5 Tips for Installing Fast Edge® Roll

Tips for installing Fast Edge Roll thumbnail

The new rolled form of Fast Edge® is making major waves, especially among pro drywall finishers. Why? The paper is smoother than other popular rolled corner bead tape solutions, making it easier to work with, and the Mud Lock Technology featured on the bead gives it a far superior bond strength. You’re getting all the benefits of Fast Edge (a faster installation, using less mud) with all the conveniency benefits of a rolled product — what’s not to love? Now that boxes of Fast Edge Roll are hitting shelves of drywall supply dealers, we’re starting to get more questions on proper installation of the bead, so here are 5 tips for installing Fast Edge Roll to take with you to your next job.

1. Measure out your bead using its box

The box for Fast Edge Roll comes in is made to make measuring out how much bead you need for each run, so we would hold off on removing the roll from its box. The side of the box comes with two perforated slots, one to roll out the bead and one to set your tape measure into. If you’ve got an eight-foot run, for instance, hook your tape measure into its slot, and you can portion out exactly how much of the solution you need before making any cuts. This’ll save you time and eliminate any waste from guesswork.

Install Fast Edge Roll on outside corners with us!

2. For outside corners, fold the bead once, at a tighter angle than your drywall corner

Because Fast Edge Roll is built to be flexible, you’ll actually want to fold the bead at a slightly tighter angle than the outside corner you’re working with. So, if it’s a straight 90-degree corner, fold it just once along the bead’s center line at something closer to an 85-degree angle; if it’s a 135-degree corner, shoot for 130 degrees, and so on.

By doing this, you’ll ensure the bead will firmly hold its place on the corner and won’t detach before you start permanently bonding it to the drywall. Once you’ve folded the bead a single time to the angle you need — and Fast Edge Roll covers all your angles — you can apply it onto your drywall corner, which you’ll have coated with a fresh bed of mud.

Install Fast Edge Roll on INSIDE corners with us!

3. To install inside corners, simply press the bead into place

Inside corners won’t require the folding step described above; you’ll just need to blade mud onto the drywall (you could use a joint compound applicator for this if you'd prefer) and press the bead into it. Then, as shown in the video above, pick your joint/taping knife back up and stick the knife edge into the bead's center line to push it deeper into the corner. You may also want to flip that knife around and run the blunt edge along each side of the bead to make sure it's firmly set into place. Then you'll wipe down excess mud that was pushed out the bead's edges before applying your first coat of mud.

4. Make sure your corner is straight before mudding Fast Edge Roll into place

After you’ve applied the bead onto the corner — but before you wipe down the excess compound that will have been pushed out the back of its mud legs — grab your joint knife, hold it gently against each side of the bead and ensure your corner is perfectly straight. If it’s not, you’ve still got time to adjust the bead as necessary. As any drywall finisher knows, not every corner is framed perfectly, so you may need to adapt the versatile bead to make your corner flawless (more on that in our next tip). Once you’ve got a perfectly even corner, wipe down your excess mud and then apply your first coat of mud to the edges of the bead.

5. Correct for poor framing as needed

One of the advantages of Fast Edge Roll is that it allows finishers to create immaculate inside and outside corners even when the bare drywall is far from perfectly straight. (It probably won’t be the first, right?) Any of the four widths are versatile enough to accomplish this, but if you’re working with a lot of poor framing, we’d advise keeping a box of the widest width, the 4.5” Fast Edge Roll, nearby. The wider mud legs on this bead really allows you to easily manipulate the bead into creating impressively even corners when you’re given far-from-evenly framed surfaces.

Try out some of these tips for installing Fast Edge Roll like a pro for yourself! Fill out the form below, and we’ll send you a sample roll for you to use to get a feel for this game-changing rolled solution.