Vent: Finally caved and tried pre-filling corners instead of taping them flat

For like 3 years I swore by taping inside corners flat, just like I learned from my first foreman back in 2017. Thought pre-filling was a waste of time and mud. Then last month I watched a video from a drywall training channel that showed a time-lapse of both methods. The pre-filled corner only needed one coat of tape and a skim coat after. The flat-taped corner needed three coats plus sanding. That little detail about the pre-fill cutting two steps out of the process finally got me to try it on a bedroom in a house off Maple Street in Portland. First corner I did with pre-fill took maybe 10 extra minutes but saved me an hour on finishing. I still feel dumb for resisting it so long. Has anyone else held onto a habit for years and then kicked yourself after switching?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake3221mo ago

Read something similar a few weeks back in a JLC article about production guys switching to pre-fill and cutting their finishing time by almost half on the really bad corners. It makes sense once you see the logic, less air pockets behind the tape means less compound to build it up later. Just takes that first time to trust the process I guess.

rose_cooper1mo ago

Did I read that right... half the time on bad corners? @blake322 that's wild but I guess it adds up when you think about all those air pockets. Man I really wasted years doing it the hard way.

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