Drywall 101: Using Joint Compount for a Stucco Wall Finish (very little sanding required)

If I was going to give this post an SEO unfriendly title, it would probably be Achieving the Awesome: Putting the Kibosh on Boring Walls. Alas, the sacrifices we make to be Google friendly so that some poor lost soul who wants to make their walls less lame can find this website.

Welcome to the insanity, everyone.

After five straight weekends of hanging drywall I feel no remorse in saying that wallboard, and the subsequent hanging of it, can kiss my bruised left buttock. (And let me tell you, that’s a story for another post.) I’m so ready to get on to more exciting projects, like flinging mud all over the place like a madwoman.

So here we are. Wallboard up and spackling knife in hand…. this is the part most people would rather take a whack on the head with a sledgehammer than have to complete (and the hours upon hours upon hours of sanding it requires), but put the hammers down people, I have a better, faster, more fun, less lame way of finishing your walls. Hang on to your overalls…

Getting Down To It

If you’re starting with existing walls (and you can do this on existing walls) then skip this part and hop down to the The Fun Part. For the rest of us who are slowly recovering from the trauma of hanging untold numbers of drywall sheets, a couple of things need to be done before you’re ready to start texturing. Namely joints and screws.

You’ll want to finish the walls off the way you’re “supposed” to do it for those flat boring walls as well, which means…

Your screws should be put in to just under the surface of the wallboard.

It just takes a little swipe…

And voila! Screw begone.

Two notes before I go any further. 1.) Thanks to my Badass Hatchet Wielding Mother for being the Vanna White of filling in screw holes for this post, and also for actually filling in a thousand of these suckers. 2.) Taking pictures of white joint compound on white wallboard will screw with your camera’s auto focus, and since I took these while I was doing actual work (ie my hands were covered in goop, I’m not going to apologize for the fuzzy. Ok, I am going to apologize for it… out of focus pictures are the bane of my existence, but what can you do?)

Thanks Mom. Also, no sanding required on these, unless you’re smearing 1/4″ of mud over the screws for some reason. Go easy and you don’t need to worry about these anymore.

Back to the business at hand. I used a fiberglass adhesive mesh tape for the joints. It goes on easy.

And a thin coat of joint compound takes care of it.

I like the two-swipe method, which entails first swiping your knife downwards to transfer the mud to the wall, and then going back over it horizontally to smooth it out. Keep these thin (don’t get slap-happy and start glopping shit on yet. It’s tempting, I know. Resist.)

It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, but the smoother the better. I’ve found that with the self-adhesive mesh tape you may need to run a piece of sand-paper over the joint when it dries it to get rid of the grid patten. Also any place where you cut a piece of drywall (so you’re taping a “cut edge” that doesn’t have the natural depression of a finished edge) may also need a hit with the sandpaper. But that, my friends, is the extent of the sanding. No 300 hours of scraping at joints until you’re covered in drywall just.

In the meantime, lets talk corners. Outside corners (the kind you could fall, hit your head on, and need stitches) are a cinch. Spray a little adhesive on your corner…

Then on your plastic corner piece. And put some paper down before you do this because you do NOT want spray adhesive on your floor. Let them both dry a minute or two until tacky, and then…

Done. That was easy.

Inside corners take a little more patience.

Our joint wasn’t super tight, which I corrected with a little extra mud. It needs to go on both sides of the corner, at least 1/8″ thick.

Then the corner tape goes on. (This stuff bends to achieve a nice sharp corner.)

I’m bending with my bottom hand and pushing it into place with the top one. When the tape is on there, use the knife to make sure the corner is sharp, the edges are pressed down, and that you have a light skim coat over the top of it. (Thin is fine, there will be more later.)

Then you let everything dry, and here’s why. Joint compound shrinks, which means cracks. You want to get all your holes and seams done solidly so you can texture over them with out shrinkage cracking. Trust me.

The Fun Part

Your walls are dry and ready fun? Awesome… so am I.

The trick to texturing is that you actually don’t need that much mud, and you don’t have to cover every square inch of wall.

This is about enough… don’t go digging your knife into the bucket and hauling out your body weight in mud to slap on the wall.

Smear it on thinly, and the trick to good texture is to use uneven pressure.

So push hard then light then hard then light as you move through the swipe.

THIS is way to much mud on the wall.

Even 1/16″ gives you dimension. And this will only shrink and have massive cracks in it.

If you find that when you’re mudding the wall things are coming out a little too perfect…

Press your knife into the spot that needs more texture…

Then run it lightly over the top again.

Let’s recap:

1. Not too much mud on your knife
2. Spread it on thinly, using varying pressure
3. Gouge it and then run your knife lightly over the top to create more texture

Also, change up the way you spread it on. Sometimes go from left to right, then top to bottom, then diagonal.

I prefer using the normal weight joint compound for this instead of the lightweight version. It probably takes one 5 gallon bucket to do a 15×20 room.

You still may get some small shrinkage cracks in the areas where you have heavier mud, but they can usually be solved by putting a little extra compound over them when they are dry. If they’re really fine cracks you’re okay to paint over them as well.

I’ve used this technique on new walls (obviously), existing walls (I like to put a coat of good primer over any glossy paint before I do this though), and over old plaster or painted brick. Works like a charm and I love the texture.

Make sure to prime before you paint, and that’s it. Awesome texture, no sanding… your life is now complete.