Tried to save time by skipping the corner bead and it cost me 3 hours

Last month I was working a basement job in my buddy's house and thought I could just mud the corners without metal bead. It looked okay at first but after the second coat I noticed the corner was all wavy and uneven. Ended up having to sand it all down and start over with the bead anyway. Anyone else ever try to skip a step and just end up making more work for yourself?

2 comments

2 Comments

kais671mo ago

I gotta disagree, corners are one place where cutting corners never works. Metal bead is cheap and fast to install, maybe 20 minutes for a whole room. The real time saver is using it to get a straight line the first time. Three hours of sanding and redoing seems like the hard way to learn a lesson that's been around forever.

piperr581mo ago

@kais67 hit the nail on the head with that. My buddy Dave spent a whole weekend trying to mud and tape his own corners without metal bead, and by Sunday night he was ready to punch a hole in the wall. He finally bought a roll of the stuff and had those corners done in less time than it took him to clean his brushes afterward.