Basement Drywall Mudding and Taping

Basement Remodel

Dean came back to help me start mudding and taping the drywall on the permanent basement walls. We did some drywall patching with joint compound when we bought the house and I attempted to drywall my basement rec room years ago when I owned a duplex and helped a friend drywall an attic before that, but I’ve never made a properly smooth wall and I needed some help. Dean’s done a number of small drywall projects over the last few years and had acquired some skills at it.

I tried to soak up the lessons and the end product is vastly better than my previous attempts. We mixed up not-lightweight compound for the first coat since it cures fast and it’s harder, and then used pre-mixed lightweight for the later coats since it’s easier to sand. Once that’s dried you can run your hand over the wall to feel out any imperfections and just sand them down or add some compound to build it up. We had one wall with a butt-joint where there was only one tapered edge, as well as above the doors where we used pieces rather than whole sheets. Getting those flat was challenging, since you have to feather it carefully. What I didn’t like was finding spots later that I missed, and there’s at least a few of them.

We wound up not drywalling the interior of the mechanical room for the time being. I want to test the tub surround for leaks, add some cabling for the wall that will eventually have a TV on it, and add a light switch instead of the current pull chain. We’ll circle back and do that later.

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