Month: February 2016

When you’re plastering a room or putting up drywall, one of the hardest and most frustrating bits to get done can be the corners – especially the hard to reach ones.

And typically, it’s the first bit of plastering in a room that needs to be right, in order for it to look like a good job. Smooth, sharp inside and outside corners can make the whole wall look good, so it’s important to do it well and this is where a corner trowel can be worth its weight in gold.

Some specific benefits include the time saved in getting your corner right first time. It can also mean you have to go over the same spot fewer times and when hard to reach corners are involved there’s less chance of you having a sore arm at the end.

This handheld device fits perfectly into the corners of the room, making it the ideal tool to enable flatter, smoother surfaces in the end.

While most corners will be 90 degrees, the trowel can also come as an adjustable tool or in a variety of sizes to ensure it fits whichever angle you’re going for. Many also have a soft grip handle to go easy on your hands and the blade can be made of stainless steel and rust-resistant to ensure long-lasting use.

Finish the job faster!

Plasterers have been in discussion for years about the need for a corner trowel when finishing your corners, but one thing remains for sure. If used properly, with the correct amount of pressure applied, a corner trowel will help you finish the job faster, leaving better results in the end. It’ll also leave you with fewer aches and pains afterwards because it’s less of a struggle to get the corners right.

What they allow you to do

A corner trowel is useful if you’re taping a corner joint when putting up drywall too. After you’ve used the drywall knife to apply the mud to your corners, all you need to do is measure a piece of drywall tape that’s the length of the wall and fold it in half.

Apply the drywall tape fold to the corner and press it tightly to the wall, squeezing out any excess mud. Making sure you squeeze out the excess mud will reduce the bubbles and help the compound to dry faster.

With moderate pressure you just run the trowel down the corner, from top to bottom, flattening the tape and removing any excess mud as you go. You can then smooth a layer of mud over the top using the trowel again.

Buy online today!

We have a huge range of plastering tools available online, which include some of the best when it comes to trowels. Check out these ones from the popular brands Marshalltown and RST.

When it comes to buying your plastering tools, we have done all the hard work for you by scouring the globe to find the best there are at the best prices, so take a look through our products, find the one that’s perfect for you and buy your corner trowel online today.

You might be under the impression that a hammer is pretty straightforward, that it’s a weighty tool used for breaking things or ramming nails into walls. But, when it comes to plastering or drywall jobs, it’s important to know what’s the difference between a drywall and normal hammer, as there are actually some pretty significant contrasts and uses for the two.

A drywall hammer, like its name, is specially used for putting up or taking down drywall. As opposed to a standard hammer, it often comes with a serrated front face, which makes it more suitable for connecting with the nails and driving them properly into place.

It also has a hatchet shaped back part for making rough cuttings in the drywall if you’re looking to make space for things such as outlets.  This is why the drywall hammer is sometimes referred to as the drywall axe. The hatchet part can also be used for pulling nails out if they aren’t positioned correctly, ready for them to be hammered back in the right way.

Unlike the normal hammer the drywall hammer often comes with a square head. And it sometimes has magnetic qualities to keep the nails in place, can come in different weights and reduce the effects of recoil shock. In fact it differs quite considerably from a standard hammer in look, feel and design altogether.

This isn’t to say that a normal hammer isn’t useful in plastering, it’s just that the standard hammer is used for things other than drywall, such as for careful removal of old plaster from brickwork in the preparation part at the beginning.

When should you use a drywall hammer?

The drywall hammer is specially designed to drive nails through drywall into the wall behind it, leaving a depression in the drywall panel where the head of the nail lies beneath the surface. This way, when plastering your drywall, it’s easier to cover up the parts where the nails are hammered in with plaster and give yourself a more flawless finish at the end.

It’s a tool designed specifically for use when dealing with drywall and will get the best results, so it’s well worth noting when you should use a drywall hammer and the difference between the time when a normal hammer will do the job just as well.

We stock drywall hammers 

At Gypsumtools we stock drywall hammers that are perfect in helping you get the job done, whether you’re putting up drywall or taking it down. But if you need a hammer for something other than drywall, then maybe you should check out our easy to use magnetic nail hammer, which will grip the nails tightly and get you into tight places with minimum hassle.

It’s important to know the difference when it comes to using the right tools in plastering. So, if you’re confused by which is the best for the job, feel free to drop in or give us a call for more information. We’re always pleased to help.