Patching and Plastering - Please help with my corner

We just had our foundation raised after years of parimiter sagging from our Texas mud soil. As a result, preious owners repairs to cracks are being redone, no big deal hear. My question is in the corners. Most of the corners are okay all though I am having to remove the dislodged tape and retape them. But one corner is in real bad shape. The drywall paper is missing where the tape was and so is some of the gypsum, leaving a 1/8 to 1/4 inch trough each of the panels meeting at this one corner. Should I fill the trough with setting compound, and the tape as normal? Or fill the trough with setting compound and apply the paper tape while wet and then recoat over the tape with more setting compound? Or something totally different.

Second question. How much harder is it to sand Sheetrock brand setting compound versus drying mud when using a screen sander? And can I use the setting compound to do my taping and floating? The reason I want to use the setting compound is two fold, one it is wet and cold right now and I don't think the drying mud will dry even after 24 hours. Second, I can recoat the setting compound after only five hours or so reducing the time that my living room and dining room furniture is in my den.

Last question I promise. I currently have no paint or texture on these walls, removed it all with the wall paper. After I do my repairs I am going to seal/prime walls and ceiling, have a pro come and do a stomp and drag texture to the ceilings and an orange peel to the wall. Would I benefit from skimming or will the ornage peel hide the minor imperfections?

Thanks for everyones responses in advance.

Collin :confused:

Hi Collin,

Sounds like the corner bead is completely gone on this one corner. You can see the butt ends of the sheets at the corner right? If that's the case you're going to need to pickup some type of bead. They make corner beads in many different material types these days. My personal preference is the paper faced metal corners. They also make the traditional metal corners and vinyl as well. I'd definitely would use a setting type compound for doing the corners in the house, in fact given your situation with the house just being raised, I'd recommend it for all of the taping. For the 2nd & 3rd fill & finish coats, go with light premixed joint compound. Add some water to it & mix well with a paddle and drill. A couple of spirts of liquid dishsoap like Joy in the finish coat mud will make it nice and creamy and really finish off nice. As for your concerns with the drying time, I wish some of my customers could get that thru their heads. You can do the entire job with quick-set, just a whole lot of mixing that way. As long as you can keep the temperature above 50, you should be ok, with you living there and the heating/cooling working you will be fine. Just make sure the system is turned off during sanding & clean-up afterwards to keep the dust out of your ductwork.

If you haven't already bought the setting compound yet, look for a bag of Easy-Sand 90, hardens up real good, but sands well with a screen.

Since you've ripped wallpaper off this room, I'd recommend getting some Gardz, it's made by Zinsser and is a great product for sealing after wallpaper removal. Fill and smooth any gouges, etc and the orange peel will hide alot though. Hope that helps, good luck with the project and keep us posted.

Thanks Dell. The corner is an inside corner. Should I still use the bead?

Fill the gap with quick set. let dry, then tape over it. I don't like sanding quick set. It's a lot easier to sand light weight.

Thanks for both of your advices. The corner is now fixed and only needs the last two coats to fair it out. Along with the other corners as well. I am a little better at working a putty knife than I thought I would be. No where like a pro is, but for a first timer, I am pretty happy with the results so far. Couldn't have done it with out this forums help though.


It can be done fast
It can be done cheap
It can be done good
Please pick two options of how you would like it done