**The Pros and Cons of Using Bondo**

Bondo is a type of putty that is commonly used in woodworking and home repair projects to fill gaps and holes in surfaces. However, it has several downsides that homeowners should be aware of before using it. For one, bondo can smell strongly and is highly flammable, making it a fire hazard if not handled properly. Additionally, the dust generated by sanding bondo can be hazardous to respiratory health, so it's essential to ventilate the area thoroughly and wear protective gear such as a respirator.

**Protecting Your Home and Yourself**

When working with bondo, it's crucial to take precautions to protect your home and yourself from potential damage. One effective way to do this is by using cereal boxes as a barrier between the bondo and surrounding surfaces. Cereal boxes are great for collecting dust and debris generated by sanding, and they can also be used to create a seal between the bondo and drywall or baseboards. Simply slide the box underneath the area where you'll be applying the bondo, and then use tape to secure it in place.

**Tools and Equipment**

To successfully apply and smooth out bondo, you'll need some specialized tools and equipment. A good starting point is a putty knife or a spreader, which can be purchased at most hardware stores for around five dollars. These tools are specifically designed for applying and smoothing out bondo, and they make the process much easier than trying to use a regular old knife or spatula. You'll also need some sanding sponges in different grits (80 and 180) to smooth out the surface once the bondo has dried.

**Applying Bondo**

To apply bondo, you'll first need to mix the two components together using a paint stirrer. Be sure to knead the mixture for about 30 seconds to ensure that the hardener is fully incorporated. Once the mixture is ready, use your putty knife or spreader to apply it to the area where you want to fill a gap or hole. Start by applying a small amount of bondo to the edge of the baseboard, and then gradually build up the coverage as needed.

**Tips and Tricks**

One tip that can make a big difference when working with bondo is to smooth out the surface as much as possible before applying the mixture. This will give you more time to work with the bondo once it's dry, and will result in a smoother finish overall. Another trick is to use a damp sponge to clean up any excess bondo or dust from the area. Finally, be sure to prime and paint your finished surface once the bondo has dried, as this will help protect the wood and ensure that it lasts for years to come.

**Choosing Between Bondo and DryDex**

Finally, it's worth noting that there are other options available when it comes to filling gaps and holes in surfaces. DryDex is a popular alternative to bondo that is known for its ease of use and durability. While it may not be as good at filling small gaps or holes, it's often preferred by homeowners who want a more seamless finish. Ultimately, the choice between bondo and DryDex will depend on your specific needs and preferences, so be sure to do some research and read reviews before making a decision.

**Conclusion**

Working with bondo can seem intimidating at first, but with the right tools and equipment, you can achieve professional-looking results in no time. By taking precautions to protect your home and yourself from potential hazards, and by following these tips and tricks, you'll be well on your way to filling gaps and holes like a pro. So go ahead, give bondo a try, and see what it can do for you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you're watching this video you probably have two questions what's the best way to fix open miters and also what's the best wood filler for this project as you can see here we have an open miter on an outside corner there's also a slate open miter on the inside corner by the way i did not install these baseboards somebody else did sometimes these open miters happen and that's okay you can fix them if you want to take the baseboard off and redo the miter if you choose to do that i have a tip for you some homeowners put sealant or caulking in between the baseboard and the wall if that's the case you want to take a utility knife and you want to score that caulking before you pull the baseboard trim off the wall that way you're not going to tear the paper and ruin the wall but if you don't want to take the baseboard off the wall we're going to show you two easy quick fixes of how to fix the open miter and the first one is using dry deck spackling i do want to say this is not a sponsored video by dap this is just a really great product you can use this for nail holes and baseboard and trim work as you can see it's pink and when it dries it actually turns white you'll see that a little bit later on to speed up this installation we're going to be using a three inch putty knife you don't necessarily have to use this but our baseboard trim is about that size so it's really going to make this process much faster also the great thing about a three inch knife is it does fit into the container and you can just immediately start applying this oh you know what i almost forgot one additional tip you definitely want to apply painters tape over top of your floors if you have hardwood floors good thing i remembered that so what we can do here is we're just going to feather this into the gap you really just want to try and fill this in the best that you can it doesn't have to be perfect at first you're going to be smoothing this out and working it into the joint that's really the most important thing you can use your finger to tool the dry decks into the joint you can also use your putty knife at a 45 degree angle to the baseboard to clean off the excess just make sure you work the dry decks into the outside miter and get it to look as good as possible it might be a little bit hard to see on camera but this is already drying after just a few minutes this is great because if you're doing this in the afternoon or over the weekend this project isn't going to take you very long and you're going to get good results while this is drying we'll apply the same spackling to the inside corner i simply applied the dry decks with my index finger to the inside miter and to clean this up i am going to use my putty knife this will take off that excess dry dex that's in the corner so another hot tip for you is this make sure you can find the paint that matches the trim work in your house you don't want to do any of this without doing that unless you want to go ahead and repaint this section of the baseboard the next step was use a damp sponge to sand down the dry decks you can use a clean cloth or a rag to dry down the baseboard as you can see the miter looks pretty darn good then you can prime it and paint it to make it look awesome drydex is a great product because it's very forgiving easy to use easy to sand it has the dry time indicator so once it turns from pink to white you can sand it with a sponge that'll help cut down on the dust and make cleanup much easier now what if you have high traffic in your house a high traffic area with kids and pets who are constantly bumping into the baseboards and you have these open miters that you need to fix what product would be good for that situation well that product is bondo this is what you want to use if you want to fix your open miters and you want them to be pretty much indestructible a few things you should know about bondo it stinks it's highly flammable so those are some of the downsides to using it make sure you ventilate your house also wear some type of respirator this is a silica dust respirator so you should want to use something like this to protect your lungs if you're going to be sanding the bondo also because the miter is over top of carpet and continues onto hardwood we're going to protect this area using ta-da a cereal box top or side by the way who doesn't love cheerios and what is the bee's name does anybody know that let me know in the comments cereal boxes are great because they can slide underneath the baseboard and meet up with the drywall that's underneath it so put a cereal box underneath this and then you can do the exact same thing on the other side so now you're going to protect this entire space and if you want to really be anal retentive you can use painters tape underneath just to make sure that you don't have any kind of problems over top of the carpet then we'll slide this underneath the other thing that you want are some protective gloves for your hands you don't want to get the bondo on your hands so wear some type of glove that will protect your skin also i highly recommend getting some of these spreaders you can get these at your home store for like five bucks these are great for using bondo you'll also need some sanding sponges hot tip for you you need an 80 grit and a 180 grit when you take them out of the packages sometimes it's hard to tell between the two of them if you're not using these all the time so just make sure you write the grit on the sides of the sponge that way you won't forget which is which step one is use your 80 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges where the open miter is located so we're just going to lightly sand another benefit of having these cereal boxes in here is to collect all the dust as you can see i'm just taking off the primer where the open miter is located then you want to use a damp sponge to clean that area you don't want any dust on the surface and to speed this up i'm going to take a clean rag and dry off the surface there are two parts to the bondo there's actually a cream hardener inside here so this is the cream hardener and what you want to do is try to press on this to mix up the hardener on the inside of the tube that's really important so you want to try to knead this for about 30 seconds or so also you need a non-porous surface to mix the bondo on top of the next step is to open up the bondo and the goal here is to pull out a three inch diameter circle that's roughly a half inch thick using a paint stirrer helps out quite a bit with this so i recommend getting a paint stirrer and the next step is to open up the cream hardener and put a little bead on top of the putty just a little bead like that is all you need then mix up the two components of the bondo another really great tip is to try and smooth this out because the flatter you make it the more working time you have and you need to mix this for approximately two minutes so after two minutes what you can do is then use one of your spreaders to spread this into the open miter now obviously this is a ton we don't need as much so you're just going to have a little bit on the spreader and we're going to go ahead and fill this so once again it's really hard to mess up this process because in this case it's such a small open miter and these spreaders are great for this particular project so again you just want to try and smooth off any of the bondo that is on the edge of the baseboard and again you can tool the joint with your finger and make it look a lot better it's literally only been like two minutes and this is already pretty hard so one way to cut down on the bondo dust is just again use a sponge on this as well and then for whatever reason the sponge doesn't work for you then you can use the 180 grit to get a smoother finish then we'll go ahead and prime and paint this and make it look like it was brand new drydex is easier to use than bondo but bondo is great for high traffic areas and rock solid but i'm curious let me know down in the comments which one you would use drydex or bondo and if you like this video and you got some great tips give it a thumbs up that way somebody else will be able to find it alright we'll see you in the next tutorial take careif you're watching this video you probably have two questions what's the best way to fix open miters and also what's the best wood filler for this project as you can see here we have an open miter on an outside corner there's also a slate open miter on the inside corner by the way i did not install these baseboards somebody else did sometimes these open miters happen and that's okay you can fix them if you want to take the baseboard off and redo the miter if you choose to do that i have a tip for you some homeowners put sealant or caulking in between the baseboard and the wall if that's the case you want to take a utility knife and you want to score that caulking before you pull the baseboard trim off the wall that way you're not going to tear the paper and ruin the wall but if you don't want to take the baseboard off the wall we're going to show you two easy quick fixes of how to fix the open miter and the first one is using dry deck spackling i do want to say this is not a sponsored video by dap this is just a really great product you can use this for nail holes and baseboard and trim work as you can see it's pink and when it dries it actually turns white you'll see that a little bit later on to speed up this installation we're going to be using a three inch putty knife you don't necessarily have to use this but our baseboard trim is about that size so it's really going to make this process much faster also the great thing about a three inch knife is it does fit into the container and you can just immediately start applying this oh you know what i almost forgot one additional tip you definitely want to apply painters tape over top of your floors if you have hardwood floors good thing i remembered that so what we can do here is we're just going to feather this into the gap you really just want to try and fill this in the best that you can it doesn't have to be perfect at first you're going to be smoothing this out and working it into the joint that's really the most important thing you can use your finger to tool the dry decks into the joint you can also use your putty knife at a 45 degree angle to the baseboard to clean off the excess just make sure you work the dry decks into the outside miter and get it to look as good as possible it might be a little bit hard to see on camera but this is already drying after just a few minutes this is great because if you're doing this in the afternoon or over the weekend this project isn't going to take you very long and you're going to get good results while this is drying we'll apply the same spackling to the inside corner i simply applied the dry decks with my index finger to the inside miter and to clean this up i am going to use my putty knife this will take off that excess dry dex that's in the corner so another hot tip for you is this make sure you can find the paint that matches the trim work in your house you don't want to do any of this without doing that unless you want to go ahead and repaint this section of the baseboard the next step was use a damp sponge to sand down the dry decks you can use a clean cloth or a rag to dry down the baseboard as you can see the miter looks pretty darn good then you can prime it and paint it to make it look awesome drydex is a great product because it's very forgiving easy to use easy to sand it has the dry time indicator so once it turns from pink to white you can sand it with a sponge that'll help cut down on the dust and make cleanup much easier now what if you have high traffic in your house a high traffic area with kids and pets who are constantly bumping into the baseboards and you have these open miters that you need to fix what product would be good for that situation well that product is bondo this is what you want to use if you want to fix your open miters and you want them to be pretty much indestructible a few things you should know about bondo it stinks it's highly flammable so those are some of the downsides to using it make sure you ventilate your house also wear some type of respirator this is a silica dust respirator so you should want to use something like this to protect your lungs if you're going to be sanding the bondo also because the miter is over top of carpet and continues onto hardwood we're going to protect this area using ta-da a cereal box top or side by the way who doesn't love cheerios and what is the bee's name does anybody know that let me know in the comments cereal boxes are great because they can slide underneath the baseboard and meet up with the drywall that's underneath it so put a cereal box underneath this and then you can do the exact same thing on the other side so now you're going to protect this entire space and if you want to really be anal retentive you can use painters tape underneath just to make sure that you don't have any kind of problems over top of the carpet then we'll slide this underneath the other thing that you want are some protective gloves for your hands you don't want to get the bondo on your hands so wear some type of glove that will protect your skin also i highly recommend getting some of these spreaders you can get these at your home store for like five bucks these are great for using bondo you'll also need some sanding sponges hot tip for you you need an 80 grit and a 180 grit when you take them out of the packages sometimes it's hard to tell between the two of them if you're not using these all the time so just make sure you write the grit on the sides of the sponge that way you won't forget which is which step one is use your 80 grit sandpaper to clean up the edges where the open miter is located so we're just going to lightly sand another benefit of having these cereal boxes in here is to collect all the dust as you can see i'm just taking off the primer where the open miter is located then you want to use a damp sponge to clean that area you don't want any dust on the surface and to speed this up i'm going to take a clean rag and dry off the surface there are two parts to the bondo there's actually a cream hardener inside here so this is the cream hardener and what you want to do is try to press on this to mix up the hardener on the inside of the tube that's really important so you want to try to knead this for about 30 seconds or so also you need a non-porous surface to mix the bondo on top of the next step is to open up the bondo and the goal here is to pull out a three inch diameter circle that's roughly a half inch thick using a paint stirrer helps out quite a bit with this so i recommend getting a paint stirrer and the next step is to open up the cream hardener and put a little bead on top of the putty just a little bead like that is all you need then mix up the two components of the bondo another really great tip is to try and smooth this out because the flatter you make it the more working time you have and you need to mix this for approximately two minutes so after two minutes what you can do is then use one of your spreaders to spread this into the open miter now obviously this is a ton we don't need as much so you're just going to have a little bit on the spreader and we're going to go ahead and fill this so once again it's really hard to mess up this process because in this case it's such a small open miter and these spreaders are great for this particular project so again you just want to try and smooth off any of the bondo that is on the edge of the baseboard and again you can tool the joint with your finger and make it look a lot better it's literally only been like two minutes and this is already pretty hard so one way to cut down on the bondo dust is just again use a sponge on this as well and then for whatever reason the sponge doesn't work for you then you can use the 180 grit to get a smoother finish then we'll go ahead and prime and paint this and make it look like it was brand new drydex is easier to use than bondo but bondo is great for high traffic areas and rock solid but i'm curious let me know down in the comments which one you would use drydex or bondo and if you like this video and you got some great tips give it a thumbs up that way somebody else will be able to find it alright we'll see you in the next tutorial take care\n"