Trowel vs jointer for striking joints - which one actually saves time?

Been going back and forth on this for a while now. I always used a jointer for my red brick jobs, but last week on a 2000 brick wall in Denver I tried a trowel the whole way. It was faster to set up but my joints looked uneven in places. Which tool do you guys lean on for production work and why?

3 comments

3 Comments

wilson.kelly2mo ago

Honestly I was all about the jointer until I watched a guy on site rip through a whole wall with a trowel and it looked way cleaner than mine, lol. Totally changed my mind, now I just practice the trowel motion more to keep it even.

grace_bailey2mo ago

Gotta stop you there though, a trowel isn't really the right tool for cutting through drywall unless you're doing a real rough tear out. A trowel is more for smoothing and spreading mud, not for ripping walls. If you're going for clean cuts, you still want a good sharp utility knife or a drywall saw. If that guy made it look clean with a trowel, he probably just got lucky or has a ton of experience hiding the mess afterwards. Just watch your blades, don't let the trowel trick you into thinking it's the go-to for everything.

robin_roberts842mo ago

Honestly I think you're overcomplicating it... "a real rough tear out" isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes you don't need a clean cut, you just need the wall open fast. I've seen guys use a trowel to pop through old lath and plaster in minutes, way faster than messing with a utility blade that'll dull on the first nail. And that trowel trick working clean? It's not luck, it's about how you angle the blade and use the flat edge to score first. Not every job needs surgical precision, sometimes rough and fast wins the day.