Tape and Mud @ Habit Women Build

Wondering what tape and mud means? Tape and mud are some of the magic ingredients used in home building. You see the results every day when you look at your walls and ceilings so you’re wondering where the magic is?

A stick-built home is made up of hundreds of 2 x 6 wall studs and even bigger pieces of lumber for all of the horizontal framing that goes into a house. Inside the wall cavities go all sorts of important things like your electrical wiring, your plumbing, your heat and air conditioning distribution (HVAC) components and more.

The magic is something called drywall or sheetrock (name varies based on where you live). Once the rough plumbing, electrical and HVAC is installed, the drywall gets installed to hide everything inside the walls. The most common drywall panels are 4 x 8 feet, which means there are seams or gaps where 2 pieces of drywall meet and also, where the walls meet the ceiling.

Habitat for Humanity International started Women Build in 1999 with support from former first ladies and women governors, leading women crews in building Habitat houses. On May 2nd, 2011 (my second year), I worked at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland and was absolutely amazed at how quickly the women volunteers learned the skills to tape and mud. My guess (yes, I’m biased) is women tend to focus on details, and taping and mudding a house requires removing the dimples, filling the cracks and through several coats of mud, creating a nice, smooth surface so the drywall seams are hidden.

Congratulations to the “Tape and Mud” team!

Led by Habitat staffer Steve who was a great coach!

Here’s a quick overview of the steps used to get the job done: and we all got to build some new skills.

Respect Your Tools and Materials

Steve started out by reviewing the different tools we would be using (see photo above). He explained how to take mud out of the 5 gallon tub and which tools hold the mud while you’re working. He reminded us to put the cover back (upside down) each time, to prevent the mud from drying out. Steve also showed us how to skim dirt and small imperfections off the top of the mud at the beginning of the job.

Mud Your Seams to Hold the Tape

When you first learn to tape and mud, you’ll want to practice on walls that are easy to reach. As you get better, you will progress to taping corner seams between 2 walls and/or between the ceiling and the walls below it. Here are some videos to share with you some of the instruction we got from Steve.

Mud Takes Practice, Practice and More Practice

Now it was time to get to work and that’s just what everyone did. Some people wanted to get more practice on walls and even those posed their own challenges. One woman had to rework the tape below a window opening as the sheetrock crumbled at the top and there were too many chunks to clean out. Another women worked on the ceiling and we all learned how to use a utility knife to get rid of an air bubble caught under the tape. Sometimes it just takes perseverance and determination and everyone had it, like “… it looks to good to take it down and start over!”

One brave volunteer was ready to try a corner seam and wisely choose to practice in the closet. You’ve got less room to maneuver in a closet but there will be less light on that seam so it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Find your local Habitat for Humanity project!