Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
DIY last week. Applied gypsum putty over the joints. It's taking me a longer time to finish due to the small putty knife I am using (regular paleta). Could have been easier / faster using a plastering trowel instead especially on the walls. I was thinking of using cornice instead to hide the gaps, I guess there are no short cuts. Will see how these come out, otherwise, back to cornices.
Finished the walls last week, started yesterday to fill the wall-ceiling gaps, oh they are a PITA to fix. Workers didn't do a good job. Some gaps are 3mm+ wide. 😡
1st coat of putty:
Applying gypsum / fiberglass tape:
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
Gypsum tape over the 1st coat of putty:
After the 2nd coat of putty, gaps were minimized. A 3rd / 4th coat maybe next weekend.
My son "forced" to help me, gave him a sanding practice. Will ask him to sand the putty as well.
Hopefully we're ready for priming and painting by the Holy Week.
He-he. For a moment there, I thought you were using your son as a stepping board!
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
@lite
i hatez gaps, the workers don't do a good job since filling them's easy work for them.
my solution: i'm doing the ceilings last, so their level will obliterate the ceiling gap. the wall angle is fixed to the drywall.
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
From my experience gypsum putty cracks after a few weeks with or without the fiberglass tape. I don't know if its the ficem board that contracts/expands with temperature or the furrings.
We ended up using wall paper for the ceilings instead of paint. At least the open crack is hidden.
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
@sir balarila, nice shot by the wifey.:D
@sir zepol, I couldn't agree more. I was so disappointed to see the gaps during closer inspection. Sayang, I never thought of having the ceilings installed last. I think this is one of the disadvantages of using gypsum boards for the walls, they are too thick (12mm) to be cut and installed perfectly flush to the ceiling. To add to that, I have a sloping ceiling design which probably made fitting a challenge to the workers. Keeping my fingers crossed on the filler.:rolleyes:
@sir joey, hopefully the putty + tape would hold (praying). The putty on the ceiling is probably a month old and I haven't noticed any signs of cracking (yet). I am also thinking of having the ceiling done in stucco finish anticipating cracks appearing over time. Hoping I'll be blessed with a little luck on this.;)
BTW, just in case the putty + tape combo fails on the ceiling-wall joints, I am planning to use PVC cornice instead. Is it more efficient (cost, installation) compared to the wooden ones? I am thinking they are cheaper and can be installed using liquid nails.
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
For straight END gaps, it is better not to use gypsum tape anymore. Tape is only needed for patch repair. Bec with the tape there is a tendency of applying thicker putty to cover the tape which tends to crack bec of improper drying and application. Problem with most painters eh they use small spatula Lang and not the big trowel that is specified for gypsum boards. Atleast 12" width of trowel to minimize gap marks san a and also use the right amount of screws per meter board too.
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
@joey
i'm trying hardiflex putty for jointing. it's probably more like mortar since it's applied to wet hardiflex boards. i sure hope it's good, it costs double the price of gypsum putty.
how's wallpaper? kumusta costing niya compared to paint?
@lite
hardiflex is a b**ch to cut, usually needs a grinder. in contrast there are jigsaw blades for gypsum.
pvc cornice? i think you still have to nail em to let liquid nail cure. maybe rugby'll work, that's easier since talagang ididikit mo nalang once the glue's cured. vs wood, depends sa supplier - i didn't see a big diff sa price ng wood vs pvc but maybe i just didn't look in the right place. i used wood. mabilis lang installation - baka nga faster than if i had used rugby. diretso putol glue then pako lang kasi. rugby needs time to dry.
Posted via PHM Mobile
For straight END gaps, it is better not to use gypsum tape anymore. Tape is only needed for patch repair. Bec with the tape there is a tendency of applying thicker putty to cover the tape which tends to crack bec of improper drying and application. Problem with most painters eh they use small spatula Lang and not the big trowel that is specified for gypsum boards. Atleast 12" width of trowel to minimize gap marks san a and also use the right amount of screws per meter board too.
Posted via PHM Mobile
does the 12" trowel apply to hf as well?
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
^i believe so bro, the wider the trowel the less you'll notice the gap/hump but a little more work for sanding.
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
On the gaps:
When I built my house in 2004, my contractor used polytuff between hardiflex edges. I know someone in some other thread discouraged using it because coefficient of expansion of hardiflex and polytuff may be different which could cause cracks later. But practically all of my ceiling are still ok. There are some where gaps are starting to show but that's a very small minority (maybe less than 10%).
Now, I can appreciate the expansion argument so I don't know if my contractor just had a special way of doing it or that the climate in my place (Antipolo) is good on the gaps.
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
:thanks: masters for your inputs!
@sir ricky, I tried to apply the putty over the gaps w/out the tape, unfortunately, the putty only sunk inside the gaps. Spent considerable amount of putty to correct the gaps with no success. Using gypsum / fiberglass tape I think "catches" some of the putty making the gaps easier to fill, had better success rate using this approach. I also saw on the net using "perforated paper tape". I'm not sure if this could have been a better option or it is just the same as gypsum / fiberglass tape. Will check @ Wilcon during my next visit.
@sir balarila, I'm keeping my fingers crossed on gypsum putty since this is my first time to use it. We used Polituff on our current house, the cracks only appeared after probably 7 years. I am an epic fail however at using Polituff unlike gypsum putty which is a joy to apply straight from the can. I'm just hoping it performs as intended.
@sir zepol, AMEN on cutting Hardiflex. The recommended scoring knife only works if you cut perfectly straight edges, besides the Hardiflex brand scoring knife I bought didn't last as well. We used grinder too and I hate(d) the dust it produced. Many thanks on the info regarding the cornice. This will be my life saver in case putty fails.:D
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
you can trim hf by scoring, then nibbling away at it with a nail puller or similar instrument. slow, but sometimes better than the grinder. i'd love power shears but that's way out of budget.
the hardiflex paper tape's nice! we tried it out this morning with hf putty (i wonder if it's just marked up zemkote 🙂 ). it's more expensive but it might end up cheaper because you do the job in one pass. as to gap filling, maybe zemkote? hf is cement after all, so cementitious stuff may be the key. pics to ff
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
Ak ok sir, if the gaps are more than 2mm then using tape is essential. But for end to end gaps, we just try to minimize the space to save on putty and labor. 1-2mm is tolerable, also another technique that a painter used is to seal portion of the gap with tightly rolled newspaper to save on putty and labor again.
Posted via PHM Mobile
Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation
@sir zepol, nice tip on the Hardiflex paper tape. I'm wondering if this is the same as perforated paper tape. I have left over zemkote, will try this as well, but I think putty would finish the remaining job since maliliit na lang yun naiwan na gaps sa ceiling. Hopefully the Hardiflex / perforated paper tape is available at Wilcon. if you don't mind, how much is the Hardiflex paper tape? :thanks:
@sir ricky, never thought newspaper could be used to fill extremely large gaps. Many thanks for this tip, this will save me a lot of putty, effort and time. Will try this approach on around 2 wall corners remaining to be fixed. :thanks:
