Sunday, June 29, 2008

This Olde House - Secret Spackle Tips

I finished off my portion of the doors today. They are officially ready for Cindy to paint them. Hopefully she'll be on that sometime in the near future.Anyway, with another victory under my belt, I thought I share my secret method / tips on how to apply spackle in the holes on casings or trim or anything else that develops an unwelcome hole. I plan on passing this down to future generations of McDougals and may even patent it. It is just THAT dang good of a secret. So get it while it is free.

Muralo Spackle Tips For An Ultra Smooth Finish:


  1. This is important and I only stumbled upon it by accident: Sand the hole first! I usually go over every nail hole with a piece of sandpaper, making small circles, until I am certain the edges of the hole are gone and there is an ever-so-slight depression for the hole.

  2. I use a wide flat-head screwdriver or a razor blade to apply the spackle. Almost every time somebody has tried to show me how to spackle, they demonstrated with their finger. I've found that while the spackling process goes quicker, a finger tip actually presses into the hole, leaving a slight dimple on the top. Until I started using a flat metal item to put down the spackle, I kept finding holes that needed a second layer, because of the pitting.

  3. Finally, after the spackle dries, sand down the excess using small circular movements. As a side effect of using a flat-edge to apply the spackle, I usually don't have much excess to remove.


I've done the living room, dining room, hall, and now the doors using the sand - spackle - sand method, and the holes are nearly invisible, even before getting painted. Once a layer or two of white has been applied, even an up-close-and-personal inspection will have trouble finding flaws in the work.I'll admit, it takes MUCH longer doing it this way. But I think the results are notably better than doing it the easy way. And that's my secret.



EDIT: Check the comments, but a James Norton (possibly President of Muralo) wrote to tell me:

Spackle is a registered Trademark of the Muralo Company 148 East fifth Street Bayonne, NJ 07002. Please respect our trademark and include our company name when using Spackle.

Seeing as I really enjoy the company's product, I'm happy to respect the trademark and include the company name. I even threw in a link directly to the site!

2 comments:

Jim Norton said...

Jon,
Spackle is a registered Trademark of the Muralo Company 148 East fifth Street Bayonne, NJ 07002. Please respect our trademark and include our company name when using Spackle.

James Norton

Unknown said...

James,

Come on, now. The President of Muralo took notice of my blog and posted a note for me?

If so, what an incredible world we live in. I'll certainly respect your trademark and include the company now. I'll edit the post right now.

If not, somebody is extremely bored to impersonate James Norton. But I'll still honor the trademark and include the company name, now.

-Jon