Would anyone be able to advise on a small technical matter regarding drywall?

Should drywall compound be wrapped around the brim of a cornerbead? Or, can the brim be left exposed (and then primed and painted over)? The brim itself does not protrude from the surface, so there is no aesthetic issue per se.

Have not done this before and my Internet searches are not very conclusive on this question.

Many thanks!

Hey Brian,

It most certainly should wrap around. If you don't wrap it, you risk expansion/contraction issues and the eventual chipping away of the compound at the corners. Wrapping it around and subsequently painting over it creates a stretchy barrier that protects it.

Hope this helps,
J

Joey,

Thanks for the advice. Covering the corner edge of the bead will require a new application of compound -- ruining the smooth surface I have now -- but it seems necessary. Should have done more research in advance.

Cheers,
Brian

How hard is it to clean up a somewhat sloppy drywalling job? I have one small wall in my place by a handyman that had a crappy mudding job over the seam between two sheets of drywall. It's not cracking or anything, but I can easily see the sloppy job. Is this something I could just compound over, sand, and repaint?

The Conserv refrigerator I ordered arrived yesterday, but it was so heavily damaged that I refused delivery. The delivery company is telling me to call Equator - I hope they don't start pointing fingers at each other with me stuck in the middle. It was pretty disappointing.... had spot all cleared out for the big new toy.

Hey Joey and Brian, sorry about this but I disagree.

The point of the corner bead, apart from giving a straight edge, is that the metal corner is more resistant to breakage than joint compound is. Thus you have the "flanged" area of the corner bead creating a trough (sp?) to fill with joint compound which will be feathered away from the cornrer and the beading itself which stands proud so that it does act as the bumper and as a guide for your knife as you get the compound flush.

As for your problem Max:
This is a long shot but has the area been painted over? If not then you can get a damp sponge to re-wet the joint compound and smooth is down and out. A wet sponge does not get you the smooth finish that sanding does but it will smooth out the larger imperfections.

If it has been painted over then sanding is going to be hard unless you have a power sander. No wall that has not been skim coated is truely flat (and it sounds like yours is not skim coated) so you can go ahead and apply more joint compound and feather with a large knife. Then sand and repaint.

I agree with jamie pup's point insofar that the bead acts as a guide and edge for the knife when you are applying compound. But I think Brian's question refers to how well it will stand up when there is only paint over it (as opposed to paint over a base of joint compound)?

Has anyone every bought anything from the North Carolina furniture places, e.g. www.clubfurniture.com or have any comments about the quality? I need a slipcovered sofa to take naps on with my dog, and it's been hard to find something because my absolute max is 84 inches.

I understood it as should the metal actually stick out, which would still be a hard no, and the joint compound should be run directly up against it. Also, there are two types of corner bead, one where a rounded metal bump sticks out and one where it's just a folded piece of sheet metal. In the case of the latter, the joint compound should cover the whole band, in the former, the very end of the metal can be exposed, but it's always better to skim it and have the compound solid, even if it's a thin layer.

Thanks Jaime Pup. The wall is older work, and was not skimcoated (just tapped and mudded over the joints) so I think the best route to go is compound over the paint and then sand and repaint.

When my fantastic contractors were doing the work in my place (and I should have had them fix that old wall I mentioned) they did the following:

Skimcoated over the whole wall in multiple passes and then sanded. When they coated they went right up to the bead on the edge of the wall and covered it slightly. When they were done sanding you could see a tiny strip of metal right on the edges of the wall.

Sophia--the short answer is "no" I have never ordered from a NC furniture place. But, when I was working in SC, I stopped in a place called "sofa superstore" outside of Charleston. Just from sitting in a few, they seemed to be the same quality as more expensive stuff. Granted, I didn't rip them apart or anything. The salesperson I was talking to was really nice, and I was impressed enough with the merchandise and prices to ask if they shipped countrywide and they do--and it's tax free if it's going outside of SC. So, it may be worth a try. I ended up not buying one there because I found something elsewhere. The website looks a bit hokey, so don't let that detract. The salesperson had offered to go over sizes, etc on the phone if I wanted to.

http://www.sofasuperstore.com/

Brian -
The few times I'm done this, and the several times I've seen it at this stage, it seems that the very corner-most part that I think you're talking about tends to get the "mud" right up to it, and sanded flush with it, but not quite OVER the actual corner of it, because it would probably be vulnerable to chipping off of the metal right there at the very corner.

Trish,
That really sucks about the fridge. My building has a doorman, who accepts most deliveries when we're not in. It's a big fear of mine that the doorman accepts a package that is damaged, and then we're stuck with it.

Jamie Pup, Joey, Curtis, Alexis --

The corner bead in question is the kind with the raised "brim" at its corner edge (not the wrap around type -- thanks for clarifying this distinction, Joey). The compound spreads outward from this corner brim but does not cover it.

Appreciate your attention to my question!

http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=35613

Microfiber Number 3 on the sofa site looks pretty much exactly like my JCP micro loveseat, right down to the cowhorn style legs. (It was about $450 with delivery and taxes). I'm happy with it and have a micro SureFit slipcover on top that exactly matches.

Brian:

I'm an architect and Joey's right. The drywall mud should completely cover, and be feathered out past, the metal corner cover.

I want to wallpaper a single wall in my apartment, do any of you have recommendations for a person/company that does this in the brooklyn/park slope area? any estimates on expected cost?

I just re-read what I said and realize that saying the bead stands proud is misleading. I really meant what Max and Curtis said in that the whole look is flush (not proud) but the very edge of the corner should have the metal as the primary layer in that you may get joint compound over it but it will be so thin that the metal edge is still what is hit and bumped so still acts as a protector for the corner.

Daily nuance, no offense and disrespect but contractors and architects do sometimes disagree on best use of materials and ways to install. The stone guys thought the choice of stone for the kitchen by the interior architects was the worst possible choice based on their experience of installing, sealing and dealing with complaints afterwards.

Paint over joint compound - the situation you get if you mud over completely and this is something I have done in the past - is not sufficient protection for corners. I have learnt from my mistake.

Danae, I second that emotion - I want to do the exact same thing in my apartment, although I'm on the UWS.

I have two leads that are of the super-of-a-friend-of-a-friend ilk and if I find anything out will let you know, but in the meantime anyone who has a more reputable resource, they could get at least two jobs this way!

On a related front, just wanted to give a shout-out to Sanderson, sandersonfabrics.co.uk; I ordered Cole & Sons wallpaper that's only officially available through decorators here on their website and only paid list price in the UK INCLUDING shipping. The wallpaper came within less than two weeks and is in perfect shape - I was so relieved. They have William Morris, Liberty and all the other British biggies on their site. . .

I just read the thread on Pet Month and thought I'd post this here since that thread is about to disappear into "more".

I need to find a loving home for a neighbor's cat and would like to know if anyone here could give her the home she deserves. Please contact me if you want to know more. addg1@verizon.net

Sorry - now back to our normally schedule programming.

k-

Yes it was a letdown but I'm hoping Equator will send a replacement pronto. Waiting to hear back from them.

We are in the process of furnishing our first home. We want to invest in good "protein" furniture that would last us for years, but we are a little confused as to what that is exactly. I have always thought that good expensive furniture should be made of solid wood, however, almost every other salesperson tells me these days it is simly not true, and even if the piece is made of wood it is usually veneered on top. Even the most expensive furniture I've seen (barbara barry, etc.) is veneered. I'm very vary of veneers. Should I be? Can anyone suggest any good furniture makers that produce solid wood furniture with no veneers? Thanks, Olya

i agree that a major component of 'protein' furniture is that it should be solid wood. that said, 'veneer' doesn't necessarily mean it's not solid wood. neither does ply.

firstly, any veneer that is a laminate, formica, foil, or other non-wood veneer should probably be a dealbreaker.

in wood veneered furniture, you're looking for solid construction and quality. it's pretty easy to tell the difference, on sight, between the flimsy MDF crap sold at Target and some of the nicer wood veneered pieces from places like West Elm and Crate & Barrel, which offer perfectly acceptable 'protein' pieces.

to me, while quality is obviously important, a major criterion for 'protein' status is timelessness. if you're going to blow a few thousand dollars on a piece of beautifully crafted furniture, you want it to be something that isn't going to look dated in 5 or 10 years. when you shop for furniture, think: is this something i'm going to be embarrassed to have in my home 15 years from now?

this isn't to say that fun, current, and trendy pieces have no place in your home -- i just don't think it's particularly honest to blow $5000 on a beautiful solid hardwood platform bed, call it 'a good investment' and then get rid of it in 5-10 years when platform beds go out of style. that's not 'investment', that's spending a lot of money on something because you can and you want to. which is fine, but shouldn't be confused with 'protein' or 'classic' purchases.

Hey op, I agree with nearly everything that you said about veenered furniture not being something to avoid and what to buy, except with what you said about MDF.

I think you mean particle board which is very different and is what the Targets of the world use. Particle board is the stuff that breaks apart easily due to the larger chips used to make it whereas MDF is made from very fine, fibrous material and is very strong, dense, smooth, lends itself to very smooth finishing work etc and is a great base for a wood veneer. Downside is that it is very heavy and the copious amounts of very fine dust that it produces when you cut it.

More here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/open-threads/open-thread-111-005695

BTW, I was perusing the Ligne Rosset catalog last night and was struck by how much I liked most of what I saw and how little that stuff seems to get mentioned here. Anyway, they talked about the Maly platform bed which was first introdiced in 1983 and how it was a classic today and may even be more popular now than ever before. I do recall seeing it in ads recently and in some pics of homes. It does look like it has stood the test of time.

Hello all,
We're installing a big, glass pendant light in the living room to hang over the coffee table, but after getting it home we realised that the ceiling box is in the wrong place by about 12". The way our celings are, it is absolutely impossible for us to move the box. Suggestions?

Olya,

re: solid woods vs. veneers . The advantage to using veneers over MDF is that you have a stable base that does not expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. That allows for larger panels to be used in table tops, armoires...without having to use more costly construction techniques to accomadate that expansion and contraction. There is a loss of that intrinsic appeal that "solid wood" has. But even in solid wood , if that expansion and contarction is not taken into account, structural problems can occur. Read the posts re:de la espada. As for reccommendations for solid wood , take a look at Pompanoosuc Mills, Scott jordan Furniture and Thos. Moser.

greetings

thanks to so many of you and your valuable advice and recommendations, i am leap years ahead of where i was before i "met" you. i finally closed on the soho apt on monday and have been interviewing 2-3 contractors/night since. the vast majority of conractors i have interviewed or am scheduled to meet with were from this site's list of recommendations. however, it seems that i will most likely use a non-apartmenttherapy contractor by the name of cuthbert from C&C contracting, whose number i got off the side of a van i saw parked on prince street every day. are any of you familiar with C&C?

cuthbert has done a number of similarly sized small studios/efficiencies in the neighborhood and was able to show me his work, which i was generally impressed by. best part is that he is available starting next week as he is wrapping up one project right now. i will take before pics to share so that you can see the progress.

my buyer's googles (much like beer goggles) fell off after the closing and i see that the floors, some drywall and the ceiling need to be re-done; so my dreams of a new kitchen and bathroom ahve taken a back seat to what i view as the absolutely necessary rennovations for a healthy and happy new home. now i just have my fingers crossed for palatable estimates...

so here are some questions for the thread:

1) i wasn't too excited by the 4 standard choices of new finished flooring (all oak i believe) i have been shown ranging from light to dark (dark being the cheapest). i am exploring the option of installing unfinished oak that can be sanded and then painted to a custom color...any thoughts or recommendations? keeping in mind that i am on a tight-ish budget?

2)my current ceiling is pine (looking and feeling like a sauna)...only the previous owner thought he would rip out the pine boards to half of the apartment to expose the beams for a more lodgey feel (only he didnt' finish and the exposed beams do not look so nice)...so i am faced with the option of finishing the second half of the ceiling by replacing pine or sheetrocking the entire ceiling (thus, losing a few inches of height)...as i am on the top floor, the ceiling follows the slant of the roof (8' high at one end, and neaerly 9' high at the other)....the contractors have consistently told me that if we sheet rock the ceiling, then i would have a uniform height of probably a few inches less than 8'.....i'm not sure i want to lose that height....any recommendations? should i follow my gut and see if they can find a pine to match the 30+ year old pine that is in the other half of the studio?

3) after much consideration, and back and forth, i have decided to paint the open brick wall white. the bricks vary too much in color/age, and there are some parts of the wall that are painted white already, etc....any recommendations on how to proceed with painting the brick or should i leave it to the professionals? depending on the estimate, i might be DIY-ing some of this even though i have never DIY-ed before. i figure i could at least DIY the painting of the brick and walls...although i would like to leave all of this to the professionals.

4) any opinions on home depot's rennovating/flooring/kitchen services? a co-worker recommended going through home depot for all my rennovations and was wondering why this site seems so mum about HD....should i not even bother calling them?

i will ideally use one contractor for everything...unless i am convinced that it will save me money to use different individuals for different services...

so sorry for the long post and all of the selfish questions...any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

i am excited to share this rennovation journey (nightmare, dream come true) with all of you...

Laura,

Move the coffee table twelve inches.

Hi Laura,

What about mounting something 1/2" from ceiling, a nice piece of finished wood or something, and running the pendant cord through it. Center the panel where you want the light, and make sure it covers where the box is. Click my name for a pic

Laura,

Since it's a pendant, you could put a hook in the ceiling in the proper place and keep the cord running to the electrical box. Or move the coffee table.

Hi Laura, you did not actually say what way your ceilings are. Are they concrete? Are they sheetrocked?

Either way, without using Joey's suggestion (which is a great idea btw with a very cool rendering), if you do move the box, you will need to place a visible blanking plate over the old box (which you won't actually be able to move according to nyc code - unless you get new bx cabling to avoid the join) which will contain the join to the new box.

I think you should either go Joey's way or hang the light where you want it by hanging part of the chain or cord from a hook at the place you need it. You will get a loop of cord/chain hanging from the existing box to the hook but this look seems to work in some places.

Re: Solid wood furniture.

A company I highly recommend is Baronet.ca
Some of their stuff is sold at Crate and Barrel, Storehouse and the like. We have some bedroom furniture from them, solid maple with maple veneers and dining room furniture, solid oak. It looks great almost 3 years on and their prices aren't horrible. Good luck!

BK, I'm excited for you too!

I can partially help with 1,2, and 4.

1. Going for unfinished hardwood gives you a cleaner smoother look but it is more messy and will take more time to install and finish. I like the look of very dark floors but they tend to show scratches and dust much more than the lighter ones. If you envisage the floor getting a pounding then I would recommend a lighter oak finish with shiny poly which really helps hide scratches. I posted comparison pics and talked about difference here once:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-which-color-wood-floor-should-i-choose-005784

2. I would take out all the pine and box the beams with sheet rock. You will then get the height and a more interesting look with differing height planes. I tried to do a quick search for a picture and though this is very expensive, was the quickest pic I could find:
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=185339
Look at the pciture of the bedroom. Those beams are shallower than I envisage but it gives you an idea of how sheetrocked beams look.
Also you should sheetrock the ceiling to smooth it out between the beams.

4. HD contracting services are not recommended by a lot of ppl here. If you find a good contractor then stick with them.

jamie pup - thanks for your input. i suspected as much about HD. in any event, i don't really like what they have to offer/show anyway...i was only going to consider them if they were monumentally more affordable than using a private contractor.

i am 95% sure i will go with unfinished oak so that i can have the custom color that i want. i am deciding between two polar opposites: either a deep, dark brown/black (ebony as it was referred ot in the link you sent to me)- or - white (mainly bc the space is small and the brick will be white, thus creating a nice cool white backdrop for me to decorate; also a recent domino and west elm catalog showed stunning wood floors, painted white).....i would love a vote on the ebony v. white floor choice....

either way, whether ebony or white, the pine ceiling would pose a problem...i suppose i will ask for an estimate for sheetrocking as well. as i technically only have 3 weeks to complete floor/sheetrock/ceiling before i move in, i was leaning towards completing the ceiling in pine as i thought it would be the least time and $ consuming....but, now i am certainly considering sheetrocking. maybe i will look into painting the pine ceiling panels white as well....

some of you may be horrified by the idea of white floor, white brick wall and white ceiling, but considering the space is so small, i may do it. i have a lot of artwork and lamps with colorful bases and intend to buy a rug with strong colors....so perhaps the white-washed apt will work.

ideally, i will have white ceiling, whether it be pine or sheetrock, white brick wall, ebony floors and a nice rich color for the one non-brick wall....

thanks again.

eeeck,

Thanks alot for the recommendation, I am definitely considering cole and son paper but the cost and difficulty of sourcing it was getting on my nerves. Otherwise I am considering the Dauphine patter from Flavor Paper. If you do find a good source for wall paper installation let me know: danaethegreat(at)gmail(dot)com

if you choose a white floor, you may be able to paint it yourself -- i've seen a lot of DIY floor painting projects, and i've even known people to paint cement floors themselves -- as long as you do your homework, get the proper supplies, and remember to go TOWARDS the door, it should't be all that difficult. especially if you will have the opportunity to do it before you move in and thus don't have to deal with the drama of where to put your furniture.

also, while i'm here, jamiepup, i didn't necessarily mean that all platform beds are inherently non-classic junk trendoid furniture. i just threw it out there as an example of something that is currently extremely hot, but will probably be subject to changing tastes in the coming years. it just occasionally bugs me when people equate protein furniture with expensive furniture, regardless of the realities of the piece.

danae -

if you know the style # of the cole & son paper you are interested in, i would definitely check with EADES wallpaper (google them) - they are out of upstate new york and had everything in stock that i was interested in when i was looking....they sent me samples quickly and for a nominal fee, etc.

No problem, Danae - I am always happy to help a good source prosper! If you have to buy without getting a sample first I would also suggest wallpaperdirect.co.uk, they show large samples online and also have an application where they show the wallpaper on the walls of virtual rooms.

I also bought a roll of paper from FlavorPaper to cover the doors of an armoire, Kabloom in white and silver. I think I have seen Dauphine on display at Rico in Brooklyn. Note that their papers are highly metallic and many of the designs are quite large in scale; I would check them out in person before buying because it's definitely a bold look. The papers are also much more expensive than Cole & Sons, especially considering their rolls are much smaller.

That being said, the papers are very high quality and the people couldn't be nicer to deal with -- plus you're helping a New Orleans business! I LOVE the Kabloom paper I got, and figured paying around $150 to rescue a cruddy Ikea TV armoire was way cheaper than buying a new one. Still have no word yet on the wallpaper hanger, do e-mail me if you find one as well, ecychen(at)aol. Cu!

BK, Eades is also great; however, when I got pricing from them it was over $100 more than Sanderson - and that was just on three rolls. If you need a sample first it's certainly probably worth it to go with Eades though.

great to know that sanderson is so much cheaper. i am definitely not in the market for wallpaper right now because of lack of funds, but when the time comes (maybe a xmas gift to myself), i will check with sanderson.

Hey op, I know you didn't mean that and I do get what you mean. I wasn't very clear but what you said reminded me of what I had read in the catalog so I thought it was interesting and did not mean it to be any kind of refutation.

Joey,
Thanks for the amazing sugestion and the image too! I'm going to use this idea for sure, pobably in more than one location.
Thanks again,
Laura

Max, thanks for the welcome. I am a veteran organizer from Mission:Org like you and have looooved your designs from afar, as well as your wonderful personality. By the way, I have a funny story about red pizza pans I'll have to tell you some time... ~Monica

We Provide all types of Wallcoverings and Installation in the New Orleans Area
504-232-2985
Elward