Level 5 drywall instructions

The face paper of drywall (GWB) is rough and this shows in critical lighting areas. The whole battle with drywall and getting it looking good involves time and money.

The tools needed for a level 5 drywall finish: Roller tray, ¾ inch nap roller, frame and poll. Mud pan, broad knife. The work requires skill and is very labor intensive.

Mix up the mud. The consistence you are looking for is a little thinner than pancake batter. For this particular application you can mix mud in a pan with a knife but I would recommend that u you use a 5 gallon bucket and a power mixer. The mud needs to be consistent. The consistency should be somewhere between thick primer or paint and pancake batter.

Pour it in your tray and your ready to go. Since our roller nap is new we need to make sure we work plenty of mud into the nap before we start applying it to the drywall so we do not have dry spots. Once you do that you are ready to apply the mud. When you’re applying it on a ceiling you dip it in the tray and roll the mud out on the ceiling you want to be sure your putting plenty of mud on the surface. Then take your broad knife and cut or feather the edges. Then take most of the mud off your only leaving a little mud on. This is a thin film that will take care of all the imperfections. It’s the same process for a wall you can see here I’ve rolled out about six linear feet and then I dip in more mud; you want to be generous with the amount of mud you leave on the wall.

If you don’t put enough mud on the wall it will set up quickly and you won’t be able to whip it and you could have a mess on your hands. You will also notice I’m only rolling about 36″ wide from floor to ceiling. It’s important that you don’t roll out to much mud in front of yourself otherwise again it will set up on the wall and it might give you some problems. So I have done the same thing as on the ceilings I’ve feathered the edges and taken most of the mud off with my broad knife, leave only a little mud on the wall. It may take time for you to get used to laying the knife down in a way that you only leave a little mud on the wall. You don’t want to take every once off, you want to leave some on the wall. If you have some lines that’s ok you can sand them off. DO the same thing in the next swath, again you’re only going about six linear feet by the width of the roller and you do that twice then begin wiping the mud off.

Now let’s take a look at that feathering again, now this is what you do around all the corners. So you can see I’m just putting pressure on part of the knife you do that on the edge of the mud to make that line transparent and that’s called feathering, it makes your edges easier to sand.

The mud is dark when it is wet and dries much lighter almost off white when it is completely dry.

Ten after it’s completely dry you will see that there is a nice consistence finish over the entire wall. This gives you the best drywall finish you can have. After you have applied this level five drywall finish you are ready to start sanding.