# Problem with drywall tape bubbling/sagging



## DiscountHousePainter (Dec 29, 2012)

Hello, I'm more of a painter but my fiance and I just bought our first house together and someone just threw up all new drywall in the house and didn't finish it. I'm attaching a pic of one of my problems and hope someone can help. In this pic I taped a seem in the ceiling. I used a layer of all purpose joint compound and bedded the tape. Then I put a layer of compound over the tape and when I came back the tape is like sagging or bubbled almost. I did a search but didn't find what I was looking for as to what I did wrong to cause this and what I can do to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to visiting this site!


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Dude, I will go easy on you and i apoligise for everyone else, Hire someone else, We cant help you, Now RUN  Run for your life, To another forum, Thats a DIY Question, This is not a DIY forum.


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## Bazooka-Joe (Dec 31, 2010)

cazna said:


> Dude, I will go easy on you and i apoligise for everyone else, Hire someone else, We cant help you, Now RUN  Run for your life, To another forum, Thats a DIY Question, This is not a DIY forum.


Caz turned Dingo and bites people now:yes:


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## Kiwiman (Jun 14, 2008)

DiscountHousePainter said:


> Hello, I'm more of a painter but my fiance and I just bought our first house together and someone just threw up all new drywall in the house and didn't finish it. I'm attaching a pic of one of my problems and hope someone can help. In this pic I taped a seem in the ceiling. I used a layer of all purpose joint compound and bedded the tape. Then I put a layer of compound over the tape and when I came back the tape is like sagging or bubbled almost. I did a search but didn't find what I was looking for as to what I did wrong to cause this and what I can do to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to visiting this site!


Hard to tell from the pic but you probably let the mud get too dry before bedding the tape or not enough mud behind the tape.....tear it off and start again.
Now you can go over to the DIY forum and tell them you know all about taping


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Bazooka-Joe said:


> Caz turned Dingo and bites people now:yes:


Go ahead joe, Tell him how to fix it :whistling2:

Hang on i will, Use mesh, Problem solved :thumbup:


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## DiscountHousePainter (Dec 29, 2012)

Lol, thanks fellas, ill look like the man over at the DIY


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## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

your paper tape is hbloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowing vback ay ole kid.do you even know what that means ?> hold on for 30 hou5rs and ill explain


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## DiscountHousePainter (Dec 29, 2012)

harvey randall said:


> your paper tape is hbloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowing vback ay ole kid.do you even know what that means ?> hold on for 30 hou5rs and ill explain


Huh?


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## Mudstar (Feb 15, 2008)

cazna said:


> Go ahead joe, Tell him how to fix it :whistling2:
> 
> Hang on i will, Use mesh, Problem solved :thumbup:


Funny you say this grasshopper.
You have learned to walk the rice paper. 
It is this little changes you have made which allows to to walk in complete silence without being noticed, by some but not all.


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## gam026 (Aug 14, 2011)

Mudstar said:


> Funny you say this grasshopper.
> You have learned to walk the rice paper.
> It is this little changes you have made which allows to to walk in complete silence without being noticed, by some but not all.


:blink:


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## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

Is that the edge of the tape? That's what it looks like to me.

1. Did you add water to your AP compound?
2. If you peel back the edge, do you see mud or bare drywall?

Either your mud is too heavy and didn't spread out while wiping, or you didn't put enough mud up in the first place.

Seems to be an awful straight line for a dry edge, What did the board look like? Were the sheets tight together, or was there a sizable gap between them?


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

What is it with the ads along the side, that keep hiding at times what's being said in the 1st few posts. How does one get rid of that(?)


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

If you paint it really heavy it will stay up there. Who cares what it looks like?


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

SlimPickins said:


> If you paint it really heavy it will stay up there. Who cares what it looks like?


Don't look at me. You should see the last tape job I did on my place, years ago, in my 'man-room'. :whistling2: (Mesh. And A/P. I think/believe.)


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## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

JustMe said:


> What is it with the ads along the side, that keep hiding at times what's being said in the 1st few posts. How does one get rid of that(?)



It's an error in the coding of the site, easy solution for us...

Press "Ctrl and -" it shrinks the size of the txt for your browser, and lets it all fit. I usually only have to do it once to get everthing to fit. Or, you can increase the resolution of your screen, i.e from 1024x768 to 1152x864.

I would say that the coding for the ads specifies an exact size (number of pixels) instead of using a percentage. Meaning depending on your screen resolution there isn't enough room for both the ad and topic to fit in the same space, so one must sit on top of the other.


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

....


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

fr8train said:


> It's an error in the coding of the site, easy solution for us...
> 
> Press "Ctrl and -" it shrinks the size of the txt for your browser, and lets it all fit. I usually only have to do it once to get everthing to fit. Or, you can increase the resolution of your screen, i.e from 1024x768 to 1152x864.
> 
> I would say that the coding for the ads specifies an exact size (number of pixels) instead of using a percentage. Meaning depending on your screen resolution there isn't enough room for both the ad and topic to fit in the same space, so one must sit on top of the other.


Beauty. And "Ctrl and +" upsizes it again. And even larger, for those who need glasses. Thanks, fr8.


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

DiscountHousePainter said:


> Hello, I'm more of a painter but my fiance and I just bought our first house together and someone just threw up all new drywall in the house and didn't finish it. I'm attaching a pic of one of my problems and hope someone can help. In this pic I taped a seem in the ceiling. I used a layer of all purpose joint compound and bedded the tape. Then I put a layer of compound over the tape and when I came back the tape is like sagging or bubbled almost. I did a search but didn't find what I was looking for as to what I did wrong to cause this and what I can do to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to visiting this site!


For edges that let go like that (usually other guys taping, but on the odd occasion.....:whistling2, I take my 4" or 6" knife and bend back the tape some, jam some mud in there, wipe the mud into the tape with my knife so the mud gets everywhere, then wipe the mud out.


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## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

cazna said:


> Go ahead joe, Tell him how to fix it :whistling2:
> 
> Hang on i will, Use mesh, Problem solved :thumbup:


Come on Cazna the mean, be nice

Step one, rough up the joint to be taped, with a good 60 grit paper.

Step two, Use a light weight taping mud (mud you see in stores that weighs least amount of pds/kg), take mud straight out of box (add no water) and fill bevell. Let dry over night so it shrinks back.

Step 3, Mix said taping mud with one part water to mud (50-50 mix), apply to joint.

step 4, use some mesh tape, (important step) pull and stretch the mesh tape as much as you can. The more tension there is on the mesh, the better it works.

Step 5, one of my biggest secrets, use a three inch knife to wipe the mesh tape out as hard as you can, then let dry.

Step 6, coat everything out with Durabond, but thats a different topic, I don't want to hijack your thread. Plus the Mods are a bunch of big meanies on this site, and will ban you if you do so:furious: Unless you post pics of half naked women and sheep a long with you post, then they will forgive you.


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## fr8train (Jan 20, 2008)

assuming it's a dry edge, when that happens to me, it doesn't have that straight of a line towards the middle of the tape, it usually has more of a bowl shape to it, leading me to believe that there is something else happening here. I.e., he didn't thin his mud down, therefore it isn't flowing, or he didn't put enough there in the first place, and the 'straightness of the backside of the bubble is from a knife mark. Or most likely, a combination of the two.


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

2buckcanuck said:


> Plus the Mods are a bunch of big meanies on this site, and will ban you if you do so:furious: Unless you post pics of half naked women and sheep a long with you post, then they will forgive you.


How are you figuring that's half naked(?) Looks pretty whole to me. :yes:

Maybe it's just the way it's being displayed.



fr8train said:


> assuming it's a dry edge, when that happens to me, it doesn't have that straight of a line towards the middle of the tape, it usually has more of a bowl shape to it, leading me to believe that there is something else happening here. I.e., he didn't thin his mud down, therefore it isn't flowing, or he didn't put enough there in the first place, and the 'straightness of the backside of the bubble is from a knife mark. Or most likely, a combination of the two.


But you're a pro, fr8, so your mistakes will be different from his or mine. :whistling2: 

Maybe I shrunk the image too much(?) Got to find some glasses.


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

Honestly, it looks to me like he just rubbed some wet mud over the dry tape. I've seen it done before......where people think that you just need to mud over the paper tape, with nothing behind it:yes::whistling2:


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

SlimPickins said:


> Honestly, it looks to me like he just rubbed some wet mud over the dry tape. I've seen it done before......where people think that you just need to mud over the paper tape, with nothing behind it:yes::whistling2:


He did say he bedded the tape with AP before coating it:

_I used a layer of all purpose joint compound and bedded the tape._ 

But now that I read again what he said, my thought of it being a tape edge doesn't seem to fit either: _Then I put a layer of compound over the tape and when I came back the *tape is like sagging* or bubbled almost._

It looks like over the top sized texture or something to either side of the tape though, if it is a whole tape sagging, and the tape gives some size idea.
Maybe I do need some glasses to try and understand what's really going on there.


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## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

SlimPickins said:


> Honestly, it looks to me like he just rubbed some wet mud over the dry tape. I've seen it done before......where people think that you just need to mud over the paper tape, with nothing behind it:yes::whistling2:


 That's what it looks like to me..I've seen it before myself..
Ever seen an h/o tape and coat an off angle?
The tape looks like a snake to start ..then they load the mud
sideways with a 10'' after that they go to sanding with God knows what!! It's painful to look at..And near impossible to fix..:yes:


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## jcampbell (Aug 26, 2012)

Well... It doesn't look like "new" drywall. Looks textured to me. Mud could have dried up a bit before tape was run resulting in edge lifting but why only one side in a perfect straight line. To me it looks like a case of loose board and when wiping the tape out he pressed it flush and as he moved on down the seam the two edges separated as if one dropped a bit . And why the hell would someone texture with no tape coat at least. I must be seeing it wrong.........


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## jcampbell (Aug 26, 2012)

Just looked again......I guess it does look like he coated dry tape. It's a mess


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

JustMe said:


> He did say he bedded the tape with AP before coating it:
> 
> _I used a layer of all purpose joint compound and bedded the tape._
> 
> ...


Yeah, but I've always thought that bedding the tape was the coat over it. That's always been my interpretation anyway. Hell, I don't understand all of this scientifical mumbling jumbos anyways.






moore said:


> That's what it looks like to me..I've seen it before myself..
> Ever seen an h/o tape and coat an off angle?
> The tape looks like a snake to start ..then they load the mud
> sideways with a 10'' after that they go to sanding with God knows what!! It's painful to look at..And near impossible to fix..:yes:


Me too, and it's really hard not to bust out laughing when they show it to you. That and the occasional painted over duct tape you run into every once in a while :laughing:


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

SlimPickins said:


> Yeah, but I've always thought that bedding the tape was the coat over it. That's always been my interpretation anyway. Hell, I don't understand all of this scientifical mumbling jumbos anyways.


Yeah, this thread seems like that - unclear - starting with the OP. Looks like a job for Pot.  *Unfortunately, I don't smoke*


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

JustMe said:


> Looks like a job for Pot.  *Unfortunately, I don't smoke*


Most of these threads look that way lately ....*thinks about taking up the pot smokery*


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## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

Mudstar said:


> Funny you say this grasshopper.
> You have learned to walk the rice paper.
> It is this little changes you have made which allows to to walk in complete silence without being noticed, by some but not all.


 Mudstar ..Your like the the little boy throwing rocks at the hornets nest ..then waiting to see what happens.:thumbsup:


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## Workaholic (Dec 13, 2010)

I can't really tell what is going on in that pic. 

Cut it out and redo it.


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## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

harvey randall said:


> your paper tape is hbloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowing vback ay ole kid.do you even know what that means ?> hold on for 30 hou5rs and ill explain


 i would like to apologize. i'm sorry for that smackwall comment. i just got the rip for a grand this week, by a home howner that was just as inocent as you. sorry you didnt do it. i was as they say in the psycological mumbo jumbo- projecting on you. i am sorry, not you at all.


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## getplastered (Jan 3, 2012)

harvey randall said:


> i would like to apologize. i'm sorry for that smackwall comment. i just got the rip for a grand this week, by a home howner that was just as inocent as you. sorry you didnt do it. i was as they say in the psycological mumbo jumbo- projecting on you. i am sorry, not you at all.


I just thought you were smashed lol...:thumbup:


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## harvey randall (Nov 23, 2010)

getplastered said:


> I just thought you were smashed lol...:thumbup:


smart asshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMk208Op1Jc


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