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August 19, 2022
Drywall installation & finishing is labor intensive, which is why the drywall industry and drywall professionals have codified a set of professional standards that divide the drywall finishing process into five distinct levels.
Take note of the finish levels if you want your home's finished walls to look as professional as possible when the Drywall General Contractor finishes installing the drywall.
Drywall Finish Level 0
Requiring the least amount of work or materials, level 0 drywall involves simply securing the sheets to the wall. The sheets receive no mudding, taping, or sanding. Level 0 is essentially the bare minimum requirement for temporary installation.
Drywall Finish Level 1
The level one is commonly referred to as fire taping so this is just simply where tape is installed with mud and it doesn't even have to be wiped out nicely. Basically, you just need to cover all the joints and any openings that connect one room to another with tape.
Drywall Finish Level 2
This next level means that you have skimmed a thin coat of joint compound over the tape and covered the drywall screw holes. You can stop at this level if you intend to cover the wall surface with tile, or if it's in a garage intended to be used for storage or a workshop-type space.
Drywall Finish Level 3
This is basically tape and two coats but it doesn't necessarily have to be all that nice or sanded yet so this is done where you're gonna be applying heavy textures or heavy wall coverings like say maybe thick vinyl it's not suitable for paint wallpaper or light textures.
Drywall Finish Level 4
This is your standard drywall finish that you're gonna see just about anywhere so this is tape and two coats over top of everything three coats over top of screws sometimes it might even mean three coats over top of butt joints and corner beads - if it doesn't look flat enough so at level four finish should provide a uniformly.
Flat and even looking surface tool marks and ridges are not acceptable at this point so this is going to be for paint for wallpaper and anything where you need a nice flat surface.
This finish looks good under just about every condition except harsh lighting.
Drywall Finish Level 5
The only time you ever need a level five finish is for really harsh lighting whether it's light coming in from a window or if it's coming from sconces or pot lights.
Typically specified in appearance areas where smooth wall designs are decorated with non-flat paints or other glossy decorative finishes, dark deep toned paints are applied or critical lighting conditions occur. This level of finish is the most effective method to provide a uniform surface and minimize the possibility of joint photographing and or fasteners shown through the final decoration.
