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What is “Joint Compound” Called in Your Country?

Paper Mache Fish

You may be able to help out our growing international online artist community. We need to know what joint compound is called in other countries.

The home-made paper mache clay recipe I created (recipe here) is made with premixed drywall joint compound and Elmer’s Glue-All® as the main ingredients, along with toilet paper and linseed oil.

At least, that’s what they’re called at my local hardware store, here in Oregon.

But joint compound is called something else in other countries, and the Elmer’s brand isn’t available at all in some places. So – I’m hoping you can help out your fellow artists and craftpeople wherever you may live, and help me put together a list of product names for locally available materials that will work to make paper mache clay.

On another note, the DAP brand drywall joint compound will not work in the paper mache clay recipe. An ingredient in their formula causes the mixture of glue and joint compound to get rubbery or stiff. I like the ProForm joint compound that is sold in the paint department at Walmart.

So far, the translations we have for the joint compound are:

  • “Drywall joint compound” in the United States (guys in the construction industry call it “mud”)
  • “Drywall filler” in Canada
  • “Joint filler” in the UK
  • “Fugenspachtel” in Germany
  • “Joint finish” in Australia
  • “Voegenmiddel” in Dutch, according to one reader – but Elizabeth says the correct translation of joint compound in Dutch is gipsplaatvuller.
  • In India I believe it’s called “wall putty“
  • In Guatemala joint compound is known as Pasta de Tablayesero
  • In Portugal, joint compound is known as ” Massa de Juntas”. Em Portugal é massa de juntas, a massa que é utilizada para unir placas de Pladur. Vende-se/sells at Leroy Merlin and AKI.

The product is normally used to fill in the cracks between two pieces of drywall (also called wallboard, sheetrock or plasterboard) when new walls are built or old ones are repaired. The primary ingredient in join compound (in the US) is calcium carbonate. Pure calcium carbonate in dry powder form is sold in art stores as “powdered marble.” But we don’t want the powdered stuff, we want the kind of joint compound that is already mixed up and ready to use. It’s sold in a plastic tub, usually one or five gallons. In the UK the primary ingredient is another form of calcium called” gypsum,” which seems to work just as well.

Just a bit of history–the recipe for paper mache clay happened because I started using a recipe for home-made gesso, which uses Elmer’s Glue-All and powdered marble. The gesso dries very hard, but you can still sand it perfectly smooth. I decided to see what happens when you use a cheaper form of calcium carbonate (the joint compound) and add fine paper (toilet paper) and linseed or mineral oil. Voila–paper mache clay was born, a new sculptural medium that’s cheap to make and easy to use.

Just in case you’re wondering, the paper mache clay can be used on any of my animal sculpture and mask patterns.

The glue can also be difficult to find. Elmer’s Glue-All makes wonderful paper mache clay. But Elmer’s Carpenters glue doesn’t work, and their ‘school” brand doesn’t work either.

Laura from Canada tried Lepage White Glue and it did work. What you’re looking for is a PVA glue —but do buy the smallest container you can find and experiment to make sure your brand will work.

Just so you know why it’s important–if you use the “wrong”  glue, the clay looks curdled or dry or flakey, and you can’t use it.

So–can you help us out? Know anyone in the construction or remodeling industry in your country who might be able to come up with the local name for “joint compound?” Your help will be much appreciated by frustrated sculptors everywhere. 🙂

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580 thoughts on “What is “Joint Compound” Called in Your Country?”

  1. Hi Jonni any everyone else here,
    The “joint compound” is called “??” (mel)in Persian, and I have yet to see the industrial ready mixed types sold in buckets anywhere, should I just use the mel powder and mix it with powder?

    Love from Iran<3

    Reply

    • Hi Shafagh. I don’t know if that would work or not. I know the pre-mixed joint compound is almost impossible to find in Iran, so you would need to do some experimenting. If they sell the powdered type with labels that say how long they take to set up (five minutes, twenty minutes, etc) choose the longest one. That way, if you’re making paper mache clay with it, you won’t need to worry about it getting hard before you want it to. You’ll need to adjust the water in the recipe, of course.

      Good luck with it.

      Reply

  2. Dear Jonni and community,
    I’ve recently landed in the Netherlands (Utrecht) for a while and am discovering that while “Voegenmiddel” is indeed a direct translation of the words “joint compound” here there is nothing like the substance we use in the US. There is no product called Voegenmiddel in fact. Here drywall is joined or repaired with a very lightweight paste or liquid substance in a tube. There are many varieties of powdered mortars for use in tile work, but the majority are very fast to dry… They do have PVC glue here however (elmer’s type). The major DIY shops here (Gamma and Praxis) are staffed with people who don’t know much about what they are selling. I have still to go to the more professional hardware place Hornbach to ask about calcium carbonate products. I also have access to plaster…but am equally unfamiliar in how to adapt it. If anyone has suggestions, please advise! My project is making replica armor based on 16th century English parade armor. Thin layers sanded and finished in decoupage.

    Reply

    • Hi Susan. You might try asking if they have a product made with gypsum. Or find someone who builds lots of walls out of plasterboard. They wouldn’t connect the sheets with something that comes from a tube – that would be way too expensive. Other than that, I don’t know how to help. If you can’t find the ingredients for the paper mache clay, you might try traditional paper pulp, which is often used by paper mache artists. There are a lot of tutorials using paper pulp at http://www.papiermache.co.uk/

      Reply

      • Thanks Jonni. The gypsum products abound in the wall departments here, but are too fast-setting (a paste I made yesterday from 2 parts water to 1 parts gypsum plaster (and .5 PVA glue) hardened within 10 minutes to a crumbly mess). Will let you know what mixture and ingredients I finally land on, I can see this will take a lot of messy trial and error ;).

        Reply

          • Hi Shirley,
            Thanks for asking…I tried different things for a month or so and gave up – the product (as it is mixed in the states) doesn’t exist here (checked in gamma, praxis, hornbach) – i would have to become a polymer chemist to mix it myself. There are “vullers” (fillers) but they are for small-scale patching and come in small containers or tubes, are extremely lightweight/not dense, and expensive to use in quantity. The way I was using the product in the US was as a kind of sculptural medium, rather than for laying out a surface. For the armor I continued to work on here, I Instead used non-toxic white glue (lijm or collant) powder mixed with water to a jelly consistency and sometimes a measure of gesso paint, depending on the base color desired. This creates a very taut, drum-like surface when the paper strips dry, because they shrink a little. I changed from newsprint to tissue paper (like for gift wrapping)…so the surface is somewhat translucent when dry. However I ended up making other projects this year and not focusing on papier mâché technique so the experimenting will continue another time!

            Reply

  4. Hi Jonni, in South Africa we call joint compound “Polyfilla” which is an interior crack filler.
    Elmer’s glue sounds similar to Ponal (the brand name for a cold glue). I have also used white project glue which seemed to work nicely.

    Reply

  5. in Estonia all the drywall “muds” are hellishly specialised. One is strictly “joint compound” with marking J. This is extra strong, made specially for taping. Dont put it too thick!
    Then there are “muds” for the first coat, you can use these for filling and straightening walls, thickness approximately 1-10mm.
    And then there are thin skimming muds, for coating 0-3mm thick.
    And you can NOT make the mistake buying wrong mud or making the coat too thick!
    And they are all called “pahtel” in estonian.
    AND – then there are something like “gypsum stuccos”. these are not plasters, but stuccos, but very similar. You can use them 4-50mm thick.
    And some of them are for wet rooms a some are only for dry rooms. and every brand has all the range of these products! You can go mad easily!

    Reply

  6. Hello jonni, in colombia the elmer glue is named “colbon” but the material as known in the industrial universe as pva ( poly vinyl acetate)
    Best regards and a huge hug
    Please forgive my poor english

    Reply

  8. Hola Jonni! Muchas gracias por tu receta! En mi pais, Argentina, llamamos al producto para rellenar juntas, ENDUIDO.
    Felicitaciones por tus trabajos y muchos saludos desde aqui! Elbi.

    Reply

  9. Hello from south of France!

    In french, “joint compound” is “enduit”, something like “coated”. In powder to be mixed with water, or in paste ready for use.
    It is used to fill holes in walls ( “enduit de rebouchage”), or to smooth ( “enduit de lissage”) the surface of the wall before painting. I think that the second one is better, easier to sand.

    Thank you for all your advises and the beautiful things you do. (and I apologize for my bad english!!!)

    Friendly
    Sylviane

    Reply

  10. Here in Brazil it´s called “Massa para Drywall”.

    And I produce it in my factory. And I´m looking for a partner to bring news technologies for dry construction to Brazil.

    Genilson Rocha

    Reply

  11. Hi, I just pulped some cardboard and wonder if the glue and joint compound formula would work well with this?
    Thank you, Heidi

    Reply

  13. Sweden:
    Elmer’s Glue is, as many have stated, a PVC glue. In Sweden that would be almost any basic wood glue for indoor use. Casco Trälim Indoor is one of the more easily found ones.

    caveat: I have not yet tried this, but PVA glue is a pretty standard generic thing.

    Reply

  14. Regarding:
    So far, for the joint compound we have:

    In Denmark we call it “fugemasse” – one of the brands is Polyfilla – and often we call it Polyfilla even it is another brand..
    In a short time I am going to try to make this paperclay – so cannot tell you if it is working the right way – yet…

    Have a nice day.
    Regards
    arne

    kniplerier@gmail.com

    would send an ordinary mail – but there is no e-mail.adress – so could not send it..

    Reply

    • Hi Arne

      I’m from South Africa and we also have a product called Ployfilla.
      I can’t find anything else similar to the joint compound descriptions on this site, so I would love to know if your paper clay worked out well when you use Ployfilla as the joint compound ingredient?

      Thanks a lot
      Melissa

      melwatson77@gmail.com

      Reply

    • Hi Arne/Jonni

      I tried to reply you but it attached to the post below from Adam… That’s typical of me and technology…

      Please can you check it there about the Ployfilla?

      The only thing is that it always comes in small tubs – 250ml or 500ml and is quite stiff stuff that is used with a scraper to fill cracks….

      What we use in South Africa to join dry wall sheets is called rhino glide… Don’t know why as it has nothing to do with rhinos… I don’t think you can buy it premixed and it dries really fast…

      Jonnni – firstly, you’re an angel for sharing your discovery with us – thank you so much! Xxx! Sorry to keep bothering you with this but could you please try to describe the consistency and appearance of the joint compound that you use and maybe the ingredients if they are listed on the tub?
      That might help me to find the S.A version of it…

      Thanks a million ?
      Melissa

      Reply

      • Hi Melissa. Our drywall joint compound is mostly calcium carbonate, I believe. The dry product that you mix with water sounds like the rhino glide you described, because it contains plaster so it will harden quickly. I recommend using the premixed kind, that comes in a plastic tub. It’s thick, but can easily be scooped up on a knife.

        I hope that helps.

        Reply

  16. Olá, aqui no Brasil o composto chama-se Massa corrida PVA , o custo aqui é barato e temos grande variedade de marcas.
    A Massa PVA é a base de resina vinílica, é usada para nivelar superfícies, corrigir trincas e junções de alvenaria e concreto, ideal para acabamento em paredes internas.
    Adorei seu vídeo e seus trabalhos!
    Obrigado por compartilhar seu conhecimento conosco…
    Boa Noite e um abraço!

    Reply

  17. In Argentina its referred to as “masilla” which traslates roughly to “doughy”. Perhaps because most doughs are white and mix water and flowr (powder). Joint compound used to be really heavy here. Now it looks more like frosting.

    Reply

  18. Hi
    I look for this “joint compound” in my country (Turkey) for a few months. 🙂
    I found it at last. It is named “derz dolgu alç?s?” meaning in english “gypsumboard joint filler” 😉

    Reply

  19. Hi
    I look for this “joint compound” in my country (Turkey) for a few months. 🙂
    I found it at last. It is named “derz dolgu alç?s?” meaning in english “gypsumboard joint filler” 😉

    Reply

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