Tape your walls yourself to save $100. This article will show you how. This article will show you how to create smooth walls without worrying about cracks, nail pops, or bad joints. This article is a beginner-friendly DIY approach so that even if your knowledge of drywall tools is limited, you can still achieve great results with your walls.

We will show you how each coat of joint compound looks.

Taping drywall can be frustrating and heart-wrenching. These nagging flaws can show up as soon as you paint or even several months later. Walls will be plagued by nail pops, corner-bead cracks, and bad joints for a lifetime.

We have created a beginner-friendly guide to help you get good results when taping. We have simplified the professional techniques to make them easy to understand and provided the basic tools and materials needed for smooth walls that are ready for painting.

Taping walls yourself, even for small jobs, can help you save hundreds of dollars. You need to use the right tools and materials, so you should follow a systematic approach. Taping can drive you crazy if you don't.

We will show you how to avoid making the rookie mistake of putting drywall mud on top and then expecting a huge (and dirty) sanding job at the end to correct mistakes.

These Drywall Mud Tools can be rented or bought.

There are a lot of different gimmicky tools for taping at home centers. Most of these tools are unnecessary and can be used to do a poor job. We recommend the following. The job can be made faster and easier with clinchers and banjos. For large rooms with many corners, they are a must-have. For small jobs, you can skip the banjo. If you have only a few corner beads, nail them by hand.

1. Flexible putty knife measuring four inches for small filling tasks and applying second- or third-coat mud at angles (inside corners).

2. Flexible putty knife six inches in length for filling larger jobs, embedding tape, or filling fastener holes.

3. "Potato mashing" mixer to quickly and thoroughly mix a bucket of mud.

4. Mud pan to make it easy to disperse corner mud, fastening holes, and patching.

5. A clincher quickly crimps corner beads in the right place so they can be held for nailing.

6. A 12-inch trowel is more efficient and less cumbersome than standard wide taping knives for applying mud to corners and joints.

7. A banjo is necessary for any taping job except the smallest. It allows you to apply mud-saturated tape directly onto the drywall joints.