How to Tape Drywall Inside Corners: Levels 0-3 Beginner Tips

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As a beginning drywall taper…DRYWALL INSIDE CORNERS ARE HARD!

Drywall is installed and this room is ready for mud with some serious inside corners! Beginner tips on how to tape and float drywall inside corners

Drywall is installed and this room is ready for mud with some serious inside corners!

As a drywall newbie, inside corners were the slowest and ugliest part of my mud work. I will say, they are now one of my favorite parts of drywall finishing since I’ve embraced a few tips and tricks I want to share with you here today.

Tools needed:

The basic premise for laying a drywall inside corner:

Level 0: Lay down joint compound on both sides of the corner. Next, embed the tape in mud with a corner tool. Let it dry.

Level 1: Use a 6″ drywall knife one a single side of each corner. Repeat on the second side when the first side is dry. Sand after both sides are dry.

Level 2: Use a 10″ drywall knife one a single side of each corner. Repeat on the second side when the first side is dry. Sand after both sides are dry.

Level 3: Use a 14″ drywall knife one a single side of each corner. Repeat on the second side when the first side is dry. Sand after both sides are dry.

Done!

Here is the key when you are starting out your first few drywall jobs: patience.

We already know it is going to take longer because we are not professionals. However, we can break up the work so it looks professional in the end. By taking your time you will also gain confidence and precision. As you gain the skills you will be able to combine some of the steps above.

For instance, let’s look at level 0 and 1. These two steps are often combined by more advanced drywall tapers. However, I find the tape is more likely to slip, or my float job is too thick if I put mud over the tape before it is dry.

It is perfectly acceptable to leave it alone as soon as the tape is embedded. This ensures the tape stays in place after laying down a smooth corner using the corner tool, placing the tape and then embedding the pre-wet paper tape by rolling over it with the corner tool. That is a lot of action already to get a great corner started.

There are a few precautionary measures I share when instructing beginners greener than me on drywall inside corners.

Make sure your premixed joint compound is watered down.

This allows the paper tape bond better to the joint compound without drying out and causing a bubble. Like I mentioned in this post regarding other beginner drywall tips, this step alone gave us ZERO bubbles with an absolute newbie joining us for the room (pictured above).

It also helps the corner tool easily shape mud into a corner rather than fighting thick joint compound. Save your muscles–you are already getting enough of an upper body workout!

Dampen the paper tape with water before placing the tape in the corner.

The water helps the paper tape bond to the joint compound. It also helps the corner tool glide rather than gouge into dry tape.

The first layer of joint compound should be flat, minimizing any ridges going perpendicular to the corner.

Any ridges, air pockets or other blemishes will make the tape bunch, stretch or do ANYTHING other than look like a corner when you run the corner tool against the tape. This prevents you from having to back out the (now) deformed paper and try embedding it again.

While this video is actually level 1, you can see in the beginning the mud has ridges out the wazoo. A tape job without skimming out the entire line would be a nightmare.

Feel free to use more than one hand on the corner tool.

Learn from my mistake: I thought the handle was the only place I should be holding the tool. My corners were shoddy at best. I ditched the tool for a regular knife blade. Once I started using one hand on the blade itself and another hand on the handle I was able to embrace this tool.

When applying Level 1, 2 and 3 on a corner, you don’t have to do both sides at once.

After you use the corner tool on level 0, you end up using a flat knife for the subsequent layers.

If you try to do both sides of a corner there is a constant struggle to avoid the mud buildup in the corner without messing up all your beautiful flat work. You end up doing one side and making it perfect, while the other side is bad. So then you attempt to smooth out the second side and inevitably mess up the first side. Repeat until you are pissed off / defeated / the mud dries to a point so both sides look bad. If somehow a miracle occurs and it turns out, go buy a lottery ticket.

Until I start buying lottery tickets, I’ll limit myself to fiddling with one side at a time.

Also, if you are taping the ceiling as well make sure to mud on opposing corners:

Drywall Inside Corners - One Side at a Time

You are limiting the overlapping wet surfaces–and mistakes–by only working the “same” side of each adjacent surface at the same time.

Just remember patience, cursing and celebrating a job well done is also part of the deal.

You’ve got this!

When learning to drywall inside corners just remember patience, cursing and celebrating a job well done is also part of the deal. Celebrating with a Prickly Pear Shiner is a good choice.

Celebrating with a Prickly Pear Shiner.

 

This post was strictly limited to drywall inside corners, as the last post on drywall, Not Your Average Beginner Drywall Taping Tips was already pretty lengthy without going into detail on pesky corners.

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