Spent 6 hours patching drywall because I skipped the tape

I was fixing a crack in my hallway wall and figured I could just use spackle to fill it in quick. After three coats and it still cracking, I finally asked my neighbor what I was doing wrong. He told me I had to use mesh tape first or it would never hold. Took me another 3 hours to sand down the mess and do it right the second time. Has anyone else lost a whole Saturday to a simple drywall patch job?

3 comments

3 Comments

corablack1mo ago

Oh come on, you skipped the tape? That's like trying to bake a cake without flour and wondering why it falls apart. I mean, mesh tape is like two bucks at the hardware store. I learned that lesson when I tried to patch a hole behind my toilet and ended up with a lumpy mess that looked like a raccoon tried to fix it. Three coats of spackle and it still cracked? Yeah, that sounds about right. You basically turned a 30 minute job into a whole weekend project.

jamie9401mo ago

Doesn't it seem like half of adult life is just learning the hard way that the step you thought you could skip is actually the whole point? I think that's why my garage is full of half-finished projects where I tried to take a shortcut and ended up with a bigger mess than if I'd just done it right the first time. Drywall tape, primer before painting, even rinsing dishes before the dishwasher - it's all the boring stuff that actually makes the rest of it work. You're in good company, most of us have a closet somewhere hiding our own version of that cracked patch job.

blair_taylor321mo ago

My neighbor Bob swears by just using caulk for small drywall cracks and he's never had one come back in 20 years. I tried your method with the tape and still ended up with a bubble under the mesh that I had to cut out anyway. Sometimes skipping steps saves you from overcomplicating a tiny hairline crack that would have been fine with paintable caulk and a wet finger.