The guys are taping this week, and they move quick, faster than my cell phone can capture their work in progress. Jiggi is a great taper, and so is his partner JP. Once the board is up the taping begins as shown below:
Jiggi is loading a bucket fastened to his waste with tapes covered in compound. Jiggi needs a lot of tape because he is going to apply the tape to as many joints as possible. Note his stilts, he will be doing the inside ceiling corners first. He even has a garage bag outfit to protect him from the mud that will be dripping everywhere.
Jiggi is applying the tapes to the inside corners in the entire room. His movements show how efficient he works. The entire room is taped in a few minutes. He wont tape anything below his waste, his partner will be doing the lower joints.
JP comes after Jiggi with an angled roller tool. This sharpened wheel compresses the hand taped material into the corner
JP is running the tool. the next step will be to spread the compound because this tool leaves extra compound squeezed into the edges of the tape
In this photo half of the tape is spread and the other half has yet to be spread. you can see the compound is squeezed onto the ceiling and the wall on the left side, right side is clean
this tool is the angle trowel. it is spring loaded to it mimics the shape of the corner, not ever corner is 90 degrees. This is a fairly expensive tool, but you can't really see it when covered with compound.
JP is reloading the tape dispenser. They just finished a full roll.
All of the tapes are now on except the outside corners. These will be done next. Then the joints get a first coat with the trowel.
The tools make all the difference here. These tapes can be applied by hand and smoothed with a trowel, but in particular the outside corners do not go on as tight, and the inside corners will not be as straight. If the taping crew does not have these tools you are unlikely to get a good product, I would not hire anyone without the tools. The speed is another factor, it is not just great work it is fast too. With the pace of the tapes being applied, they can get to the coating stage, this needs more time to dry because the compound goes on over a larger area. None of this work can be done without heat, this is why we were in such a rush to get electricity and gas connected throughout. Anything that takes days off the job is a bonus right now as it gives me the time I need to get the finishing contracts finalized.