Chapter one — the seam
The whole wall lives in the seam
Anyone can screw up a sheet of board. The difference shows at the joint — where two sheets meet, where the wall turns an inside corner, where the ceiling lands on the wall. A flat, invisible seam is what separates a wall that looks finished from one that telegraphs every joint the moment a lamp lights it from the side — and you only get it by bedding the tape clean and floating the mud wide.
"We'd rather take the extra coat and feather it out than leave you staring at a ridge for the next ten years."
So we bed the tape, fill the screws, and float two to three coats — each one wider than the last — and we don't call a wall done until you can't find a seam with your hand or your eye.

