Old timer told me my knife work was too sloppy and it clicked

I was finishing a basement job off Broadway in Denver and this guy with 30 years experience walked through. He pointed at my corner trowel marks and said "you're fighting the mud instead of letting it do the work." He showed me how to feather out the edges with a 12 inch knife instead of stopping at 6 inches. Now I knock down my hot mud batches in half the time and the finish is way smoother. Has anyone else gotten a tip like that from a random walkthrough that totally changed their process?

2 comments

2 Comments

reesemoore1mo ago

Yeah but I gotta push back on this a little. I've been mudding for years and I see that "let the mud do the work" thing thrown around a lot and it kinda oversimplifies things. Sure feathering out with a 12 inch can save time but if you're not careful you end up with thin spots that crack later or you're going back over stuff twice. I had a guy tell me to go straight to a 14 inch knife and skip the smaller trowel work entirely and my first few jobs had these weird hollow patches where the mud didn't bond right. Hot mud sets fast anyway so knocking it down quicker isn't always better if it means you miss a spot. I think that old timer's method works for some folks but it depends on your wall texture and the humidity in that basement.

claire_walker1mo agoMost Upvoted

Hot mud doesn't actually "set" from air exposure the way people think. @reesemoore it's a chemical reaction that kicks off when you mix it, so your working time is fixed regardless of how fast you knife it off. That said, I agree skipping the first coat with a smaller knife is a gamble - thin spots happen when you're trying to spread too wide before the mud has a proper base underneath.