Sister Taping Team Tackles Tray Ceilings

Tray ceilings are a fantastic, deceptively simple way to add depth and intrigue to your average room. However, what may be pretty straightforward for an residential architect poses some interesting challenges for your drywall finishers — it gives you a lot of off-angle edges on both inside and outside corners to work around, which can’t be conquered with your average corner bead. For this newly built house in Effingham, Ill., expert sister taping team Gilbert Taping chose two Fast Edge® beads from Trim-Tex to tackle its massive tray ceilings — read on to see how they did it!

A tray ceiling like this one in Effingham may seem simple, but it gives drywall finishers like the Gilbert sisters (along with Chad Hesser of Hesser Drywall, who put this project together) a total of 12 corners to protect at three different angles to consider. Let’s break down these angles and why they chose the beads they did.

Inside off-angles: Fast Edge® Roll

This tray ceiling has eight off-angle inside corners in two varieties: the angles running vertically up along the sloped section of the ceiling, and the angles running the full width of the recessed portion of the ceiling. For covering both these angles, Gilbert Taping used our Fast Edge Roll.

The Gilberts have a history of using Fast Edge Roll for their inside corners ever since this rolled corner bead was released, and they weren’t going to settle for anything less on this job. Why Fast Edge Roll in these areas? It’s flexible, fitting a wide range of angles including both these, and its smooth laminated paper and mud-lock-equipped vinyl core gives you a clean, long-lasting finish in practically no time at all.

Outside corners: Fast Edge® Paper

For the outer rim of the tray ceiling, the Gilberts chose Trim-Tex’s Fast Edge Paper for several reasons. First off, by using two members of the Fast Edge family together for outside and inside corners, they’re able to achieve a remarkably consistent finish right from the start; they won’t need to spend a bunch of time carefully feathering out their mud to even everything out.

Secondly, not unlike the rolled version, Fast Edge Paper is flexible — the outside corners on this tray ceiling are wider than 90 degrees, and these finishers were able to adjust their bead to match its exact angle. Then, of course, there’s its speedy installation, using less mud than other beads.