Drywall - Power Sander

[Rincon]

Getting ready to start sanding my newly mudded walls and have plan to rent a power sander from HD this weekend. I hope this will help to cut down on the time it will take me to sand my entire basement. I have never used one before, but have watched demos on the technique used and think I can manage. Does anyone have any tips, thoughts, concerns that you wouldn't mind throwing my way before I do this. I hate the thought of messing up all of my work I have put into it thus far.
Thanks

 

[glennjanie]

Hello Rincon:
Please use a respirator while you sand. You will have a huge load of dust from a power sander.
Unless you have large ridges to sand down, I would not recommend a power sander at all because of the dust. A little trick my son taught me is to use a spray bottle of water, spray the ridges, let it soak a little and scrape the ridge off rather than sand. It eliminates all the dust. You could then apply another thin coat with a wider trowell trying to eliminate all the ridges, maybe even use a third coat if needed.
Glenn

 

[jaros bros.]

There are sanders that take all of the dust and suck it up. I don't know what kind of sander you are renting from HD but Porter Cable has a system that does just that. Don't stay in one spot too long...keep the sander moving. Also, a good set of lights helps a lot and a pencil. After you are done sanding, walk around with a light and draw where you need to touch up.

Josh Jaros (Jaros Bros. Construction)

 

[handyguys]

Save the money - Just get a pole sander and some sanding screens. It goes pretty quick, really it does. Also, get a sanding sponge dry kind and use that to touch up areas. Also get some water sponges and do a final 'wet sand' with that.

 

[krm944]

My buddy just renovated his kitchen and had a bunch of drywall to do. He went to the hardware store and bought a sander that attached to his ShopVac. His ShopVac uses the bags that filter sheetrock dust and he was able to sand in his home and make little to no mess. I think it was a 1/4 sheet sander, so it went pretty quick!

Kyle

 

[Deacon]

35 years of Home Building has taught me only a few things - A good roofer needs no tar - there are only two guarantees with concrete (1) It will get hard (2) It will crack and an experienced dry waller needs no sand paper. Life goes on!

 

[Rincon]

After considering everyone's responses I decided to spend the money and rent the power sander from HD. It was a Porter Cable. I couldn't be more pleased with the results and the time it saved me. Since I am an inexperienced drywaller it helped in the areas that I got to thick. Things I learned about it that might help others considering it are. Get the finest sanding paper for it you can. I got both 80 and 120 grit. I thought a quick go over on the thick rough areas with the 80 would be a good idea. Not so. The 80 took to much off. The 120 was almost to much but did well once I got the hang of it. Which brings me to my next tip. Make sure you test a couple areas to set the sander on the right speed for the grit you are working with. High speed with 80 grit takes it back down to the paper in about two seconds. So 120 grit on the right setting did fine. Another mistake I made was not getting the drywall dust collection bag for my shop-vac. The filter on the shop vac clogged up really quick which made me have to stop and empty to often. Nonetheless the sander still saved me a lot of time and in my opinion helped me to sand more evenly than with the traditional pole sander. Since I am not experienced or very good at mudding I didn't have the most consistent thickness throughout. Hope this helps someone considering the same thing.

 

[Eric]

thanks for the info - I'll be doing this real soon - but my job isn't so big, so I think I'll use the screens -

 

[mrc59]

I redid several rooms and couldn't stand the thought of drywall dust everywhere. A good drywall pro doesn't need much sanding. But this is a DIY site so I figure I can admit I wanted a vacuum that could take the dust. Also, I had a good bit of ceiling work to do. I don't have the arms I used to. So I bought the sander and vacuum. Works GREAT. I didn't rent because the project was so spread out. The power sanding gave me the time to re-do bad taping and get a nice result. If you don't suck up that dust it goes EVERYWHERE. And it's a nasty dust.

 

[jdougn]

The Porter/Cable power drywall sander is excellent. I also rented it from HD and used it extensively sanding old texture off a ceiling that the customer wanted redone. The vacuum system and micro-filter bag are great. Since we were removing old ceiling texture we used the 80 grit disks. The bag did need the dust emptied frequently to keep the vacuum working well. For jobs that need extra sanding or difficult situations it is on the top of my list.
just my .o2, Doug