Just found out how much weight a single mud pan holds and it blew my mind

I was cleaning out my truck yesterday and decided to weigh an old 14-inch mud pan full of dried compound. That thing was almost 8 pounds. I do two of those per room plus the tape and corner beads. I did the math - I am hauling around an extra 40 to 50 pounds of mud per job just in the pan alone. No wonder my left arm is bigger than my right after 10 years of this. Anyone else ever weigh their gear and get surprised?

2 comments

2 Comments

nelson.gavin18d ago

Wait, you actually weighed your mud pan? I've been doing this for 12 years and always just grabbed whatever was clean. But now that you mention it, I remember switching from those heavy steel pans to the plastic ones a few years back. Never actually weighed them, but my left shoulder stopped aching as much. I still use a metal mud pan for my corner trowel though, I guess that's another couple pounds right there. It's funny how little stuff adds up over a whole work day.

mary61418d ago

@nelson.gavin nailed it with the plastic pans. But heres something nobody talks about - the actual mud itself. We all know wet mud weighs more than dry, but I started weighing my buckets fresh from the supplier vs after a week. A 5 gallon bucket of all purpose goes from 55 pounds to around 48 once it sits and the water settles out. Now I give my buckets a day to offgas before I load them up. Saves me about 7 pounds per bucket and I carry four of those. Thats 28 pounds less per job just from one small change. Not counting the pans or anything else. Every little bit helps when you're doing this 5-6 days a week.