Applying jointing compound to plasterboard

Garage before

Wide gaps in the plasterboard

This is what our garage looked like when we bought our house. I think the original owner did a DIY job with the plasterboard because there were some pretty big gaps. At some stage someone has added plaster to a couple of the nail heads, and then left it at that. We wanted a clean white garage, so the first step was to fill in those joints so we could get an even finish for painting.

Filling the joints is fairly straight forward and the materials are inexpensive. I bought a 4kg tub of GIB Plus4 for $24. This is ready-mixed jointing compound, so there was no need to mess around mixing water and plaster. I used a 275mm (11") plastering trowel (this cost $14) and bought a 25m roll of GIB papertape for about $9. Jointing tape contains tiny perforated holes that allow the air to escape as its drying.



Before

Jointing compound applied
 

Using the trowel, I applied a layer of the jointing compound to the joint.

I then took my piece of jointing tape (I'd already measured and cut a piece off that was the right length for the joint) and pressed this over the plastered joint, using my finger to smooth it on so there were no trapped air bubbles.






With jointing tape applied

After applying the tape, I smoothed another layer of jointing compound over the tape. To finish off, I smoothed away any excess on the far edges. Once it has dried the plaster will need a light sanding to blend out any plaster lines before painting. Its easier to remove any excess and blobs of plaster now rather than wasting time sanding them down after it has dried.

I also applied a little compound to some of the nail heads, but since its only the garage, I only fixed up the worst of them.




The last photo shows the dried plaster all ready for sanding. My plastering won't win any beauty contests, but neither will this garage given the rough plasterboard job and all the nail holes in the walls. After sanding and painting the garage we were really happy with final look. I'll post photos of that later on.