If repairing cracks in drywall. Would you recommend using fiberglass tape with this prduct? Shifting of house causing cracks.
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If you have a crack big enough why wouldn’t you use regular drywall mud? And just a quick FYI, fiber glass tape actually isn't as strong, in the manner that counts, as paper tape. Fiberglass tape does have a higher shear strength(resistance to ripping) but paper tape has the higher tensile strength(resistance to tension)and tension is what can cause a failure in a drywall joint or repair. Paper tape can be used with either pre-mixed or chem. set mud, doesn’t matter one way or the other. Fiber glass technically should only be used with the dry, mix it yourself, what I call chem set muds. Chem sets such as Durabond and Easy Sand contain a chemical in them that creates heat when activated by water. The heat produced is what “cures” the compound and hardens it up. The method is a lot faster than the simple evaporation process that occurs with the pre mixed mud. Speeding up the curing time results in a lot less shrinkage and cracking vs pre-mixed. Fiber glass tape is rated strong enough to handle this amount of shrinkage. On the flip side, fiberglass tapes tensile rating is lower than the possible strain it could encounter as the pre-mixed mud shrinks while curing. Although there is added convenience and time saving with its self adhesive back but in reality fiber glass is inferior to the good ole fashioned paper tape. If I were you and had a crack in the wall I thought big enough to consider using tape, I’d use some Durabond 45 or 90 and most likely ultra thin fiberglass tape simply cause it’s easier to conceal. Taping and muddling full sheets of drywall? In this case I’d be using paper tape and the heavy pre-mixed “green lid” mud for the initial coat and finish it off with pre-mixed light weight “blue lid mud” for the second coat. The argument that un-mixed dry powered compounds are superior to pre-mix’s cold be raised and I wouldn’t disagree with it. So why use the pre mixed on larger jobs? The only reason it isn’t typically done like that is simply to avoid spending all the extra time it would take to mix all that up.
Was this Answer Helpful ?Yes. But the fumes are awful. You will need to have all doors windows open
Was this Answer Helpful ?No tape required!
Was this Answer Helpful ?Sure. I did and it worked well. If repairing cracks in plaster/lath walls, consider driving screws on either side of the crack to secure the area.
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