My neighbor, a retired plumber, told me he thinks we all over-tape our inside corners

He was watching me work on a bathroom in his building and said, 'Leo, you're putting on three coats of mud over that paper tape, but if you bed it right the first time, you only need two.' He said he learned that from an old timer in Chicago who did high-end hotels. It hit different because I've always just done what my boss taught me, which is three coats minimum. Is he right, or is that a shortcut that'll bite you later?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_adams2mo ago

That old timer in Chicago probably used a different mud mix. The stuff we get now is thinner, so it shrinks more between coats.

drew_reed622mo ago

Wait, thinner mud now? @wesley_adams that's wild, I never heard that before. The old guys always said their mix was just sand and lime, nothing fancy. If the new stuff shrinks more, that explains why my last job needed like four coats. Makes everything take way longer, it's so annoying.

river_allen2mo ago

Yeah, @drew_reed62, I'm basically a mud chemist now just trying to get a wall flat.