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Just bought a home built in the 1980s back in October when temperatures were relatively warm. Much colder now and I'm noticing that in al the rooms/hallways, under lighting conditions you can see where the drywall (which is hung horizontally) seams are. They are generally about halfway up the wall and are nothing more than a visible line due to shadowing; there are no cracks and the walls are painted eggshell so there is a very slight sheen.

Is this pretty typical to see? Just a part of the age of the home?

pstatix
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  • Age has nothing to do with the average drywaller's inability to make a wall optically flat. – Mazura Jan 09 '21 at 02:27
  • @Mazura Well its just the joints and I'm paying a lot closer attention than the average person having done some drywall work in the past. None of the lines are "raised" in the sense that you can see a bump, its just went lit at a particular angle. – pstatix Jan 09 '21 at 02:40
  • Improper fill is easier to fix than a bump w/o an $800 drywall sander, but even easier is not lighting it that way. Now you know how I feel when I go to someone's house, notice all the imperfections, and point out breaches in code.... Quit looking at it so hard ;) – Mazura Jan 09 '21 at 02:47
  • @Mazura seems like they just didnt feather it far enough IMHO – pstatix Jan 09 '21 at 02:51
  • "bend the flat trowel a tiny bit, making it ever so slightly concave. This facilitates a nice build-up along the center and gives you an already good taper at the edges." – How to patch long strip on drywall? – Mazura Jan 09 '21 at 02:53
  • @Mazura Yea its not really worth the effort now, I live here, maybe when we sell one day. But its only a slight grade anyhow! – pstatix Jan 09 '21 at 02:57
  • This is why for a zillion years people textured residential drywall jobs. Then some dim bulb got the idea that their home walls should look like the commercial drywall in their office and people started demanding non-textured residential walls. Unless you use thick commercial grade drywall not the thin residential grade stuff, trying to make a residential wall look like an expensive commercial one is an exercise in futility IMHO. – Ted Mittelstaedt Jan 09 '21 at 18:39
  • Yeah, you can't hide a seam. joint compound has a different texture to paper, if you use a textureless paint finish it will show. (well, you can fix it by covering all the texture with a plaster veneer, or by papering over it) – Jasen Jan 10 '21 at 05:26

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I'm afraid the age of the house can not be blamed for the drywall seams being noticeable. Dry wall seams, when completed properly, should be invisible even under close scrutiny.

It sounds as if only 1 or 2 coats of joint compound was applied. The solution is to apply more compound in wider passes to ease the compound to the surrounding wall (Feathering). 1 or 2 more coats should blend it enough to be unnoticeable.

ojait
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