I used to be a mining engineer since 1985, and practiced Shotcrete - spray fiber reinforced concrete for tunnel supporting 1,000 feet underground.
I came to Canada in 1998, and have been a drywall finisher for the last 20 years.
My friend Chris Fraser taught me how to do drywall taping. He was an old school taper, pre-fill every joint with hot mud, and embedding paper taper by hands. He didn’t like automatic taper, never even wanted to give it a try. He believed that without pre-fill, just use a bazooka to apply tape to cover the joints, leave the gaps hollow without fully filled with taping mud, the joints will crack when stresses come to the walls. He was right! Almost every cracked joint I have ever fixed in the last 20 years were exactly like that, no mud in the joint!
Pre-fill every drywall joint is very important for preventing cracks. But the problem is it’s time consuming. I couldn’t compete with guys using automatic taper and no pre-fill. I thought even if 100% of the cracked joints I have ever repaired without pre-fill, it doesn’t mean that 100% of the joints without pre-fill are going to crack. And you can not tell that I did pre-fill or not, the joints were covered by tape. I knew clearly that pre-fill is essential, but the challenge is to do the right thing while no body is watching and no body is going to know. So I finally decided quit pre-fill and bought a banjo box to apply paper tape to the joints directly. It was much faster and my quotes were competitive. But Chris was very disappointed. he said: “never tell anybody that you learned drywall taping from me!”
I kept upgrading my tools, from banjo box to automatic taper, and finally I bought an Apla-Tech Continuous Flow System(CFS), and started to think how can I beat those guys who are using CFS as well.
I got a few call backs every year but it was okay with me. What really bothered me was what Chris said to me. I had never have a call back while I was doing pre-fill to every drywall joints.
If I could get pre-fill, embedding tape and first coat of mudding done in just one process, I would beat every drywall taper in the world. So I have started working on Tapeless Drywall Finishing in 2009. I believe that fiber reinforcement is the solution.
Being a mining engineer, I know exactly how drywall tape works on the joints. Drywall Tape doesn’t add any structural support or mechanical strength to the walls. We all know that the best way to join two pieces of metal sheets together is welding. Then how about using fibre reinforced joint compound to fully fill the joint like welding the two adjacent drywall sheets together?
I have tried every synthetic and organic fibres I could find in various lengths and diameters and finally by closely working with DaChuan New Materials Ltd. (DC fiber solutions), DC has developed 1mm PAN precision cut super short fiber, the very best material for drywall joint compound fiber reinforcement in the world that we had never have before.
We have started sending free samples to Professional tapers and DIYERS world wide since 2019, and keep improving the materials and combinations of Tape in Mud™according to the feedbacks. And started to use Tape in Mud™ only to finish whole houses and basements.
I use Durabond 90 mix with Tape in Mud™ for the first coat and regular finishing mud for the second, get the joints done in just two coats! Two times faster than using CFS! Now I’m selling all my automatic taping tools, because I am very sure that I will never need them again.
It took me more than 10 years to improve the fiber combinations and build up my confidence to market Tape in Mud™ world wide. Now Tape in Mud™ is available on Amazon in USA and Canada, and going to launch Europe and Australia soon.
Fibre reinforcement has thousands of years of history. With modern technologies and new materials, I strongly believe that Tape in Mud™is a better way to finish drywall joints. It’s easier for DIYERS, much faster for professional tapers. It’s going to be a game changer. If you don’t believe it, I’d be more than happy to convince you. Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thank you for reading.
Mike Liu
