A homeowner watched me mud for 20 minutes then asked if I could just paint over the tape instead

Had a guy in Elmhurst last week tell me he saw his brother-in-law skip the mud and just paint right over drywall tape because it hides the seam, and he wanted me to do the same thing on his $4,500 basement job - how do you explain to someone that mud is actually doing something?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason_robinson4d ago

...and that's exactly the thing, they see tape and paint and think it's like patching a hole in a shirt. But you gotta tell them mud isn't just for looks, it's what keeps the tape from lifting and cracking. I had a guy in Naperville who insisted on the paint-only method because his buddy did it in a rental that "looked fine." I made him a deal, let me do one wall right with mud and one wall his way, then come back in two weeks. He called me after ten days, the paint-only wall had bubbles the size of quarters and the seam was a mess. Sometimes you just have to let reality prove your point (and bill for the fix later).

spencer1994d ago

Third house I've had this conversation with this year, always on the nicer homes in Elmhurst. I just told the guy flat out that without mud the tape will bubble up in a month and he'll see every seam line. He didn't believe me so I showed him a scrap piece I had in the truck where someone did exactly that. Sometimes you just have to let them see it with their own eyes.