# Who is responsible for taping and spackling, the contractor or the painter?



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

It should have all been in the contract just how much he was to do.
Who's paying for the painters? What do they say about it?
Painters paint, I for sure would not want to have to do all the finish work and not expect to get paid extra for it if I was a painter.
PS Spackle is for filling small nail holes. Drywall compound is used for mudding, also called finishing. 
Anyone of my jobs it would have been finished to paint ready and would have said so in the contract.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Any walls the contractor works on should be flat and smooth by the time he is done. Think about it - how is a painter supposed to go to work if he has to patch holes and then sit around and wait hours for it to dry before he can continue? If you hired a painter to work on your wall from scratch, then it would be the painter's responsibility, but there's no reason a newly completed wall shouldn't be virtually perfect. That's what you paid for. If there are dings in that wall, his people did it.

Actually, I'm not really sure what you mean by "spackling", but I'm not sure it matters. The walls should be done to Level 4 industry standard, unless your contract says otherwise.


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## 747 (Feb 11, 2005)

it depends on the painter. Some do drywall some don't. I know a painter who does both. Normally its the responsibility of the guy who put the drywall up.


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## longislander2 (Oct 4, 2013)

Thanks for the information.

The problem is that he came to us with a contract of about two-thirds of a page with scant information. Had we signed that, we would now likely be in court over various disputes on what was to be done. That scanty contract should have tipped us off to other things, but he had come highly recommended by a designer we know. So, to avoid such disputes, I wrote out what I thought was a very detailed contract outline each and every task to be done and who would pay for what. 

Up to now, the contract has worked fairly well and when he "forgets" certain things, I am able to point to the document. However, I'm not a contractor and I did not put in anything about restoring the walls for painting. I didn't think I had to because we've never seen this behavior from a contractor in the past. 

We are paying for the painters and it appears he wants to push off the finish work on them so he keeps a larger profit.

Sounds like we're going to have to force the issue.


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Unless the contractor is also priming the new work, a painter expects to do some minor touch ups to the drywall---some small flaws can not be seen until after priming.

I agree with the others about the taping and patching on the walls that he has disturbed-----his walls---but not other walls---


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

Nothing worse than having drywall work pawned off to the painter. I'm a painter and I do some drywall work and yes, I've had to fix/repair the drywall after priming because of all the areas the drywaller missed. 95% of the time it's the drywaller's job to finish the drywall. That's their area of expertise and they are expected to do so unless a contract states otherwise.


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

Absolutely not the painters job. Believe me most of the painters I know you would absolutely NOT want them to tape your walls. Minor repairs yes but to tape and finish.No way. And believe me your contractor knows this.


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## longislander2 (Oct 4, 2013)

My wife and I made separate calls to the designer we're working with (she recommended this contractor and is using him on other jobs) to complain that he won't do all the drywall work on the walls that he's responsible for. Well, lo and behold, there's a guy taping and spackling in our house today and tomorrow. Will wonders never cease?


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

DRYWALL COMPOUND not spackle.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

He might be using Spackle, who knows?


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## longislander2 (Oct 4, 2013)

ToolSeeker said:


> DRYWALL COMPOUND not spackle.


You'll just have to excuse us non-professionals. It's a lot easier to say someone's "spackling" than "drywall compounding."


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## longislander2 (Oct 4, 2013)

So my trusted painter (years of experience, meticulous work, beautiful results, fair prices) and his crew are here today and they find that they are removing wallpaper from walls that were not sized or otherwise adequately prepped. Wallpaper was glued directly to new wallboard. As expected, when they remove the wallpaper, some of the paper covering of the wallboard itself comes off at the same time. I know that's expected and it's not a huge problem.

However, the contractor's taping/compounding guy is working inside the house at the same time. The painter tells me that, at one point, he had to stop the contractor's guy from applying the compound over the wet wallboard where the covering paper had come off. The painter said the compound was bubbling up right away and that the wallboard needs time to dry before the compound goes on. Does this mean my contractor has brought in someone to patch the drywall who doesn't know his stuff?


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

longislander2 said:


> It's a lot easier to say someone's "spackling"


"Mudding" is even shorter, and makes you sound like a salty old pro.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

longislander2 said:


> However, the contractor's taping/compounding guy is working inside the house at the same time. The painter tells me that, at one point, he had to stop the contractor's guy from applying the compound over the wet wallboard where the covering paper had come off. The painter said the compound was bubbling up right away and that the wallboard needs time to dry before the compound goes on. Does this mean my contractor has brought in someone to patch the drywall who doesn't know his stuff?


Basically. Maybe he knows how to work on new drywall only. Damaged drywall is a different problem.

Waiting until the wallboard is dry won't solve the problem either though.
It needs to be sealed off first. Gardz works well. Kilz Klear and Roman Rx-35 also claim to work the same way.

There are other ways to deal with some wallpapers, but since it's already scraped off I won't go there....


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Just bad timing----the wet paper needs to dry out--then a coat of Gardz primer---this will seal the paper and prevent the wet mud from bubbling the damaged paper.


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

Jeff types faster than I do----


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

oh'mike said:


> ----the wet paper needs to dry out--then a coat of Gardz primer---


Yes, it might have been unclear in my post, but the wall still needs to dry out first.


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

Was not trying to be the grammar police, it's just 2 totally different products for 2 different jobs. If using 1 when the other is called for would be a mistake in most instances.


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