If you use mesh tape, setting compound (“Quick Set”) is the best drywall mud – actually, the only mud – to use. If you use paper tape and need lots of time to work, or you anticipate needing to do plenty of sanding (like beginners), pre-mixed mud is your best drywall mud.
Drywall mud, also called joint compound, is a gypsum-based paste used to finish drywall joints and corners in new drywall installations. It's also handy for repairing cracks and holes in existing drywall and plaster surfaces.
Taping compound is tougher and hardens faster than most other types of compound. Taping compound is also preferred when fixing cracks in plaster.
Sheetrock® Brand Plus 3™ Lightweight All-Purpose Joint Compound weighs about 25% less than Sheetrock® Brand All-Purpose Joint Compound. It is also easier to sand and shrinks less.
Sheetrock® Brand Plus 3® Joint Compound, offers all the benefits of conventional-weight compound but results in less shrinkage and is easy to sand. Use Sheetrock® Brand Plus 3® Joint Compound for embedding paper joint tape and finishing gypsum panel joints or simple hand-applied texturing.
DAP Elastopatch Smooth Flexible Patching Compound is a high performance elastomeric spackling compound that eliminates reoccurring cracks by providing a permanently flexible fill. Excellent for use on smooth surfaces including masonry, brick, plaster, drywall or any surface requiring a permanently flexible seal.
Spackle is preferred because it dries much faster than joint compound. Using spackle, you can sand and paint within an hour after applying.
USG 20 Minute Easy Sand Joint Compound
Lightweight USG 20 Minute Easy Sand is easy to handle, has low shrinkage, and has superior bond properties. Great for small patching and laminating drywall. It's recommended to use mesh tape on joints where quick-setting compound is used.
Best Mud in the Joint® Lite All-Purpose Joint Compound. All-purpose joint compound is suitable for taping and finishing of wallboard joints, corner trims, and fasteners. It provides good workability and low shrinkage for the second and finish coat.
Hot mud is best for experienced drywallers. Timed drywall mud – a type of mud that dries in five minutes, fifteen minutes, or longer. Timed mud allows you to control how fast the process goes. Sanding mud – a drywall mud that hardens fast and smoothly, used for finishing work and spackling.
Quick set drywall mud is great for small patch jobs where you don't want to wait 24 hours before applying a second coat. Hot mud is also used on large drywall jobs for bedding-in mesh drywall tape. This allows the pros to tape and first coat seams all within the first day on a job.
Lightweight “all-purpose” drywall compound and “easy-sand” 45-minute setting drywall compound are the two items novices should load into their carts. You'll find uses for all that other stuff as your projects get bigger— and you get faster and better.
Spackle is made for small repair jobs. It's thicker than joint compound and harder to spread. Because it has a binding agent mixed in with the gypsum powder, it is more elastic and less likely to crack or shrink when dried. Spackle is a little more expensive than joint compound.
Joint compound is the better choice for taping and finishing drywall seams whereas spackle is the better choice for filling in small to large sized holes in your walls. Now, that doesn't mean you can't fill holes with a quality joint compound, but joint compound typically dries much slower than spackle.
Sheetrock® Brand Durabond® Setting-Type Joint Compounds and Sheetrock® Brand Easy Sand™ Lightweight Setting-Type Joint Compounds are the best products to use for repairing cracks. If you want to use a ready-mixed joint compound, Sheetrock® Brand All Purpose Joint Compound works well.
One of the main reasons is that the coat of drywall mud was applied too thickly. Another reason for cracking could be due to the type of drywall mud that was used. For example, premixed drywall mud dries through evaporation. This can result in shrinkage cracks that form as the mud dries.
Sheetrock® Brand Easy Sand™ 20 Joint Compound can be used for a variety of applications including: filling, smoothing and finishing interior concrete ceilings and above-grade concrete, taping and finishing panels in bathroom areas and finishing joints in protected exterior soffits.
Drywall tape shows through the mud
Use three layers: tape coat, filler coat, and final coat. The tape actually should show through the filler coat. If it doesn't, your filler coat is too thick. Covering the tape comes only with the final coat or coats.
It's suitable for taping and finishing of wallboard joints, corners, trims, and fasteners. It can even be used for skim coating and simple texturing. Plus, it provides good workability and low shrinkage for the 2nd and finish coat.