Vent: I was cutting off too much paper on every butt joint for 5 years straight

I had this habit of trimming about 2 inches of paper off each side of every butt joint before taping. Thought it was standard practice to keep things flat. Then last month an old timer at the supply house in Akron asked why I was weakening my own seams, showed me that you only need to trim maybe a half inch if the paper is damaged. Took me one big taping job to see the difference in how smooth the finish came out. Anyone else have someone call them out on a habit they thought was right?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony_wells9d ago

How long till you noticed your joints were actually weaker?

-1

lisa_brown8d ago

anthony_wells you said "how long till you noticed" and that got me thinking. For me it was actually a weird thing. I realized my knees felt creaky maybe six months after I started running hills, but I honestly thought it was just normal getting older stuff. Then I went to lift a heavy box last spring and my wrist just gave out with a pop, no real pain but a weird feeling like it was loose. I never connected it to any specific injury, just figured it was one of those things. So my answer is I noticed it gradually over maybe a year, but it was a random event that made me really pay attention. Take that for what it's worth, everyone's different.