Third Coating Your Drywall Job

You have come to the final drywall coat of your job and you will enjoy this as it will truly make your drywall project look complete, even though at this point your drywall job should already look good. But you are going to put the icing on the cake. Now once again take your hand sander and start cleaning up your seams and corner bead remember to go easy you are just cleaning and I know it is tempting to try and sand every thing so it looks perfect but be patient that part is on it's way.

At this point you will once again need your 12 inch knife and your box for compound, are you seeing how this 12 inch knife has become the corner stone of your work,it is truly a main tool in drywall taping. OK take your pail of mud and mix it nice and smooth add a little water if you want it thinner, be careful only a small amount of water at a time you do not want your compound so thin that it falls off your knife. Now when your have your mud at the right consistency pick your starting point and apply mud again vertically across your drywall seam about 2 inch past your seam on either side until your have covered 3 or four feet of your seam from the end of your seam draw your knife from the outer edge of the seam to the center horizontally removing all the compound you applied except for what is left on to feather out the ridges and small imperfections.

Do the same with your drywall knife at the bottom edge of your seam to the center and draw off your excess mud in the same manner until you have a nice clean coated seam. This procedure should be familiar to you now so keep repeating this until you have applied your third coat to all your flat seams and once again do not forget the little seams, joints in your bulkheads and above your doors or windows making sure you have everything coated. You should be very happy with the way your seams are looking now and you will notice how fast they are drying as this is a very thin coat.

As it dries you will be able to put your third coat on your corner bead using the same technique apply your mud again from the far outer edge of your bead about 2 inches past the edge you want to feather out and draw your mud across or down to the edge of the bead 3 or 4 feet again then draw off all the excess compound to fill your outer edge and imperfections of your drywall bead, repeat until your have completely third coated your entire drywall job. Now take a break and wait for everything to dry good and in the next step you will finish sand and prepare your project to be sealed with drywall primer.