Drywall Tape and Float in Austin, TX

Tape and float is the trade inside the trade. Anyone can put mud on a joint; the work is getting it flat, and flat is built in layers rather than sanded into existence at the end.

Tape, then coats, each one wider than the last, each allowed to dry before the next. Central Texas humidity swings enough that drying times move around, and a coat that has skinned over but is not dry underneath will shrink under the next one and leave a line down the seam.

What's included

Joints taped and built up in coats, not filled in one pass
Butt joints feathered wide, where there is no bevel to hide in
Inside corners run straight instead of heaped
Corner bead set true, because a bowed corner shows across a room
Sanded flat without raising fuzz on the paper face

Butt joints get the widest treatment, because there is no factory bevel to hide in and the only way to lose one is to spread it far enough that the eye cannot find the transition. Inside corners are run straight rather than heaped, and outside corners get bead set true — a bowed corner is visible from the far end of a room no matter how well it is coated.

We sand to flat, not to bare paper. Over-sanding raises fuzz on the face, and fuzz takes paint differently from the mud beside it, which is a defect of its own.

How we work

Check the hang first

Loose screws, torn paper and proud sheets get fixed before the first coat. Covering them just moves the problem to the paint.

Bed the tape

Tape is bedded into mud with the excess pulled from under it, so nothing hollow is left to crack later.

Build the coats

Each coat goes on wider than the last and dries before the next. That is the part that cannot be hurried and the part people skip.

Sand and check the light

We sand flat and then look at the wall the way your windows and fixtures will, from the side, before calling it finished.

Tape & Float by city

Raeford, Fayetteville and the towns around them are not one market — a Fort Bragg rental turning over, a brick ranch off Bragg Boulevard and a new build in Hope Mills are three different jobs.

Common questions

Can you finish drywall somebody else hung?

Yes, and it is common. We check the screws and the sheets first and tell you what we find, because some of what looks like a finishing fault started when the board went up.

What finish level do I need?

It depends on the light and the paint. Most rooms are fine at Level 4; walls with raking light or gloss paint want Level 5. We will match the level to the room rather than to a spec sheet.

How long before it can be painted?

Every coat has to dry, and here that moves with the humidity. We will give you a schedule once we have seen the job rather than promise a day we cannot hold.