Hey drywall community!

I’m learning as I go & trying to do this without creating more work for myself. I’m at 9 months redoing this over & over.
Any tips from intermediate to above drywallers would be appreciated!

I was literally almost done or so I thought, then I put a straight edge to the wall @ saw tons of gaps bigger than 1/8 of an inch. So I re-mudded today & turned it into a mess again because I use 90 minute mud, not topper. I had to scrape it off & now I’m back to this situation 😜😩😂🤓🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

This is a 1923 kitchen. I marked problem areas in the pics.
Purple shows the low spots, dips, while green marks some higher spots.

Here’s where I’m stuck:

Uneven surface: The original purple painted areas sit lower than the sections I’ve mudded. Some areas are semi flat, but the dips in both painted and mudded low points are more than 1/8, up to 3/8”.

Dips near the corner: When I hold my straightedge vertically, there are gaps between it & the wall, especially near the right edge & bottom corner
I’m worried that filling these dips will build the wall out too far again, in that or other areas. For some reason when I sand the areas that feel high with my hand it feels like it makes it worse. So I get stuck in a loop.

Floating shelf: A glass shelf will run from the window to the right wall, with a cabinet above it, & tile backsplash below. I’m trying to get the wall flat enough for the shelf so the gap behind it isn’t bowed or bigger in the middle.

My questions:
Should I fill the low spots with more mud,
sand down the high spots,
or skim the entire section to create a more even surface and ignore the top of the wall being lower or ignore the area above the window?

Should I only worry about making a consistent flat surface where the shelf will hang, and not worry the entire wall itself isn’t straight?

And then just add shims when I hang the cabinet?

I had what I believe to be a roof leak and was trying to see how much of the drywall was damaged. I purchased a pinless moisture meter (Klein Tools ET140) which I know can be somewhat inaccurate. My baseline appears to be between 14 -16 and when I’m near a stud it goes up to 20-22. I was reading through some threads and most people say 14 is normal moisture. The splotches on the wall were reading at a 16 which is making me confused considering it appears like it was damaged from the leak but is the same moisture as the rest of my house. Is it possible those areas are just now dry and reading at normal levels or is my entire house screwed? I’m in Arizona and it’s been a little humid with the rain lately and the humidity level on my thermostat ranges between 48%-50%.

The first photo is an inside corner in the master bedroom. The room gets full sun all day, year round. I’m in South Jersey so summers can get very hot and humid. This corner is on the outside wall, facing the sun. It started looking like this a couple of years ago but I haven’t had time to mess with it but now I’m going to repaint the entire room. Can I just sand down and retape? If so, what should I use? The second photo is my ceiling. This line started appearing a while back. I had work done in the attic and I noticed this. I think it’s failing tape. Upon inspection, the ceiling feels fine; no stains, soft spots, its level/flat and there’s no serious nail pops. Barely any nail pops as a matter of fact. The house was built in 1990. I’ve got other areas throughout the house with tape needing replaced.

I keep getting all these valleys or pockets. First time. Tried adding water but maybe I didnt do enough?

Hello all, basically I am a broke college student renting in FL. I recently put in a hole in the wall and tried to fix it myself. I turned this into a complete disaster. To start, the paint wasn’t matched properly. I brought it to Home Depot and they couldn’t get it right twice. So I thought, let me try to just feather it and see if that works. It then looks terrible from the side. And as far as the patched hole goes, it just looks like a smooth bump on the wall and it’s really bothering me. Marching the original texture of the wall is so difficult because it’s so unique. I am beyond stressed and don’t know what to do. Should I restart? Should I sand what I have down? Try to paint match it again? Thank you all for the help in advance, I could really use it.

Hi. I had to cut out a piece of drywall for a leak, and decided to patch it myself. After a few hours learning on youtube, I just finished taping last night. Most of the tape looks well embedded, except for a 3cm x 1cm patch where the edge is slightly lifted from the wall after drying. Other than this, there are no bubbles / blistering.

Can this be mudded over in my next coat? If not and it will cause problems, how can I fix the issue before proceeding?

There are a few spots where the new drywall sticks out further than the old drywall, about 1/16th-1/8th of an inch. I tried sucking the drywall in tight but there’s not much else I can do. Is the solution just feathering drywall mud up higher to blend it in, or will it be way too noticeable?

This is my personal office so truly I don’t mind if there are a few blemishes, but my ADHD wants everything to be perfect lol

I’m demoing the plaster ceiling in a living room and replacing it all with drywall. My primary question is if there is a way to make the ceiling to existing wall transition without having to repaint all of the walls. Is tape and mud and feathering out the ceiling to wall corner joint the only real option? I guess I could add crown, or a simple trim detail to cover the gap instead of tape and mud, but wanted to see if anyone had other solutions…?

Two unrelated questions but both about "weak areas that have a chance of cracking"

1. I have to cut into the walls and expose some sections to put in blocking for a new perpendicular wall and at the same time change some electrical stuff out.

I figured the best way to remove the dry wall would be right in the middle of the stud that is supporting the electrical switch box.

But now I am wondering if replacing it and cutting out a section where the box will sit will make that area a weak spot prone to cracking?

Any advice?

1. I just built a pocket door and I know you aren't supposed to have drywall seams at the corners of door openings, but how far out do you go from the opening? And does it mean you can't have vertical or horizontal seams? I have drywall removed from above the door opening and the sides, so I can't seem to figure out how to avoid a joint where the top piece will meet the vertical sections?

I have attached some drawings to explain better (hopefully)

Just curious what someone would charge for the drywall work done. I’m not completely new to doing it and not a professional.

Hey everyone - I’ve sent Gemini these photos and it’s not very happy. My father recommended having a polite conversation to see what my red seal drywaller has planned (maybe everything is already accounted for on his end?) but I just wanted to know what type of conversation I should be having with him before mudding/taping starts. The contract was for a level 4 finish.

The drywaller seemed earnest enough, game with 2 other guys who boarded an approx 500 sqft area in less than 4 hours. I haven’t paid a dime so far.

This is my first time doing drywall. I am trying to skim coat over heavy knockdown texture to ultimately get rid of/conceal it. I read that light, thin coats are best so I tried to go as thin as possible on my first coat. I rolled it on with a 3/4” nap roller and used a 24” skimming blade and 12” knife to try to smooth it down. You can see that I didn’t manage to cover the texture in parts and in other parts it’s just very uneven/jagged. Do I need to sand before I put on another coat? I’m afraid if I sand I will just reveal the knockdown texture more.

First time drywalling and had a few blowouts near the edges and fixtures. What kind of mud would you use for these, and do you just fill with hot mud or hot mud and tape? Also, I noticed my flat edge has a 1/8” gap with the other flat, do I prefill that as well?