Profit’s Not a Dirty Word, and the Level Five Finish

By: Murray Corey

Happy New Year! I hope this message finds you all well and ready to face 2012 with enthusiasm, confidence, and a glimmer of optimism for the year ahead of us. Let’s all agree to put a little something on the bottom line this year and have some fun doing it.

I was thinking of an analogy for the business climate of the past few years. I picture a drowning man swimming around the dark bottom of the sea, no life jacket to be seen, flailing his arms, trying to find something to pull himself up on, pulling on loose grass and seaweed. Finally he gets a hold of a chain that goes right up to the wharf and the warm sun shining above. Out of the water he comes gasping for air. In a few moments he gets down on his knees and thanks his higher power for giving him another chance at life, swearing that he will do things right this time around. Let us all take that next chance to be in the game and do things right. Give yourself some credit and add a few points for “profit” – you deserve it!

Now that I have that out of my system, let’s talk about the level five finish one more time. By far this is the most misunderstood aspect of the drywall finishing business, the confusion of which starts with the architects. Over the years, things generally tend to get easier and improve through new technology, new products, and better training. However, in our industry I still find myself trying to explain the when, why, how, and where a level five should be considered, and finally, what we should expect to achieve when the level five is called up. To be fair, the issue may be deemed to be fairly simple by some, but it is intrinsically complex.

The first thing to understand is that a gypsum board wall is built with several sheets of paper-faced gypsum board, pieced together with bevel and butt joints, and filled with compounds by human hands or machine tools. Remember, the compounds have completely different absorption properties from the paper face of the board. The bigger the wall, the more joints that need to be hidden. That’s right. It is our job to try to hide all the joints. When I get called out to look at finishing work, it almost always comes down to being able to see the joints.

The when and where to consider specifying a level five go hand in hand. Remember you can pick different areas that might need a level five, leaving other areas with a lower level of finish. Next you need to understand that a level five is going to involve one more pass over the wall, so factor extra labour cost, more material going on the wall, and additional material cost. In other words, a premium.

There are three main considerations to take into account:

• the intended use for the area
• the amount and type of light that will be in the area
• the colour and type of paint that is planned for the wall.

Areas with high human occupancy, such as residential living rooms or corporate offices, would be good examples where the level five should be considered. These are areas where the wall will receive more scrutiny from the users, so it may be desirable to further eliminate the visibility of joints and other blemishes.

Next thing to consider is the light that is anticipated to hit the wall. This can be the natural light coming in from outside through the windows or it can also be the artificial light added by the placement of light fixtures especially when mounted on the wall and pointing down, such as a wall sconce. Concentrated light or as we call it “critical light” will reveal every feature inherent in the board that the human eye cannot normally see. These features are virtually impossible to hide.

Finally the type of paint can significantly affect the transparency of the joints in our wall. I will leave the technical aspects of this issue for the paint specialists but suffice it to say this is a critical decision if you don’t want your wall to reveal its structural composition upon completion.

So we need to identify those spaces that call for a higher quality of finish such as the main living room that typically has the big picture window (critical light) and / or several multi-directional light sources, and finally, the sheen of the paint. If this is all adding up, we are well-advised to consider a level five finish.

At this point in the discussion, I have to say that I’m often asked to look at a wall that has joints flashing and it’s usually because there is critical light conditions and a high sheen paint and—guess what?—a level five wasn’t specified. The owners are not satisfied, the damage is difficult to repair at this point and usually involves refinishing and repainting, all of which would have been avoided had the level five been specified.

Now that we know when to specify, let’s talk about how a level five is accomplished and what is actually happening in the process. As discussed above, the gypsum board is mainly a paper-faced product with distinct absorption properties. The problem is that all the joints and fasteners which we are going to treat with filling compounds results in a change in the absorption properties of these areas. This means that when we apply paint to the surface of our wall, the paint soaks into the paper surfaces differently than it does on the joint filled areas. When light hits the wall you can distinguish the difference between the paper face of the board and the area where joints have been filled. This is magnified when you increase the light and then can be magnified again depending on the colour and sheen of the paint. I’m always relieved to see an off-white eggshell paint on the walls as these seem to reduce the impact of the light, therefore reducing the visibility of joints. Likewise, the application of texture reduces the incidence of flashing in ceilings.

Regardless of all this other technical stuff discussed so far, at the end of the day, we have to have a qualified tradesperson who possesses the skill to apply tape and finishing products properly. Together with proper framing and boarding techniques the tapers and finishers are the ones that will make your wall turn out either good or bad. The better the finisher, the smoother the wall, and the fewer the joints you will be able to see after final decoration. My advice? If you find one of these finishers, don’t let ‘em go!

So how do we correct this flashing problem? I introduce to you the “skim coat.” If you follow the source of the problem as described above the solution is to “equalize” the surfaces and this is actually the easy part. Following the rendering of a level four finish, a level five finish is accomplished by the application of a skim coat of lightly watered joint compound, applied to the entire wall surface wiped tight and clean. Assuming a good quality finishing job, good curing conditions, application of a good quality primer, backrolled, lightly sanded and two coats of good quality paint, you should end up with a wall to die for.

This article will be out right in time for our worst winter working conditions here in Canada. Time or space does not permit me to elaborate, but please take a look at the AWCC Specifications and Standards Manual for the required site conditions, control of moisture and temperature, and the levels of finish.

Until next time, happy finishing and don’t forget to add in some profit!

Murray Corey is the executive director of the British Columbia Wall & Ceiling Association and can be reached at 604.575.0511.