# Why so many kinds of mud?



## intjonmiller (Mar 1, 2014)

I get why there are many competing brands. It's a huge industry. But why are there so many varieties from a single manufacturer? I like Westpac products, ever since a guy on a job site gave me a bag insisting I try it instead of "that rock hard crap you're using" (USG Easy Sand). I used their 20 and 40 minute hot mud after that. (I was doing repair work almost exclusively, though I'm no longer in the field.) 

I'm wrapping up a remodel of my mother's house so I decided to try their box mud. I liked their descriptions of several, especially TNT, TNT Lite, and Green or Black Dot (the latter of which I've seen recommended on this board), yet my dealer didn't have any of those. They only carry 4 varieties, which seems reasonable until you see that Westpac has at least 20 varieties, not even including their texture and finishing compounds (level 5 skim coat and so forth). And that also doesn't include tinted vs non-tinted SKUs. 

Does anyone here use more than 2-3 varieties (from any manufacturer) on a regular basis? Do you carefully select from your manufacturer's compound comparison chart before purchasing for each job? That seems unlikely. So why so many varieties with such minor differences? 

Westpac, for the curious (I know it's a regional brand): http://westpacmaterials.com/finishing-products/

As far as I can tell Hamilton is the same thing, in neighboring states to the north.


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## Krsw85 (Jul 20, 2016)

Interesting post.... I just tried the blue lid sheet rock brand plus three mud (because I am working in an occupied building) supposed to be less dust. Really interesting texture. I seems really stiff at first, then when you compress it is starts to cream up nicely. The best thing I noticed about it. 0 reaction when applied to a painted surface.... it seems they would stake a claim to that... but they dont. I use what ever they give me to use, but most often I lile the regular all purpose compound. I used to lile the green lid USG brand but they changed the formula. I liles it because it had a great texture for getting just the shape you want..... the new formula kind of sucks.....


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## Davebusasusal (Jan 24, 2021)

intjonmiller said:


> I get why there are many competing brands. It's a huge industry. But why are there so many varieties from a single manufacturer? I like Westpac products, ever since a guy on a job site gave me a bag insisting I try it instead of "that rock hard crap you're using" (USG Easy Sand). I used their 20 and 40 minute hot mud after that. (I was doing repair work almost exclusively, though I'm no longer in the field.)
> 
> I'm wrapping up a remodel of my mother's house so I decided to try their box mud. I liked their descriptions of several, especially TNT, TNT Lite, and Green or Black Dot (the latter of which I've seen recommended on this board), yet my dealer didn't have any of those. They only carry 4 varieties, which seems reasonable until you see that Westpac has at least 20 varieties, not even including their texture and finishing compounds (level 5 skim coat and so forth). And that also doesn't include tinted vs non-tinted SKUs.
> 
> ...


Hamilton changed there name to westpac few years back I guess. I use to buy from Hamilton palets of mud and palets of texture and Acoustic until Home Depot came on the scene. Then hamilton stopped selling to contractors so they would buy it thru home Depot. Otherwise my bill for mud and texture went up quite a bit because home depot had to get their cut. And since home depot had a lot of stores and bought so much the contractors got screwed.


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## 🤡 drywall 🤡 (Feb 12, 2021)

USG all purpose, green lid....my choice....but honestly why use anything other than an all purpose compound, it serves the purpose for whatever you're doing. Just my opinion


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## 🤡 drywall 🤡 (Feb 12, 2021)

Unless you're patching, then 5,20,45, 90 minute is needed....lol...forgot to mention that🤭


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## Davebusasusal (Jan 24, 2021)

🤡 drywall 🤡 said:


> USG all purpose, green lid....my choice....but honestly why use anything other than an all purpose compound, it serves the purpose for whatever you're doing. Just my opinion


Although all purpose works , It has a lot more glue in it but shrinks more than toppings . Also its harder to sand then toppings That is why they have all the different kinds of mud and same with all different types of texture All for different looks and spray. Some for knockdown , some for orangepeel, some for splatter, or hand textures. Not that you couldn't switch things around but the products that are made for their specific purpose works the best . I wouldn't want to use a bag of knockdown texture to spray a fog..I was lucky to have hamilton manufacturerer company close by so could pick it up for any type of job. Even had them deliver truck loads if they were big enough jobs.


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## 🤡 drywall 🤡 (Feb 12, 2021)

I agree Davebusasusal , I guess I'm set in my ways....👍


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## Davebusasusal (Jan 24, 2021)

I use to be set in my ways of doing things until one day I did not have the option of going with my normal pick. I had to use something else , and what do you know I found out it was better for what I was doing. I kinda felt like I was a fool for not knowing that. I now dont care if another person who has less experience than me or doesn't do the things the same way as I do. I will always give their method a try. Always keep a open mind. I'm willing to learn even as old as I am. Yeah old guys have some wisdom but they dont know it all. Or there could be new products that we never ran into.To be honest with you all ,This business is fairly dirty business and can kick your butt after a long day but I always loved it. So many times I walked away from a job that turned out great and gave me a good feeling knowing I turned shit into ice cream. I wish I could still be working but it's time to retire and let someone else do it. And besides being 67 my body is wearing out. I actually did some work at my house today . Just a little electrical work , and patching some drywall , still got to texture it and paint it. But am enjoying it. I feel pretty lucky to be able to do this work and enjoy it. When I started this work I was in my forth year in college , which I'm glad I didn't follow that career I found out it's important to do what you love to do in life. I hope you all feel the same and it's rewarding to you. I met a lot of good people out there in my 40 years of working and wouldn't change it for anything. And yes I ran into the a....... also .but they just gave me more of a challenge to make them happy also. Some people you can't make happy no matter what you do. I actually feel sorry for them.


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## Mudrocker (Feb 7, 2021)

Davebusasusal said:


> I use to be set in my ways of doing things until one day I did not have the option of going with my normal pick. I had to use something else , and what do you know I found out it was better for what I was doing. I kinda felt like I was a fool for not knowing that. I now dont care if another person who has less experience than me or doesn't do the things the same way as I do. I will always give their method a try. Always keep a open mind. I'm willing to learn even as old as I am. Yeah old guys have some wisdom but they dont know it all. Or there could be new products that we never ran into.To be honest with you all ,This business is fairly dirty business and can kick your butt after a long day but I always loved it. So many times I walked away from a job that turned out great and gave me a good feeling knowing I turned shit into ice cream. I wish I could still be working but it's time to retire and let someone else do it. And besides being 67 my body is wearing out. I actually did some work at my house today . Just a little electrical work , and patching some drywall , still got to texture it and paint it. But am enjoying it. I feel pretty lucky to be able to do this work and enjoy it. When I started this work I was in my forth year in college , which I'm glad I didn't follow that career I found out it's important to do what you love to do in life. I hope you all feel the same and it's rewarding to you. I met a lot of good people out there in my 40 years of working and wouldn't change it for anything. And yes I ran into the a....... also .but they just gave me more of a challenge to make them happy also. Some people you can't make happy no matter what you do. I actually feel sorry for them.


I feel ya Dave. I’m 50 and been doing it since 89. Run into new stuff every day. Just bought my first set of boxes and corner tools. Been using a banjo and knives all my life. Looking forward to the new new stuff. I’m a General Contractor and remodel mostly high end stuff but a good bit of drywall too. I’ve told my buddies that when I retire I’m gonna just finish rock. They think I’m crazy because my body is about worn out too. But I love it. There’s something addictive about it. Once you get mud in yer blood your hooked.


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## Davebusasusal (Jan 24, 2021)

Mudrocker said:


> I feel ya Dave. I’m 50 and been doing it since 89. Run into new stuff every day. Just bought my first set of boxes and corner tools. Been using a banjo and knives all my life. Looking forward to the new new stuff. I’m a General Contractor and remodel mostly high end stuff but a good bit of drywall too. I’ve told my buddies that when I retire I’m gonna just finish rock. They think I’m crazy because my body is about worn out too. But I love it. There’s something addictive about it. Once you get mud in yer blood your hooked.


Glad to meet you mudrocker. I thought I was the only crazy out there. I always had a good friend from HS that ran all the tools, Bazooka, boxes, corner tools nail spotter..,Back in 1978 you could only rent them from Ames tools. But they were so much faster than a banjo and hand tools . I leaned on the side of the spray equipment which we did our own jobs plus other contractors jobs.Some of those jobs were enormous amount of footage.Some were so big I would hire two guys just to keep me spraying and all they had to do is move the hoses for me to keep spraying to finish that job that day. Kind of funny that these guys I hired thought they would have a easy day just moving hoses.Back then I had two spray rigs and would have another crew going on some of the big jobs. Otherwise I kept my normal crew going .I tried just doing the estimates and collecting money , but I missed being out there doing the work.I know thats crazy but a lot of guys new that if I was working on the job that it would get done right.. And they seemed to like that.. Back in the early days they didn't even care if we drank beer on the job.That soon changed because of the liability Workmans comp changed that. That was a good thing. I would have hated seeing someone get hurt!


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## 🤡 drywall 🤡 (Feb 12, 2021)

At our drywall store they only sale easy sand 5,20,45,90 and all purpose in the buckets and the box, only 1 lightweight mud and it's goldbond with a lime green lid, they can't give it away in our area....nobody seems to bring change around here, and I'm sure by the time change comes I will be out of it....lol....been at it 31 years and I'm open minded to new products but this area just don't seem to be....wish there were more options for us....


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