31 Insanely Clever Remodeling Ideas For Your New Home

How to Finish Drywall: 18 Steps to Smooth Joints There are few home improvement tasks greeted with more dread than finishing drywall. If you're like most people, you hope that you've already done your last finishing job. Unfortunately, if you enjoy working on your home, you are bound to be confronted by this task again. So it's worth your while to check out the tips and techniques we discuss here. Before You Begin The selection of tools we show here are not the only ones that work. Your selection of compound is just as important as your selection of tools. You also have a choice when it comes to joint tape, between paper tape and self-sticking fiberglass mesh tape. One last tip: If you buy your taping ­compound in 5-gal. pails, which is what we did, be sure to buy an opening tool. What You'll Need Tools: 5-, 8- and 10-in. flexible drywall-taping knives, joint compound pan, bucket-opening tool, electric drill, mixing paddle, respirator Getting Started There are probably as many approaches to the finishing proc­ess as there are finishers.

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