Tried using a drywall sander on my ceiling instead of hand sanding after a patch job

I had this ceiling patch in my hallway in Winnipeg that I've been putting off for like 6 months. Bought one of those pole drywall sanders from Home Depot for $35 thinking it would make the job go faster. Man was I wrong. The dust went everywhere even with a bag on it, and I couldn't feel how smooth the mud was so I ended up with gouges in two spots. Finally gave up and did the rest by hand with a 120 grit sponge in about 20 minutes. The hand sanding let me feel every little bump and the finish came out way better. Never again with that pole sander for small ceiling patches. Anyone else find certain tools just aren't worth the hassle for small jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

william4071d ago

Took me an hour to clean that fine dust off everything in my garage after trying the same thing. The stuff gets into every crack, I was still finding it in my toolbox a week later. Gouged my ceiling too, had to re-mud and start over with a sponge. Learned the hard way that hand sanding is faster when you can actually feel the seam.

thomas_johnson1d ago

Dude, those $35 pole sanders are a total trap for small patches. I made the same mistake on a ceiling repair in my bathroom here in Calgary, and the dust cloud was insane, I had to vacuum my entire living room twice. The gouges you mentioned hit home, mine looked like I attacked the ceiling with a garden rake. So here's my question: after you re-mudded those gouged spots and went back with the 120 grit sponge, did you find you had to feather the new mud way wider than the original patch to hide the repair? I had to spread mine like a foot past the gouges to get it flush.