# Bull nose or Square corners?



## Larry Guy (Mar 2, 2014)

I never saw bull nose corners in a house until I moved to the southwest. Being from the east, I am surprised at how common it is out here. Recently, I stopped in to a model home of builder, K B, in Las Vegas and saw no bull nose, but rather square corners! I asked the representative about it and jokingly said I thought bull nose was required by law. I was told that KB has found that bull nose is not as popular as once thought so they are now offering the home buyer the option of bull nose or square corners. It was nice to find that I am not the only one who enjoys the clean look of square corners, but once installed, bull nose is there to stay short of gutting the house and starting over. My question is, are there other western home builders who are finding that bull nose is no longer the rule, but an option for the buyer?


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## Nailbags (Feb 1, 2012)

Bull nose was all the rage up entill the last few years. I don't like doing them I charge extra for it. and your right it is there to stay. Some of the reasons why people don't do bull nose is it is hard to tranistion paint colors from room to room in a open house. I stopped doing them back five years ago. Now I use either paper faced metal bears B-1 super wide or trimtex viynl super wide mud set bead. when I do a bull nose it is the trim tex viynl it will take way more abuse then a metal bead.


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## msaeger (Mar 1, 2011)

What would you need to do to get rid of the bull nose corners? Couldn't you rip off the bull nose corner bead and replace with a square one?


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## Larry Guy (Mar 2, 2014)

I wish it was that simple, msaeger. I am not a dry wall person by any means, but simply put, there is too much drywall for the bull nose at the corner where the two sheet edges meet. If it's going to be a square corner, then you would just fit the 90 degree metal protector strip in place and fasten it, but for bull nose, the dry wall needs to be cut back on each edge so it conforms "around" the corner. If you were to just rip it out, you would need to add back in some type of support for the 90 degree metal strip because the sheet edges would no longer meet up properly. I hope my explanation helps you better understand.

So far, the only solution I see would be to gut each affected room and re-drywall. If anyone has been successful with another method, I'm open to suggestions.


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## Nailbags (Feb 1, 2012)

msaeger said:


> What would you need to do to get rid of the bull nose corners? Couldn't you rip off the bull nose corner bead and replace with a square one?


sure you can. here is the problem on bull nose you have the sheetrock set back at the corner not having the edges touching how would you fix that gap? on regular corner beads you have the sheetrock touch at the corners you can't pull that sheet rock up. better yet start at page 11 and see how you hang the rock for the corners and you will understand why it not cheap to fix. http://www.usg.com/content/dam/USG/.../usg-interior-finishings-catalog-en-J1424.pdf


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

If I'm not mistaken, and i could be, but I think Trim Tex makes an oversized square corner that would work. You might contact the company since they are a major producer of bullnose I'm sure they have run into this before and would have a suggestion.


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## Nailbags (Feb 1, 2012)

ToolSeeker said:


> If I'm not mistaken, and i could be, but I think Trim Tex makes an oversized square corner that would work. You might contact the company since they are a major producer of bullnose I'm sure they have run into this before and would have a suggestion.


No were in Trim tex catolog has bead that can be used even their super wide bead won't work. Bull Nose is for ever!


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## mikegp (Jul 17, 2011)

Larry Guy said:


> So far, the only solution I see would be to gut each affected room and re-drywall. If anyone has been successful with another method, I'm open to suggestions.


You wouldn't need to redo the whole room. Worst case just cut out a foot or two of one of the walls and put a new piece of drywall that reaches all the way to the corner. If you don't want an ugly butt there, just use a buttboard. A sizable amount of work, sure, but by no means the end of the world.


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## Nailbags (Feb 1, 2012)

mikegp said:


> You wouldn't need to redo the whole room. Worst case just cut out a foot or two of one of the walls and put a new piece of drywall that reaches all the way to the corner. If you don't want an ugly butt there, just use a buttboard. A sizable amount of work, sure, but by no means the end of the world.


Man if you don't get the cut perfectly square it will turn out looking like a bad hack job


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## mikegp (Jul 17, 2011)

If you want it perfect just use a level to make your line and score along it. I don't think it would really matter though.


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## fischnet (Oct 16, 2012)

*Sq to Bullnose*

OK, I'm not a pro by ANY stretch, but a DIY homeowner .... and fairly good at drywall. The way I have done this ... in fact the way I've repaired many gaps in dry wall prior to finishing them ... is to use compound and create essentially a paper mache roll of compund and paper towel. I would add compound to the corner sufficient to 'wet' the ends of the existing drywall, then lay in the rather wet paper/compound roll, topping it with just a bit more compound, then smoothing it to corner shape with a knife. Let it dry for a few days (I'm a homeowner, not into efficient production!:wink. Then cap it with the corner bead. Of course, this is assuming that there is sufficient 2X corner support to nail the sq corner beading to. But this works well. I've had some in place for over 20 years that has taken knocks and bruises from the kids years ago, so it can be done.

I use same technique to fill major gaps in drywall prior to a final taping. Just an idea...


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

msaeger said:


> What would you need to do to get rid of the bull nose corners? Couldn't you rip off the bull nose corner bead and replace with a square one?


I don't see why it would be even that hard. Why couldn't you just nail square metal trim over the bull nose corner? I don't even see why that gap really has to be filled. I've never done it, so I hope I'm not saying anything dumb out of ignorance, but this seems pretty simple to me. Maybe the bull nose is a bigger radius than I'm picturing.


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## Nailbags (Feb 1, 2012)

jeffnc said:


> I don't see why it would be even that hard. Why couldn't you just nail square metal trim over the bull nose corner? I don't even see why that gap really has to be filled. I've never done it, so I hope I'm not saying anything dumb out of ignorance, but this seems pretty simple to me. Maybe the bull nose is a bigger radius than I'm picturing.


Most bull nose has a good radius and the sheet rock had to me set back any were from a half inch to a 1/4 inch. to set a bead over it would be bad.


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## fischnet (Oct 16, 2012)

jeffnc said:


> I don't see why it would be even that hard. Why couldn't you just nail square metal trim over the bull nose corner? I don't even see why that gap really has to be filled. I've never done it, so I hope I'm not saying anything dumb out of ignorance, but this seems pretty simple to me. Maybe the bull nose is a bigger radius than I'm picturing.


jeffnc, Unless you are able to find edging with a very wide nail strip, most corner bead only provides about a 1/2" of strip on each side to nail/staple to the wall. If there is no support inside the corner, the only thing making the corner piece 'solid' after being beaded and painted is the nail, the little bit of topping you apply, any texture and the paint! I guarantee if you whack a corner with something (furniture, kids fighting, etc.) you'll not only have chipped paint but a very good chance that the strip comes loose. Seen it before. But when I've installed bull nose on fresh installed drywall, I bring the drywall to the corner, then cut a 45 angle on the sheet rock with a knife so there is rock to the center inside of the bull nose to support it .... same reasoning.


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## ToolSeeker (Sep 19, 2012)

NO-COAT pre cut corners.


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