# Dry wall seams drive me nuts!!!



## I'll do it! (May 1, 2012)

Hello everybody, I am new to DIY forums. I am pretty handy and most of the home repair projects done it my self. Having said that, there is one issue that keeps hunting me over the years from which it seems there is no escape...
Perhaps my standards are way to high, none the less...
Whenever I work in the hole patch or a dry wall seam, I would get a slight "bulge" form the filling compound. Typically seen under shadow lighting (a small trick I have learned back in the days working as a car body repair man) See inserted image:







Whenever I try to get rid of the bulge and sand the area flat, I would end up seeing the edges of the tape. So I end up adding more compound and sanding it again. It literally becomes like a vicious circle!
I had few contractors doing repair over some areas. I have never liked the end result they have produced as they left dry JC visible. 
Any advise on the proper technique to make those pesky bulges disappear would be greatly appreciated. :surrender:


----------



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

The picture your showing is for two butt pieces with no factory tapered edge which really should be done.
If you get stuck having to do one like when patching a hole in a wall you can do one of two things, cut the paper back 1/2 the width of the tape on the patch and the wall, or cut the patch over sized, flip it over and remove just the gypsom leaving the amount needed to fill the hole, and cut the paper back on the wall, the flaps take the place of the tape.
The key is thin coats, only sand the last coat, the rest just go over the area with a drywall knife to knock off the high spots.

If you do not use a wide enough knife to cover the seam you can also end up with a hump. It's called feathering.
Here's a bunch of demos showing differant ways of doing it.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=drywall+patching+techniques


----------



## I'll do it! (May 1, 2012)

What considered wide enough 12" or more?


----------



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

6" would be more like it.


----------



## I'll do it! (May 1, 2012)

6" is what I have, doesn't work that well...


----------

