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We have 90 degree angle corners everywhere. After removing the cheap white plastic corner protectors the corners show damage.

Rather than patching it with drywall mud to an exact right angles, can I put a round drywall bead on?

Update: I bought inside and outside corner knives by goldblatt to patch the corners up. Thanks all.

Danger14
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  • Aren't there already drywall corner bead strips present? – jwh20 Oct 19 '21 at 10:59
  • Perhaps you could replace the cheap plastic corner protectors with nicer looking wood molding. They could be painted to match the wall or painted/stained for contrast. – Steve Wellens Oct 19 '21 at 15:00
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    For the opposite type of corner (inside 90) it's pretty simple to convert to a cove corner - took 3 or 4 coats of mud over a hunk of mesh tape, shaped with a round tool. First two coats looked kinda awful, but persist and the process works. – Ecnerwal Oct 19 '21 at 15:35
  • @jwh20 the big box retailers plus that gargantuan e-commerce one based in seattle all sell round plastic or metal 8-10 ft corner beads. Our house walls are so old so trying to figure out scope of work to replace metal corner beads with rounded. – Danger14 Oct 19 '21 at 17:49
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    *patching it with drywall mud to an exact right angles* - that's the thing; it already isn't and you're going to make it worse: There's at least an 1/8" of mud still on the corners from the old bead. Without a powered drywall sander this will not be fun. Or you're just going to live with increasingly non optically flat corners. "everywhere" - try one and see how it goes. Retrofit round bead? If that was on my docket, I'd call in sick... for the two weeks this will take. – Mazura Oct 19 '21 at 22:42

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Is it possible?

Sure! Some houses have had rounded corners from the day they were built. Others have had it added in later because the owner wanted that look.

Can I?

Well, we don't know your DIY skills, but I'm willing to bet you can! With some practice. Eventually.

To be honest, I've not seen rounded corner bead sold in the stores, but I've not specifically looked. The only thing I've ever seen is designed to have a square corner. However, the preformed corner bead doesn't come to a sharp point, it's got a bit of a rounded edge. It's designed for a fairly sharp corner, though.

As noted in the comments, it seems rounded corner bead is available for sale - it's just that I've never seen it. You will have to deal with some sort of transition at the baseboard molding, if you have baseboards.

To my knowledge, rounded corners was done on walls that were plastered and it takes some skill to get it looking good, but you're free to practice in your own home until you get it right.

TL;DR:

Sharp(ish) square corner bead is put up on drywall (or other interior wall surfaces), because putting up the prefab corner bead and mudding it to a "sharp" corner is quick, easy, efficient, and cheap. If you'd like some other corner treatment, you are free to install it yourself, or pay to have someone do it for you.

Unless, of course, you're renting, in which case you'd better check with the landlord first or you risk losing your damage deposit, and maybe being charged to revert back to the square corners if he doesn't like it.

FreeMan
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    Rounded corner bead is available at specialty suppliers if nowhere else. (My big boxes stock it.) The messy issue is that you’ll be cutting back the corners of the sheetrock and sanding a couple of inches back in the original mud to provide room for the new bead. Patching a few dings is way easier. – Aloysius Defenestrate Oct 19 '21 at 12:48
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    On the west coast, 3/4" rounded corner beads are available everywhere. The biggest issue will be at the base, how to deal with that. There is an accessory to convert the round to square to simplify the base install. There are a number of times I segmented the base around these corners, which is another accept way to do it out this way. – Jack Oct 19 '21 at 13:18
  • Thanks, guys. I was unaware of the existence of rounded corner bead. Probably makes the job easier. – FreeMan Oct 19 '21 at 15:01
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    They used to sell metal ones at HD. A whole subdivision used them and then just sprayed the cheap drywall topcoat on the walls. A year later the paint flaked off all the corners. They had to be sanded and primed and then repainted if the walls had been painted..... so glad I was just installing ceiling fans. – JACK Oct 19 '21 at 15:48
  • @AloysiusDefenestrate thank you. I was trying to figure out how much to cut back on current drywall. And if worth the effort – Danger14 Oct 19 '21 at 17:52
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    Just FYI - while doable... its not remotely easy even for someone that has decent DIY skills. You need a tradesman or a person with excellent artistic skills (1 in 30). Even if you get corner bead it is near impossible to apply mud around it and sand it evenly. I have done some myself and the OMG look I had after it was painted noting the slight slope I had created (and looked "perfect" to me after sanding) on each corner. If you don't care how the rounded sections look, do it. Also dealing with baseboards is like two more questions. This is not an easy swap. – DMoore Oct 20 '21 at 18:42