My uncle the painter told me drywall mud is just fancy peanut butter

I was bitching to my uncle about how this one batch of joint compound kept bubbling on me, and he just laughed and said I was overthinking it like a chef making aioli. He said just mix it like you're making a PB&J, smooth and even, and stop treating it like rocket science. Has anyone else had some old timer drop a stupid simple analogy that actually fixed your whole approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.robin8d ago

Man that's pretty funny but does it actually work? I always treated joint compound like some delicate thing that needed to be perfect but my grandpa said something similar about it being "fancy spackle" and I thought he was nuts at first. He was right though once I stopped trying to be so precise and just mixed it like I was making thick frosting everything went way smoother. The bubbling thing is usually from overworking it if you ask me or maybe the mud is too thin. I used to get so frustrated with that problem until I watched him just slap some on quick and leave it alone.

riverowens8d ago

Oh I definitely relate @kelly.robin, my first mud job looked like I was frosting a cake with a blindfold on.