The day I hung drywall in a church and discovered a new way to tape corners

Back in March, I got a job hanging drywall in an old church over in Springfield. The place had these massive arched windows that made every corner a nightmare to tape. After struggling with the first two, I tried using a wider knife and a slightly wetter mud mix to glide around the curves. It cut my time on each corner from 20 minutes down to maybe 8. I didn't think much of it until the pastor came by and said the walls looked better than the original plaster. Has anyone else found a weird spot like a church or old house that forced you to change your technique?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_henderson861mo ago

Used to hate wetter mud but now I see the magic in it. Did you keep that method?

oliviat171mo ago

Whoa, bet that wetter mud preserved the old plaster underneath better too.

finleyw991mo ago

I see what you're getting at with the "wetter mud preserved the old plaster" idea @oliviat17, but I actually think it did the opposite in my experience. That extra moisture just caused the plaster underneath to soften and slough off more when I was trying to work with it. If anything, drier mud let the old stuff stay intact longer before you had to remove it. Not sure the wetter conditions really helped with preservation overall.