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Hi friends! I’m just wondering if anybody has come across any products that they absolutely love for filling staple holes and seams. Our shop builds for many off-site theatres so we are constantly transporting scenery and faced with cracking the Joint compound during transportation as well as the inevitable shrinkage that often requires a second application of joint compound. I’m hoping to find something to speed up the process especially when we are trying to crank out a lot of scenery in a small time frame. The products that I have used:
Bondo – Dries fast unlikely to crack, great for filling large holes. Disadvantage. Stinks and is expensive
Durams Rock Hard. Advantage cheap. Disadvantage cracks cracks cracks
Joint compound – Cheap effective easy to aquire Disadvantage: Shrinkage and takes forever to dry in the cold I.E. Shop in the winter
I have thought about adding some glue into the JC to reduce cracks and shrinkage but havent tried it.
Any thought?
-Fitch
Hi ! Joint filling is frustrating- and is very different depending on where you are geographically….one successful recipe I’ve used from East Coast to the Rocky Mountians and in California is a drywall powdered mud with white glue, a dash of water and a double dash of acrylic paint….cheap and doesn’t ever crack. You’ll need to experiment with the recipe as I have altered it depending on where I’m working and what the conditions are. The ingredients are cohesive and inexpensive. Cold, hot, humid, dry, flexible or stiff…I’ve just had to wobble the ingredients. Maybe this will help?
You’re looking for the magic bullet. As far as I know, it isn’t out there. We run into the same issues all the time with the same results. We often just use a “fluffy” type of filler in staple holes. It expands as it dries and can be sanded down quickly and easily. As for the seams….. bondo is our go to until a better product rocks our world.
Kdfdesign: That is sort of the thought I was having was some sort of concoction but I haven’t had much time to experiment. I also have to pitch it t o the powers at be and explain cost of materials vs cost of labor. Joint compound is cheap. Glue, Paint, not as much. I will look around for a powdered mud next time im roaming the hardware store. Evan: Fluffy type? And it expands instead of shrink? Can you be specific like brand or material? I am intrigued.
We ship all our scenery out on trucks, and bondo is our go to. I haven’t found anything off the shelf that works as well. We use Sherwin-Williams Shrink Free Spackling We buy it by the gallon and divvy it out into smaller containers to use. Definitely one of my favorites to use. We can fill staple holes, let dry, and give a quick sand with 220 grit and be ready to go. That is on narrow crown staples. If you get into wide crown or screw holes, then you’ll be looking at over filling and letting it dry or doing 2 or more skim layers.
When it comes to seams, we ask the carpenters to put a
smallbeveled edge on the two pieces joining together. This allows it to sink in and create a bit of a “build”.
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