What Grit Sandpaper for Drywall? A Pro's Guide to Every Stage

For house flippers and professionals alike, careful attention to technique is the key to achieving professional results with drywall finishing. It’s tempting to rush through drywall installation and finishing and move on to the next project, but following each step in the process will make your walls and ceilings shine under any light. This includes sanding.

Knowing what grit sandpaper to use for drywall is just as important as understanding how to properly sand it. This sanding drywall grit guide breaks down the best type of sandpaper for drywall and covers why to choose specific grits for different stages.

The Standard Drywall Sanding Grit Progression

Professional drywallers use more than one type of sandpaper depending on where they are in the job. The best sandpaper for drywall preparation for painting is much different than the best grit for cleaning up your tape. Professionals consistently use these standard grits:

• 80 – 100 grit: Use semi-coarse grit sandpaper to level and shape the surface after the joint compound dries.
• 120 – 150 grit: Use medium grit for general sanding to smooth out surfaces and prepare the surface for a final sanding.
• 150 – 220 grit: Once the joint compound is even and blends in with the rest of the surface, use fine-grit sandpaper to refine the finish and prepare the surface for paint.

Hyde Tools offers sanding sponges and sanding discs in different grits to suit your needs.

First Pass: When To Reach for Coarse Abrasives

Coarse sandpaper is abrasive. Overusing it scuffs your drywall. Over-sanding with too coarse a grit can damage your drywall’s paper coat and leave it looking fuzzy, so keep your drywall clean by saving coarse abrasives for leveling joint compound and fixing ridges.

Semi-coarse sandpaper with 80 – 100 grit is great for hot mud, which dries fast and dries hard. Hot mud becomes dense when it’s dry. Trying to smooth it with a fine-grit sandpaper would take forever and clog your sander. You end up switching sandpaper pads more often and doing much more work than you need to.

Coarser grits are better for gripping and removing excess material. They are not gentle, though, so don’t use them for finishing.

Intermediate Sanding for a Seamless Blend

If you’re great at applying and feathering your joint compound and don’t want to carry multiple types of sandpaper, 120 – 150 grit is your best all-purpose solution. It’s abrasive enough to level wet joint compound and feather your edges, but delicate enough not to damage the drywall.

You can accomplish most drywall sanding, from blending seams and feathering edges, with medium grits. Smoothing and feathering your drywall mud makes your joints disappear once you’ve painted the surface. If you’re covering up damage to old drywall or adding new drywall to an existing area, this step helps you blend the new drywall with the old.

Application tips for best results include:

• Choosing The Right Tools: Use Hyde’s sanding sponge to finish corners and tight spaces with ease, and consider our dust-free sanders for large surfaces to sand drywall without dust. Pole sanders help you finish large areas faster and reach ceilings and higher walls.
• Starting With A Coarser Grit: Even if you’re only using medium-grit sandpaper, start with 120-grit to smooth out rough areas and switch to the 150-grit to feather and finish. Use 120-grit or coarser when fixing drywall mistakes.
• Minding Your Pressure: Use light, consistent pressure and hand sand in a circular motion to avoid over-sanding.
• Checking Your Work: Step back and shine a flashlight or another light source over the surface to see imperfections and avoid removing too much material.
• Filling Deep Imperfections: If your drywall mud has cracked or has a deep gouge, fill it with joint compound and feather it with sandpaper once it’s dry. Your surface will be more consistent, and you won’t risk damaging the drywall.

Final Pass: Achieving a Paint-Ready Finish

When you’ve finished smoothing and feathering, use a fine-grit sandpaper to prepare your surface for paint. Fine-grit sandpaper will even out small imperfections and help your paint adhere to the surface.

Professionals don’t use sandpaper finer than 220-grit even when preparing for paint. This grit removes small scratches and imperfections in joint compound without damaging drywall paper and other coatings.

You may be tempted to try 400-grit or higher for a sleeker surface that looks polished when it’s painted. But using sandpaper that’s too fine for drywall mud slows you down. It’s too fine for drywall mud, so your sandpaper will get clogged faster. It also takes longer to achieve a similar finish you could get with 220-grit for drywall.

Choosing Between Paper, Screens, and Sponges

You have different abrasive options for sanding your drywall, including sandpaper, sanding screens, and net abrasives. When you decide on drywall screens vs. sandpaper, consider your goals. Which abrasive is best depends on your surface area and how much precision you want. Your drywall tool collection may include a mix of sandpaper and drywall screens.

You can rinse a drywall screen between uses, and these tools resist clogs. Use them for large surface areas and projects in which you want to remove a lot of material quickly. Switch to sanding sponges when you’re working on corners, with uneven surfaces, or in areas where you want precision. Sanding sponges are flexible and move with corners and curves. They’re also easy to control.

Upgrade Your Drywall Sanding Setup

Sanding your drywall creates an even surface for paint and allows seamless transitions between old and new drywall. If you’re working in a space that requires multiple patches to the wall, a proper sanding job will hide the repair.

Use proven techniques such as starting with a coarse grit and finishing fine. Bring the right kit to each job with a range of hand tools and pole sanders from Hyde Tools. View our collection of drywall sanding tools to find the best options for your needs.