On Feb 10, 5:03*pm, Eric in North TX wrote:
On Feb 10, 5:52*pm, RicodJour wrote:





On Feb 10, 5:34*pm, Eric in North TX wrote:

On Feb 10, 4:10*pm, Phisherman wrote:

On Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:00:52 -0500, blueman wrote:
Looking for thinnest possible drywall tape for repairing cracks in old
plaster walls...

I would like to keep the feathering as narrow as possible since I am
just doing repairs -- and I find the standard paper and mesh tapes to
require a fair bit of build-up to cover the tape and then feather it.

So what do you all recommend based on experience?

Also which do you find allows for thinner/narrower coverage and
feathering? paper or fiberglass mesh?

I am not aware of various thicknesses in drywall tape. *I recommend
the mesh tape--it makes the job easy and stays intact much better than
the paper tape.

I'm indifferent to mesh tape, until there is a reason to go back into
a section repaired with it, then I curse it to high heaven. With the
paper tape you can make clean cuts and leave the old repair mostly
intact. With the mesh it invariably tears and falls apart, making a
small job huge. I only use paper tape.

What's the big deal about cutting the fiberglass tape with a razor
knife? *Cut first, pull mesh tape after. *If you're not using a sharp
blade, or not going deep enough to cut all the way through the mesh,
that's not a problem with the mesh.

R

I normally use a new blade, & it doesn't matter, it wouldn't matter if
you used a saw, unless it was a circular saw. That is just one of
those things that seems like it ought to work but, doesn't. Still I
don't care what others do, so long as I don't have to follow them. BTW
the advise others gave on the paintable chalk, is a +1 that is the
easiest and the best.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I also won't use mesh tape on a flat surface. It is thicker than the
paper and the texture is almost impossible to do a smooth finish
without a lot of buildup...but then I haven't done any in 20 years so
there may have been improvements.

Harry K