Page 2, continued:                                                                                                            sponsored by:  country-cabins.com

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Next, wet and swipe the empty blade at a 23-degree angle lengthwise along the mud strip to smooth the mud, feather the edges and cover the joint.  Why a wet blade?  So it won't grab and make holes in the mud track, like over-stretched dough.  Saves time and mud refill later.




Tear off drywall tape to fit mud track length and wet it in bucket of water.  Slide tape through your fingers like rollers to remove excess water.  Lay tape on the mud, so the joint underneath is under the middle of the tape.  With empty blade (no need wet) tilted at 23-degree angle, lightly smooth tape lengthwise into mud track.




Load the blade with mud and swipe mud crosswise across the tape, as before, to cover tape.  Keep mud track narrow as before to make feathering easier.




Wet and swipe empty blade at about 23-degrees lengthwise along mud track, as before, feathering edges.  Then repeat entire process along bare joints again.  Allow to dry. Then sand--who'd have thought?--drywall panels have a grain, lengthwise, so sand in longwise direction of panel for smoothest results.  A quick sanding tool is to get "screen" drywall sanding strips on a swivel head with long mop-style handle, to reach high spots. Both hands apply and control pressure, two passes are usually enough.  The screen strips flip over, and change fast on the swivel head's butterfly clamps.  More mud fill  needed?  Do an overcoat, use a wider blade, add a light coat of mud crosswise, then lengthwise, as before.   Allow to dry, then sand with the grain again.  Once you are satisfied with the surface flatness, paint with primer, then your desired color.

That's it!  Next up, how to do corners.