That time my neighbor in Phoenix showed me why my drywall kept cracking

I was in Phoenix last summer helping my neighbor patch a hole in his garage drywall. He watched me mud the seam and just shook his head. Turns out I was using way too much water in my joint compound, making it shrink and crack after a week. He showed me how to mix it so it's more like peanut butter than pancake batter. I had been fighting with cracks for years in my own house, doing the same thing over and over. Now I measure out my water in a cup instead of guessing, and the joints stay smooth. Has anyone else had a neighbor or friend call out a bad habit you didn't even know you had?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela1916d ago

My husband walked in on me trying to fix a sticky doorknob with a butter knife once and just stared at me until I realized how dumb that was. He grabbed a flathead screwdriver from the junk drawer and had it off in ten seconds flat. Still tease me about it every time a drawer gets stuck.

cameron3186d ago

@angela191 my dad caught me doing basically the same thing with a butter knife and a stuck window latch. He told me I looked like I was trying to butter the window. I'm glad you at least had a junk drawer hero nearby. Some of us learned the hard way that you shouldn't use a drywall knife like a pry bar either.