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Drywall taping has always been a notoriously messy, imprecise undertaking. In the past, no matter the size of the job, this repair and construction work typically involved buying large quantities of drywall mud (and potentially mixing it up with water using a drill and paddle bit), scooping the thick paste into a pan, and smearing it on the wall with a joint knife. In the process, nearly as much mud ended up caked on your clothing, floor, and tools as it did on the wall! Fortunately, one new tool on the market aims to take do-it-yourself jobs of drywall taping and repairing to a professional level. Discover an ingenious new way to tackle your next drywall project with much success—and less mess and hassle—using the revolutionary MudGun Kit for Small Repairs from Hyde Tools.
The MudGun itself should feel familiar to handy homeowners as it resembles and works similarly to a caulk gun. Squeeze the gun’s trigger, and drywall mud is dispensed from the tip. A controlled speed and precise applicator provide the exact amount of mud you need, right where you want it, plus the multiple nozzles and a finishing head ensure consistent results. No more scooping too much or too little compound from the pan, and no need to smear it swiftly on the wall before it slides off your taping knife. Best of all? No more worrying about any evidence of your drywall repair showing through a paint job.
Waste Less Mud—and Less Time
Before the MudGun, DIYers often whipped up more mud than they needed in order to achieve the right ratio of mix to water or bought larger quantities of premixed mud than actually necessary in order to eliminate running out on the job. Not so with this new mud-dispensing design. Convenient tubes of drywall compound, called MudPaks, are premixed to the perfect consistency for taping and pop right into the cylindrical body of the MudGun before—and even during—any job. As you apply the mud to wall joints, the MudPak collapses in the cylinder. Run out of compound on a job? Simply open the MudGun, remove the spent tube, and pop in a new one without wasting a minute. It’s just that easy! A single MudPak covers up to 20 feet—often all you need for a small wall repair—and is sold in six-tube cases. When the job is done, simply wipe down the MudGun parts with plain water.
Get Professional Results
With the MudGun for Small Repairs, you can do everything professional tapers do—just with a whole lot more accuracy than in a typical DIY job. The two specialized embedding nozzles and a finishing head included in the kit take care of the bulk of the work as you continue to pump the trigger. The flat joint nozzle enables you to dispense a continuous bead of mud over drywall joints when you’re embedding drywall paper tape, and the kit also includes a six-inch taping knife for smoothing out ridges or removing excess mud before it dries. Switch to an inside corner nozzle and a corner taping tool to create crisp corners where walls meet or where a wall meets a ceiling—a task that can be a headache with traditional taping methods. When it comes to applying and smoothing a uniform amount of mud to inside corners, a flat taping knife simply cannot compare with the precision of the MudGun.
Once you’ve put a couple of coats of drywall compound on a joint, waited for it to dry, and sanded it smooth, the true test of a successful taping job lies in the application of a perfect top coat of mud over a joint. Here’s where the MudGun truly excels. Before the MudGun, the top coat had to be applied by hand, which proved difficult for anyone who hadn’t been taping walls for years. Now, the MudGun does all the fine-tuning work for you. Merely by gently squeezing the trigger and moving the finishing head slowly but firmly over the joint, you’ll create a uniform, ultra-thin finish coat. Once completely dry, the smoothed-over wall needs just a little sanding before it takes on a flawless new look with either paint or wallpaper.
Find both the MudGun for Small Repairs ($87.25) and MudPaks ($4.89 for a case of six) at HydeStore.com.
This content has been brought to you by Hyde Tools. Its facts and opinions are those of BobVila.com.