On Jan 14, 5:55*pm, jim wrote:
Son - in - law (ex to be) decided to do this old guy a favor and
drywall the cottage mud room. Left the plastering / mud to be. Only
problem is that in several joins he did NOT butt the tapered edges
together. Thus there is no "groove" in which to fill with mud and
feather out for the smooth finish. Any way to remediate this other
than rip it out?

Yes, there is. It's messy, but effective. Simply use a small angle
grinder and cut your own groove. Some screws/nails may have to be set
in different locations, obviously. Downside is the dust, so a good
shop vac is essential, and curtaining off the area. But you would do
some of that anyway for the joint work. It helps a ton to use a
Magnasand with the shop vac for dust control, and the screen sander
that comes with it makes the job really fly. Put a squirt of Pam non-
stick spray in the Magnasand trap to keep the foaming under control.
For a small room like yours the joint prep shouldn't take over 45
minutes or so. The final mud and sand will then be pretty quick
because you won't have to feather out a foot or so on each side.
The alternative is to just slop on the mud, feather out a bunch, sand,
mud, sand, etc. Or total rip out, as you noted. Your call, and good
luck.

Joe