Please, Sir, tell me how to spread

[Al from Durham]

Hello. I hope that you are well and enjoying life in general.

Spreading goo is something that the man on the street thinks that any dope can do. But I'm a special kind of dope, because I can't do it and I never could.

This is new-from-the-store Henry 345 filler on well-sanded Luan plywood. I'm a couple few layers here. For this last later I applied the goo to a more or less uniform bead on a 26" long by 3" high by 1/8" aluminum bar. Pushed down pretty hard and drew it. The results are as you see. Pretty dismal.

So there's three things there that you can tell me that I shouldn't be using. But this is what I've got.

I welcome any constructive guidance that anyone wishes to offer. I expect a smartass or two. That always happens. But if anyone can help, that would be most sincerely appreciated.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

This material isn't flowable enough to try and use a screed method to try and spread it. You'll need to use either a flat putty knife, a taping knife, the flat side of a notched trowel, or a proper finishing (flat sided) trowel. (see the link below)

Sorry, from the photo I can't really tell if you were trying to fill in a low spot, or a gap, or something else there.

There's a simple, short video on the Henry's website that might help you with technique for the product. Here's the link:

https://www.wwhenry.com/product/henry-345/

In all honesty though, this is not a professional product. It's something they make for the box stores. I've been a distributor for Ardex / Henry's for over 20 years and we don't even stock this stuff. In my experience of just messing with some of these products, they cheapen them down to hit a price point for the boxes. The result is that they are actually much harder to work with than a professional product, for example Ardex Feather Finish, in this particular case.

This particular product (despite what the bucket says) is really intended to do very minor patching. I kind of liken it to "spackle", if that makes sense. Things like filling in staple head indentations, patching the seams in the underlayment, maybe a small void. Anything beyond that is going to be pretty difficult to do with that product.

One factor that might be working against you is that new Luann is incredibly porous. As a result, it can suck the moisture out of patch extremely fast making the patch thicker and harder to work with.

At any rate, hope that helps a little and good luck with your project. All the best!

CFR

 

[Al from Durham]

Thank you, kind Sir.
One would expect that the information that a vendor gives us is at least half true, but no.

It was a small low spot.

It just happens that I was looking at Arden Feather Finish before your message came along. User reviews say that you can mix it to any consistency you want. "Feather Finish" appeals to me and "Pancake Batter" appeals to me. I think that's my next step. I'll probably have to go to evil Amazon, which I avoid doing, but sometimes you just gotta.
.

 

[C.J.]

Fishman’s carries Ardex. Don't know if they have one in Durham though.

 

[Al from Durham]

Thank you.

 

[MSLI]

Take a chance and go to your local installation workroom and ask for a 1/4 bag of feather finish. The worst that can happen is they say no then you can order from evil, Amazon

 

[C.J.]

Looks like there is a Fishmans in Garner. If that’s too far to drive then try HD’s version. It’ll do what you need to get done.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Henry-549-7-lbs-Feather-Finish-Patch-and-Skimcoat-12163/100551687