Joint Compound vs. Spackle
Posted on December 7, 2007 – 6:02 pm by admin
I bought a one gallon bucket of spackle a while back from Lowe’s. It cost me about $14 and change. Then, a few days ago, I bought a one gallon bucket of joint compound from Lowe’s. It cost me about $5 and change. I thought this was weird. I asked my brother, who is the joint compound king, what the difference between spackle and joint compound was. He said, “the name.”
The other night, I used the joint compound. It felt very much like spackle. It dried like spackle and sands like spackle. I am not understanding what the difference between joint compound and spackle is.
Today, I was in Lowe’s again. I was going to buy two one gallon buckets of joint compound. Over to my right, I noticed a five gallon bucket of joint compound for about $12 and change. I bought that one. Why was a five gallon bucket of joint compound cheaper than the one gallon bucket of spackle?
This confuses me. I looked this issue up on a few websites. Everyone seems to have a different story.
TYSM I read this one and decided to try it out on my ACER (See, its not always HP with the problems)...
2 Responses to “Joint Compound vs. Spackle”
By P on Jan 21, 2010 | Reply
The difference between spackle and joint compound also known as drywall mud is this.
Spackle is thicker and somewhat more sticky than joint compound. Spackle is a specific use item in home repair just as joint compound is a specific use item. Joint compound is for large jobs over a larger surface area. Its thinner nature to Spackle is needed to apply joint tape and makes a better smoother and more professional appearance after a wall has been floated.
Although, you can use both for the same things, why work 10 times harder to achieve the end results that each must do to achieve the desired end result. Thus why Joint Compounds crack and chip in patching repairs after a bit of time making some people wonder what they did wrong in the original work.
Spackling is for small patch repairs normally less than 2×2 foot square in draywall as well as fixing small holes by nails or what have you. If the repair is larger than that, then people should use joint compound because of the area needed to float out for seamless appearance. If repair is larger than 3×3 its makes better sense to actually replace the drywall sheet which comes in 4×4, 4×8, 4×10 and 4×12.
Most retail home repair outlets sell 2×2 and 4×4 sheets of drywall for small jobs. The common size of dry wall is of couse 4×8. So if you repair is big is makes better sense to replace the whole sheet rather than trying to patch more than 50% of it. End result is better quality professional appearance provided you know how to tape and bed then float a wall.