I finally listened to the old timer who said to wet my mud bucket before mixing

Kept telling myself it didn't matter. Then last Tuesday I'm on a job in Austin and my mud starts drying out halfway through the second coat. Guy I was working with, Mike, maybe 60 years old, just looks at me and says 'you didn't wet the bucket did you?' Took his advice and wet the inside of a new bucket before mixing. Stuff stayed workable for almost 2 hours longer. Anyone else get stubborn about some basic tip and regret it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jason1121mo ago

and that's one of those things where you swear it can't make that big a difference but then it totally does. I did the same thing with wetting down my hawk before slapping mud on it, thought it was just old timer superstition. Then I tried it one day when the drywall was sucking the moisture out of everything and my mud wasn't setting up right. The bucket thing is huge though, especially if you're working in a dry climate or with hot temps like Texas. Also get a spray bottle and mist the surface of your mud in the pan every few minutes, that'll buy you another hour easy.

wadea531mo ago

@jason112 That spray bottle trick saved my bacon on a garage job last summer, a whole good day's work gone bad real quick if you let it dry out.