remodeling for geeks

Cornerbead Finishes

Cornerbeads are the metals that protect and define your spaces when working with drywall. In remodeling as well as new work, intersections where beads meet, can be tough to blend. Case in point is the Guest Bath Towel Storage opening.
Opening
Here is the raw opening for the towel shelf. Because the wall already has an existing texture and the back side of the opening is rough, I will use 5/8'' 'J' bead to frame in this opening.

Bead
Here is the opening with the bead in place. It looks smooth, but the corners are not perfectly flat in relationship to each other. Because there is no backing behind this opening, I elected to glue the beads in place with PowerGrab, the best construction adhesive ever.

Prefill
To eliminate the elevation difference problem, I prefill the corners with mud, at a 45 degree angle to the corner.

Note: Here is where 5 minute speed set shines.

Starting from the inside of the opening and mudding onto the wall, I now have a smooth corner for the next coats. What is not shown in the photo is the mud that gets trapped on the bead inside the corner that you must remove.

Fill Coat
Here is our opening with the tape and mud in place. Using USG Dust Control mud, our new best friend in remodeling. I now have a flat face and a smooth inside corner without any ridges that would make this look bad. I am a bit anal about this because regardless how straight your walls are, how well you taped, having twisted, ridged, beads looks bad.

Here is our opening with the texture applied prior to painting. It will look great.

You can do this yourself. A little time and care, your house will look like a million bucks.

Round Cornerbead Application 2

In our last episode on Round Cornerbead, I detailed the steps for using it on new work. Removing square cornerbead to replace it with round bead on existing walls is a major project that I don't recommend unless you are really determined.

There are a few areas where it can be used on existing work. The Fireplace Freshen Project used it on the new construction, to good effect. (everybody who has seen it has gone 'wow')

The windows surrounding the fireplace are awkward. They have sharp corners. A lot of thought has gone into different ideas for covering up the windows. But this has been more to disguise them while allowing light through.

Making Square Round
We are going to change that. This is an area where we can change the lines without having to do any demo work. Make no mistake. There is work involved, but it will be worth it.

Here is our opening which is pretty much standard in the Southwest, for aluminum windows. The window openings are wrapped and the windows are applied from the outside.

Our 'trimless' opening has enough room to allow us to apply drywall to the opening without compromising the operation of the windows.

Taping the work area
Our good friend, 'blue painters tape' is used to cover the exposed window frame, to make our taping easier to clean up as well as forming a line to paint to.

What is not shown in this photo is the tape at the wall intersection in the corner. We are going to skim coat these walls also.

Drywall Application
We measure and cut our drywall so that it is narrower than our opening by a little more than a 1/2''. We do this so we can leave a thin gap on the window side to allow us to slip in 1/2'' L bead on the window side and to be able to apply our round bead on the wall side so that it will lay flat against the existing wall. I mentioned this back cutting in our first look at rounded corner bead.
Remember the radius grasshopper.

Also on this type of application, we are using Power Grab to glue the drywall to the opening. The nails are only used to hold the drywall in place.

Cornerbead Application
The installing of the beads are standard (measure twice, cut once), and we are also using Power Grab behind the beads to apply them to the wall. Nailing is standard to secure the flanges.

Taping the beads
On square corner beads, I suggest only doing one side of the corners in any session. This eliminates the tendency of the mud to roll and chunk on the other side of the corner, creating more work for you, especially if you are not going to do this for a living. On round bead, you can do both sides in the same session as there is enough space between the two angles to allow you to fill and/or coat in the same session.

Skim Coating
The existing walls around the windows have texture on them. We are skim coating them to blend the walls. I have more about Skim Coating here.

Note: On this project I am using speed set for the first coat on the walls and on the cornerbeads. It's about not spending more time on this than necessary. Your mileage will vary and you should take your time.

Coating with eggnog
I am using the USG Dust Free mud for the finish coat. It is the color of eggnog in the box, it's my blog and so I am calling it 'eggnog'. You can call it anything you want. In any case it is what they should have invented 30 years ago.

How dust free? Here is the floor and corner of one side. The floor is covered with red rosin builders paper. Regular mud dust would have covered the floors and walls and would still be floating around. I took this picture about 5 hours ago.

How dust free? This is the fireplace opening about three feet away. Regular mud dust would have made this almost white. Yeah it's that good.

Fireplace Freshen 3

Spent a bit of time last week detailing the fireplace including cutting in the edges where the new work meets the existing and painting the inside of the firebox with hi-temp paint. My son installed and finished the tile in the front of the fireplace.

One of the other details that will be addressed is softening the window openings with the radius corner bead used on the front. As I mentioned the other day, radius bead requires a different backing strategy than regular cornerbead. Here I will install drywall pieces on the window sides and attach our bead with one side on the new drywall and the other side on the existing wall. I will also skim coat the areas on the back wall. I will give the dust control mud a real test.

In spending some time with the fireplace, it has been decided that we will reinstall the vertical blinds that were here. This is a mockup of what it will look like. These vertical blinds have the slightest amount of curve softening their lines. The fireplace door is not to scale. and the vertical line of the glass door are too fat, but you get the idea. The top bracket of the blinds will be hidden, and we are installing lights on the back side of the valances which will give this wall some real drama in the night.

The electrician will be by in a week or so to install ceiling lights, and the lights in the valances.

Round Cornerbead Application

Round cornerbead gives you a softer line with remodeling. It has it's own requirements. In a standard drywall application, you overlap succeeding layers of drywall. This acts as a base for your corner bead. It is important that your drywall is not extending beyond the other sheet. Your bead will twist and your corner will look squiggly.

Round bead has a radius, so that your drywall needs to just come to the edge of your framing and not overlap. Remember that the radius is rounding the corner, and will not sit right if you do not do this. You also need to mud the inside of the radius bead to supply support and cover the raw edges of the drywall. This is especially critical for vertical applications so the bead does not dent when something hits it. Enough mud to fill, but not so much that the bead bows. It takes practice. Use regular 24 hour compound.
Below is a shot of one of the valance wings of the Fireplace Facelift.

This is a detail shot of the valance where it meets the wall. This is actually a 2fer. The radius bead is installed with screws as the framing is steel studs. Also on the right side of the photo is a piece of 'L' bead, as we are not going to re-texture the walls on either side of the fireplace wall.

Here is a photo of the valance with the first coat of mud. We also 'L' beaded the top of the valance panel so we do not have to repaint or re-texture the ceiling.

Inside Mitered Corners
Mitered Corners are done with the Radius Corner Bead Miter Marker Here you see the inside corner, which joins the two beads. I mentioned that the little jog of the Miter Tool was important to cut. This is why. The outside corner is open as this is the real world and not the Remodeling Channel. A little mud and it is all good.

See? Here is our corner with the last coat of mud applied.

Here is our corner with primer and paint. Clean and Soft.

Round bead gives you some options outside of the square box of most remodeling. Enjoy!

Fireplace Freshen 2

Here is the face ready for primer and paint. The fireplace door guy was by and measured for the fireplace door. About 4 weeks out.

Dust Control Drywall Mud Progress Report
This is for Jenni at 1311Vernon and Jennfier at Tiny Old House
Why didn't they invent this stuff 30 years ago? At least I get to use it before I die.
Good Golly Miss Molly. This is the greatest stuff for remodeling since Loctite Power Grab.
The photo below shows the dust from sanding the side wall from the ceiling to about 2 feet from the ground. I took this photo about 10 seconds after I got through sanding. Regular mud would have been spread to hell and gone, and you would have seen noting but white dots obstructing the photo. It sands like a dream, clumps and falls to the ground as advertised.
Look at the blue tape line where the trim meets the wall.

Here is a closeup of the same area. I am using sanding sponges for sanding. I am using them dry. The stuff sticks together and drops to the ground. As an added bonus, look at the bottom of the bullnose bead. See the overage? When I use the knife as a chipper to knock most of this off, it comes off smoothly. Regular mud and speed set has a tendency to fracture, and pull out chunks.

The only thing that you need to watch for is that it does fill up the sponge quickly and does need to be 'tapped' clean. A small price for the lack of dust and white boogers that regular mud sanding causes.
This is gonna make Smoothwall skim coating a pleasure...relatively speaking of course.
Why didn't they invent this stuff 30 years ago? At least I get to use it before I die.

First Paint Coat

Dust Control Drywall Mud

Taping and sanding drywall are two of the messiest parts of any remodeling project. Sanding is especially nasty as until recently dust control was a real problem. Not anymore. The other day I mentioned that I was trying a new product for taping drywall.

USG, who literally wrote the book on drywall has come up with a new product.

Sheetrock® Brand Dust Control Joint Compound

This is amazing stuff!! It spreads smoothly, shrinks very little, sands like a dream and does as advertised. Dust clumps and drops to the floor. I will never use any other premix product for taping ever. It's that good!

Drywall Repair Photos

I have created a photo gallery of the posting on Electric Box Drywall Repair.

Electric Box Drywall Repair

One of the common occurences in hanging drywall on a casual basis is cutting out for electric boxes and other holes you may need. Yes, you measured, you cut or sawed and you still missed the box.
Here is a box with the most common problems.
The upper left and lower right corners are damaged from the corners of the box breaking the drywall, when installing the sheet. The left and bottom of the cutout are too large and will not be covered by a standard cover plate. Yes you can use an oversize plate, but is the cost worth it?

The first order of business is to project the box and in this case the outlet. Bring out the blue tape. Carefully tape and cover the box/outlet so that you will not fill the box up with mud during the repair.

Second, remove any loose drywall and paper.

Now we prefill the holes with mud. Speed Set aka Hot Mud is the best solution, as you can put multiple coats on and the shrinkage is less. Regular Mud will work, but puts you on a 24 recoat cycle.

Next we tape and coat our opening. In this case I am using mesh tape. I am also feathering the mud.

Re coat as necessary, so that when you are sanding prior to painting, you are sanding everything. Feather your edges beyond the last coat so you end up with an 'invisible' repair.

Prime, Paint, screw down the outlet, attach the cover.

That is all there is to it. Happy Patching!

Drywall Patching New to Old

When you have done your demo, and put up your new drywall, you will encounter old work and your new work.
This photo is a 2fer. Here we have new to old and a common accident among first timers. Drywall is heavy, large and takes getting used to. The center shows where the drywall edge was damaged by dropping the sheet at some point prior to hanging. I cut out the damaged area, because it is loose and will bubble if you do not attend to it now. Using mesh tape is especially important here so we can fill the voids. Notice that my mesh tape is installed on the horizontal flats first, and the vertical mesh for the transition is second.

This photo shows where we have mudded and embedded our horizontal tape. We will cover the vertical mesh when we use paper tape for the inside corner.

Here is the finished product. This was the doorway we eliminated to make this walk in closet.

Drywall Patching - Repairing Old Walls

Most beginning remodeling projects usually involve removing walls and building new ones. There areas that need patching. Below are some of the more common details.
The upper left of this photo shows where we removed a wall. I mentioned before about using your utility knife to cut into the corners where you are removing walls, to minimize the repairs necessary. If you look at the upper left, I deliberately did not cut the corner on the left corner for about a foot, and you can see the tearout that results. This area will need skimming at some point, and is extra work.

Patching these is a simple process with small rips of drywall. (Note: depending on your area, most often your interior walls have 1/2'' drywall. Exterior walls and ceilings in most parts of the country have 5/8'' drywall. You will want to check.)
Also see how much cleaner the repair area is when you cut into the corners before demolition. This job has texture on the walls that will be matched later. I use mesh tape for these flat areas and paper tape for inside corners. More on drywall tape here
Because this is a relatively narrow area, using an 8'' knife will allow you to mud all your tape at one time.

Here is a wall section with the patches applied and taped. The left side of this photo shows a tapeless patch, that we added because of moving an outlet and needing access for the romex run. I also ran paper tape to reestablish the inside corner.