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I was dead wrong about pre-filling screw holes on the board
For years I refused to pre-fill screw holes before taping. Thought it was a waste of time and added an extra step for no payoff. Then last month on a big job in Austin, 120 sheets on a warehouse ceiling, I tried it on half just to prove myself right. The pre-filled side took me three fewer coats to get flat and I saved almost a full day of sanding. Now I feel like an idiot for fighting it so long. Anyone else have a trick they swore off until they actually tested it on a real job?
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wadew513mo ago
Pre-filling was a game changer for me too on a similar ceiling job. I was doing a 100 sheet garage ceiling in San Antonio and split tested it same as you. The pre-filled side let me use a 14 inch knife for the final skim instead of fighting with a 6 inch to fill those little divots. Cut my finish time by about a third once I got used to the extra step. Now I won't go back to skipping it no matter how much of a hurry I'm in.
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allen.kai3mo ago
Man I read somewhere that pre-filling actually makes your joint compound go further too because you're not wasting it trying to fill those tiny gaps with a big knife. Something about the physics of it. Makes sense when you think about it though, you're only putting mud where it needs to go instead of spreading it all over and scraping it back off. Have you noticed any difference in how much compound you use on pre-filled jobs?
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the_harper3mo ago
Blew my back out on my first ceiling job @wadew51 and learned the hard way that experience actually matters.
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