Drywall is becoming a go-to for the homeowners for their cost efficiency, ease of installation, and many other positives. One of the key steps in drywall installation is Drywall Sanding. You can’t think of a home that is made of drywall without properly sanded. The Tooly described it right, “sanding is an integral part of your home building.”

When you don’t know much about drywall installation and repair tasks, you would have thought – why do I need to sand?

In this article, we are explaining why and how you should sand the drywall.

Why Drywall Sanding?

During the installation of the drywall in your house frame, you’ll see contractors using nails and angles on drywall. Since these are necessary for the installation of drywall, you can’t avoid using them.

After using the joining materials like nails, screws, and angles, drywall surfaces become scratched and uneven. So, contractors use drywall joint compound to patch those nail and screw holes. 

Although drywall joint compound hides almost all the impairment of the drywall surface, it comes with another challenge. It becomes hard and uneven when dried. So, for making an even surface to paint, you need to sand the surface with a good drywall sander.

Sander ensures even surface throughout the house despite using different nails, screws, angles, and joint compound on it.

How to Sand Drywall Properly?

If you have an automatic sander that collects dust at its source, it is not hard to sand drywall. You only need is to take proper precautions and execute the work.

1. Taking Precaution

Sanding drywall creates hazardous dust particles that can cause respiratory problems. Therefore, you need to wear a proper respiratory mask, safety goggles before starting with drywall sanding.

After wearing safety gear, you need to protect other rooms of your house from the dust particles. You should shut off every opening of the room so that dust particles remain in the room when you sand allowing you to clean the room fast when the job is done.

2. Start with Corners and Edges

Start working with corners and edges of the room. Starting with the hard-to-reach surfaces will allow you to do the work efficiently. In edges and corners, you will need to use sandpaper and sanding blocks often to make things smooth. Working randomly makes the task hard as you will need to change the sanding tool often interrupting your workflow.

3. Use High-Quality Sander

Try to use an automatic sander with a vacuum, it will extract most of the dust from the surface at the time it is made. So, you will not require a lot of effort to clean the room after work.

If you have a budget limitation or need to do little sanding works, you can get a manual pole sander that comes at a cheap price. But using manual sander makes your task tough as you need to do all the work with your hand and the cleaning process! Therefore, It’s a hectic job when you work with a manual pole sander.

Final Thought

Now that you know why and how you should sand drywall, it would be easier for you to make your drywall installation or repair work more organized.

And an important thing! A lot of people mess up when choosing the right grit for the surface. To get a better idea which grit you need, start with a fine-grit sanding disk and move towards abrasive ones so that you do not end up scratching the surface with the high abrasive grit sanding disks.