Feathering mud wider than needed on drywall joints is still a thing people get wrong

Was helping a buddy tape his basement walls last month in Aurora. He was spreading joint compound like a foot wide on every seam. I told him to keep it around 6 inches for the first coat. He said his dad always did it wide. Then we had to sand for 3 hours to fix the bubbles. In my experience the wider you go the more you have to sand. Has anyone else noticed new DIYers doing this or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_paul1mo agoOG Member

Tbh that's the classic "my dad knew best" trap right there. I swear every DIYer has that one uncle or neighbor who taught them to mud like they're painting a barn door. Then you get that nice 3 hour sanding session where you're basically just making drywall dust snow angels. My favorite is when they try to blame the bubbles on the brand of mud instead of the half inch thick coat they laid down.

gray8751mo ago

Man that's the thing with DIY advice in general, isn't it? Everyone's got a "this is how you do it" story from someone they trust, but half the time it's just passed down bad habits that feel right. In my experience, most of those shortcuts just make more work later. Your mileage may vary though, some folks swear by the thick coat method and they get away with it somehow.

the_olivia1mo ago

A single thick coat done right beats three thin coats any day. The sanding argument doesn't hold up either because if you lay it on thick and smooth it out properly, you barely need to sand at all. The whole thin coat gospel just keeps guys busy making more trips to the home center and wasting more mud on tape and mesh. Most of the bubbles people complain about come from not mixing the mud right or trying to work over dirty surfaces, not from the coat thickness. Plenty of pros still do it the old way and their finished walls look just as good with way less effort.