my own mud from powder, took forever but got that rock hard finish. Now I grab the premixed buckets, way faster but it dries soft and cracks if you look at it wrong. Anyone else think the new stuff is just for patch jobs, not full drywall hangs?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sandra8d ago

Right? Are we all just supposed to pretend the premixed stuff is the same? I've been doing this for over twenty years and I switched back to powder for anything structural. The buckets are fine for quick patch jobs where you're sanding in an hour, but on a full room it's a joke. I hung a whole garage last fall with the lightweight and had hairline cracks within three months. My old mix from powder is still holding up in the same garage, no issues. It's a pain to mix and wait, but I'd rather spend the extra time than go back and fix cracks.

walker.andrew7d ago

And the moisture in those buckets just sits there eating the paper tape slowly if you don't finish fast enough...