As part of the garage fix-up I'm undertaking, the ceiling and a couple of walls will need to be taped and sanded before painting. The third wall will have FRP/NRP panels.

Of course I could hire it out, but my past experience with that has been mediocre. Lots of mess and not particularly great work. I think the good tapers are busy on big jobs and not the type that want to mess with small projects.

That brings me to tools. I'm thinking the rotary sanders that connect to a shop vac would save a lot of work and mess.

The Porter-Cable is probably beyond homeowner quality, but gets good reviews. Some of the others have issues with odd size discs.

Any experience/opinions?

Only suggestion I can offer as far as conventional sanding is make sure whatever vac you're using has a couple of spare filters; sanding dust can clog them quick.
A method I use is utilizing big enough mudding knives to get it relatively smooth, then using a 5 gallon bucket of water and dipping a sponge in it frequently; using the sponge as a "sanding block". Less dust and easy cleanup.

I've sanded a lot (for a non taper/mudder) of drywall in my day using just the standard pole sander. I tried a hand sander that had a hose to the shop vac and that was a complete waste of time/money.

I don't have any experience with a machine like that - looks like it could really save time - although I don't know that it'll save $400 worth of time for just one project *shrug*. Depending on the size of the garage - I'd say you'll probably have 3 hours (at most for your standard 2 car garage) of sanding the first coat and maybe an hour on the following coats if you're careful when mudding.

You could probably resell it after for half pretty easily though so it might be worth it.

The hand sand rig I used had a water filled catch bucket so the dust wouldn't get back to the shopvac, but it never seemed to work all that well. There was still a lot of dust to clean up after.

Good luck

Shawn

I've not personally used this, but will try it soon on a small room I'm finishing myself.

My dad has it and he said it worked great for keeping drywall dust down.

Basically it's a water bong for drywall dust

Sand Kleen

Ok - I watched a couple homeowner youtube vids and wow - that machine looks like it works great. One guy rented one - maybe a local rental place has one you could rent? Although - you're probably looking at 3 - 4 days of rental and at that point it may just be cheaper to buy.

If it works half as well as those vids I'd say that it'll say considerable time and dust.

From what I've been reading: If you tape and mud correctly, you shouldn't need to sand (very much)?

"10 Tips to Make Finishing Drywall Less Frustrating": here and here.

I've read much the same elsewhere. It seems most taping/mudding amateurs' biggest mistake is too much mud, and too much in one go. That is what I've read ends-up necessitating a bunch of sanding.

I'll find out, as I'll be doing three walls of an 11x10 foot room, and patching a fourth.

The old guy who repaired some poorly-done work in our kitchen and the stairway leading downstairs did his thing, we paid him, he left. We painted. Never touched anything with sandpaper. You can't even tell where he did his work.

I was a painting contractor for over 35 years and did my share of drywall installations and drywall work. That included doing point up to fix the 'professional' drywall mistakes. When the drywall men showed up my first question was what level of finish are you applying? 95% of the time I received that blank look that told me I had just asked a question to which they had no answer. Meaning they had no formal training.

SO to the OP's question. If it's already fire taped and your just finishing it off every coat of mud is considered a level and should be envisioned that way. Level 1 is fire taped level 5 is mudding the entire surface like plaster and block/pole sanding perfectly smooth, no tool marks.

What you need to do on the joints is to spread your mud wider on ever level or coat of mud you apply. That can be done with wider blades or just by applying it out further on each coat. The smoother your coats of mud are the less sanding you'll need. Be sure there are no lumps or foreign materials in your mud. I like to keep my 5 gallon mud bucket completely clean around the lid. I use a small sponge with a scotch pad on it to clean all my pans and tools. At the end of the day flatten the top of the mud in your 5 with a knife then cover the smooth mud with a little water. This stops the op of the mud from drying out overnight. That round piece of plastic in your new five should be cleaned of any harden mud and reused to help the mud stay wet, so keep that do not toss it out!

Keeping out dried bits of mud will produce smoother finishes and less sanding. I always clean my tools at the end of the day and dry them with an old bath towel to stop them from rusting. Use stainless steel pans and high quality knives. If the edge of a knife gets a nick sand it out with different grades of paper to get it smooth. Any nicks on a knife will show up in the mud as scratches. You want to avoid tool marks in every coat.

Press down on the blade of the knife to force the mud to go where you need it as your spreading it on the joint. Knives are the most important thing and I'd not sell mine for any amount of money. They become seasoned from years of work and are so sharp they will cut you if drawn across your skin. On the nail spots use a larger knife for each coat ie. 3"- 4"-5" then finish with a 6" if needed. You may have to experiment and size up the situation as you go.

Drywall finishing is fairly difficult and not many ever get proficient at it. I used a pole sander almost exclusively especially when your doing the final sanding. The machines like the Porter Cable are fantastic in the right hands by that final sanding is better done by a pole sander IMO. Good luck, I'll check back here in a could days if the OP needs more advice!

sanded a few renovations in the past,
best advise is to be judicious in your knife work, as in smooth,,


and no sand unless necessary, I used a sponge on the last few and it worked very well,

warm water in a bucket, big sponge, and wring it out and go,

I will echo that if you are smooth with the mud not much sanding is necessary. I am not a pro so I will do more thinner coats.

I have repaired holes where and not even sanded by rolling primer after the last coat of mud is on and firmed up a little but not dry.

Good taper/mudders don't sand much at all. I'n not a good one and have done my fair share of sanding due to over applying mud. I have used quite a few cheap methods. First dry sanding with a palm sander hooked up to a shop vac with the hose going through a 5 gallon pail filled half with water. Did a good job of filtering the dust. Lots of pole sanding, my least favorite. As I got better with mudding I now use the sponge and bucket method mentioned above. Don't think it would have worked in my earlier years of way over-mudding but now that I have gotten better the sponge works well.

I hung and finished way too much drywall in my life. When I did our kitchen and living room I bought the Porter Cable and while it was heavy, it was also great. A little bit of a learning curve but it really was very clean sanding. I used a Rigid shopvac with drywall bags inside. When I was finished I sold it for 50 bucks less than I paid for it. I think I'm about finished with drywall except for the occasional odd job.

I've sanded my share of drywall compound seams. The right grit, easy movements, and the dust drops straight down in a closed room. Always my N95 twin filtered respirator on, properly tight.

Then vacuum everything at the end.

I picked up one of these sanders at a garage sale for about $50.

One of these I'm going to try and remove the texture from a wall with it. We hired a company to skim-coat one of rooms to try for the smooth wall look and it came out very poorly and cost a lot, so I figured might as well try the $50 sander and N95 mask and see what I can do myself. I can't imagine it'll take much time to knock off the texture.

The Porter-Cable sander works well but has some drawback. It's frecking expensive for a homeowner.

On corners, it will throw the dust around as part of the rounds sanding head will be off the edge. While it's not heavy it's heavier than a poll and sandpaper. You will notice it after awhile.

I hate sanding drywall no matter how it's done. The machine definitely works but you will likely still have to sand the corners by hand.