That old timer on the Hanging crew in Nashville taught me something I still think about

I was working a big commercial job in Nashville, like a 5 story office building, and this one older guy maybe 70 years old was on the finishing crew. He saw me struggling with a really bad outside corner and just walked over. He didn't say much at first, just pointed at how I was holding my knife and told me I was fighting the mud instead of letting it work for me. Then he showed me this trick where you use a slightly wider knife and pull the mud from the corner outwards, not the other way around. He said it took him 20 years to figure that out and he wished someone had told him earlier. I tried it right there and the corner came out smooth as glass on the first pass. That one tip saved me so much sanding time on that whole job.

3 comments

3 Comments

lucas_price831mo ago

You said he was on the "finishing crew" but then said he was 70 and on the "Hanging crew" in the title. Finishing and hanging drywall are two different things, just fyi.

rowan_hunt81mo ago

Is it possible @lucas_price83 misread the original post or maybe the guy just did both? I've been on sites where the "finishing crew" handles everything after the board is up, but sometimes an old timer like that will do both hanging and finishing just to keep busy. My granddad was a taper until 72 and he'd still help hang sheets if they were short handed. The title says "hanging crew" but the text says "finishing crew" which just sounds like someone typed it up quick without thinking about the difference. Happens all the time on these job posts.

beth_green12d ago

Hang on, I gotta push back a little here. I think you're overcomplicating it. The original post clearly said the guy was on the "finishing crew" in the story, and the title was just a quick label that didn't match. Happens all the time on job boards and forums where people don't proofread. Even if the title says one thing, the text is what actually happened the guy was finishing. And honestly, a 70 year old on a hanging crew? That's a lot of heavy lifting and reaching overhead all day, way harder on the body than finishing. Most guys that age who still hang are rare birds, but a finisher working into their 70s is way more common because it's less brutal physically. Don't you think it's more likely the poster just typed "hanging" without thinking, since the real story was about the finishing side of things?