INTERIORS: Canadian Drywall Corner Tape Makes DIY Success Easy

Drywalling is one of those DIY renovation skills that takes a lot of practice to get good at, especially when it comes to finishing and mudding. That’s why I’m a big fan of products and tools that let non-professionals do great work with less skill. A Canadian innovation called a 3-Way drywall corner may be the most useful case in point. It speeds one particularly skill dependant part of the job finishing three-way corners where adjoining walls meet ceilings. Even professionals I know are using the 3-Way pre-fabricated corners because they’re so fast and easy to install. The reinforced backing also can’t crack over time (a common issue with three-way corners), and the outer face is paint-ready, just like drywall. To understand where these gains come from you need to see how drywall joints are typically finished in the usual way.

Drywall Finishing 101

The application of paper strips and drywall compound over joints between sheets is how joints are made invisible in the usual way, and this is still the best way to hide standard two-way joints between two sheets where they meet on walls and also where single wall sheets meet ceilings. But traditional drywall tape comes flat on a roll, and this poses a difficulty for three-way inside corners up high in a room where two walls come together meeting a ceiling. That’s because three different pieces of folded tape need to come together neatly in this highly visible location, and that’s not easy to do. The 3-Way product changes this most difficult of drywall challenges into one that’s arguably the easiest.

Prefabbed Solution

Each 3-Way is a preformed, adjustable paper corner. The best way I’ve found to use them is after straight pieces of tape are applied up to but several inches away from the point of inside three-way corners. Use a 4-inch drywall knife to apply a little mud to the corner where wall and ceiling meet, take a 3-Way out of the pack, fold it into a corner shape along the scored lines, then nestle it into the mud. That’s it. No hassles with overlapping individual pieces of tape, and much less tendency to crack over time. This makes for less mudding required, an easier time sanding, and the kind of flawless DIY results that normally takes years of constant practice and specialized equipment to achieve. But there’s something else about 3-Way that caught my eye.

Unsquare Corners

It’s not unusual for walls and ceilings in homes to meet each other at something slightly more or less than 90º angles. This is common and why 3-Way is designed to be adjustable. That part of the paper corner that meets the walls has a seam, and this allows the corner to be opened or closed slightly to accommodate the small deviation from 90º that’s common in real world renovations. There’s also another little design detail that makes it easier to succeed.

Even the tiny step created where paper tape stops and drywall begins can show up noticeably after paint goes on. Normally issues like this are hidden under a layer of mud that goes over everything and gets feathered to the surrounding drywall by sanding. But extensive sanding in three-way corners is not easy because space is tight, and that’s why 3-Way comes with tapered paper edges along the perimeter. These tapered edges make it easier to hide the edges of each 3-Way, laying the groundwork for a flawless finished result with the least amount of mudding and sanding required.

The 3-Way corner products are surprisingly inexpensive given the time they save and the quality boost they deliver. $18 for a pack of five, or $30 for 10. You can find them in Canada at Home Hardware in stores, and online at HomeHardware.ca, Federated Coop, homedepot.ca and amazon.ca. I’m told 3-Way will appear on US store shelves later this year, but can be ordered now for US customers from Canadian online suppliers.