Does drywall compound need a minimum temperature to work?

Question

It's sheetrock 45 a chemically setting drywall compound.

No idea what the temperature is in my basement but its pretty chilly right now. Maybe 50-60F?

Also will it stick to paint if I sand the paint first to rough it up?

I didn't buy the mud. My FIL and husband have been mucking around and screwing this job up for over two years. This project was supposed to be done before my first was born and I am currently 8 months pregnant with my second.

I got fed up with the spare furniture, etc crowding me out of my house. I went and actually looked at what had been done in the basement and was disgusted. (See my other questions).

Nope I really don't have much of a clue, but I sure as heck can't do any worse than the globby mess that is down there now that managed to completely miss most of the screw heads.

And the package doesn't say anything about temp. I read the whole thing three times now.

As to why it is so cold, no clue. Its on the list of things to look into but as I can only work on things when my son is asleep and my husband is at work I need to know if I can do any of it tonight.

Answer 1

Theoretically I suppose it does. In application I have not had any problems with chilly temps. 50-60 degrees will be no problem, I just taped and mudded an entry way this last week with the same temp, perhaps lower! Humidity is more of an issue. To dry and you might gett some cracking if you put on the mud too thick. To humid and it takes a bit longer to set up (wich is no prob unless you want a second coat later in the day).
using drywall compound that sets up faster is not a good idea unless you have alot of experiance. Some of those mixtures set up fast and are a pain in the butt to sand!
I have never had mud not work over paint. I have done lot's of patches and skim coats over paint and never had ill results.

Answer 2

the temperature should not be an issue it just means it will take longer for the joint compound to dry I've done it with temps. down to the low 30's and just applyed the mud and came back the next day to sand and paint never had a problem doing it this way in cold weather.

Answer 3

I've been in the trades most of my life and applied multiple thousands of gallons of MUD after iinstalling thousand of sq. ft. of drywall; and I don't even use Chemical, KICKER Mud.

Sounds similar to "HOT MUD" to me? AND I wonder WHY use it? Especially for a DIY; no offense but your Q suggests inexperience.

Certainly there are ideal ranges, and should be clearly stated on any packaging. I also wonder; since it seems you're doing some FINISH type work in a basement; why you haven't considered making it more liveable in a more comfortable heat range?

With all due respect to ANY others who answer MUD will be OK without "ROUGHING"

Steven Wolf

Answer 4

buy a regular temperate thermometer they are cheap why are you guessing?,also on the compound bucket it tells you the temperature,people are to lazy to read,so they have to ask simple questions.