Walls and Ceilings - seaming drywall not on the tape joint, looking for help.

I have a bad piece or drywall that is part of an existing wall....believe me it's a long story! What is the best way to cut out a section and re-seam it without having a big lump on the joint? I'm talking about replacing from chair rail to ceiling, the only joint will be vertical, aginst the remaining piece of board. When installing new drywall you have a tape side that is recessed, once it is finished the tape joint is already filled. I need to figure out a way to sink the tape and finish it again without creating a big speed bump on the joint. It's obvious by the last three times that this was attempted by a "professional drywall installer", and I use that title VERY loosly, there is a trick to it. I installed the original drywall, it looks like I need to fix it as well.

Thanks,

Lynd

You need to float out the mud 12" or so on both sides of the tape. What you have is a butt joint - where you don't have the factory bevel/recessed edge.

You may not need to remove the existing tape if it was applied decently - just float out the mud. It won't neccesarily completely remove the 'hump' but it will be spread out far enough so it's not noticable.

If the hump is caused by bad framing it may be difficult to impossible to fix with mud alone.

Marksr, have you ever heard of trimming the board 1/2 the size of the tape and setting the tape back in? That or crimping the board with a duct cripmer? Someone told me this, but you would disturb the integrety of the paper, sounds hoaky. Your description is exactly the problem, I was told that one 2x4 was a little thicker causing a bump at the joint, I plan to belt sand it down a little before reboarding. I did the drywall the first time, but the non-spec 2x4 was not on the joint then and it was not noticable. This all happened when a contractor cut out a 4' x 16" piece to repair some water damage, now I have a new joint and a big bump.

I've heard of folks taking a 2x4 and beating in the edge to form their own beveled edge. I've never done so and would be leary of doing so because you basically destroy the rock between the paper. Butt joints aren't that hard to make disappear if you take the time to float them out far enough.

A wood plane should lower the hump in the stud quicker than a belt sander... maybe even using a skil saw if you are carefull.

You need to float out the mud 12" or so on both sides of the tape. What you have is a butt joint - where you don't have the factory bevel/recessed edge.


Hotrod,

I 2nd what Marksr said. You must not realize this, but even pros generally do not hang sheetrock so that every joint has that factory recessed joint. There are lots of vertical "butt joints" throughout a home. The butt end of sheetrock does not have that countersink built in.

If you mud and tape correctly, you apply a very thin layer of mud to the joint, making sure you have just enough mud on it so that it is still wet, and not drying, the time you imbed the tape. You precut the tape to length first so you are ready as fast as can be.

There is an art to this and it takes practice to get good at sheetrock mudding and taping. There is this fine line of applying JUST the necessary amount. If you do it right, the tape should only stick out just barely, almost imperceptivly farther than the tape thickness itself. Then, when you feather out mud on each side of the joint - even if you went ahead and layed a 4 foot straight edge across the "hump', you should be pleasantly surprised at how little of a hump is there. And that "hump' is virtually invisible to the naked eye.