Picked mud over tape and mesh on a 50 sheet job in Toledo last month, kind of regretting it now

2 comments

2 Comments

My buddy Carlos did the same thing on a garage in Cleveland back in August. He swore mud would be faster than tape and mesh on those big flat panels. Took him twice as long to sand everything down smooth, and he still had cracks showing up by the second coat. He ended up having to go back and skim coat the whole thing again the next weekend. Last time I talked to him he said he'd rather pay extra for the fiberglass mesh than deal with that again.

diana82914d agoMost Upvoted

And you know what else nobody talks about with this? It's not just about the time or the cracks. It's about how the mud shrinks differently when you pile it on thick like that. On a big flat garage wall, that shrinkage can pull the tape right out of the joint if you don't have it embedded just right. I've seen guys end up with little hairline cracks running the whole length of the seam that show up weeks later. Mesh tape has some give to it, but that paper or fiberglass mesh gives you a mechanical bond that holds up better when the mud starts to pull.