Behind the Scenes with Gilbert Taping: Exploring the Possibilities with Trim-Tex

In August 2023, we had the pleasure of welcoming Allison and Kaïla Gilbert to Trim-Tex headquarters in Lincolnwood, Illinois. You might know them as skilled drywall finishers or as social media superstars who not only gained popularity for their precision and craftsmanship but also their charming personalities and sense of humor.

During their visit, they saw how our corner beads are made, met our team, empowered our Women’s Group, and explored the vast selection of our solutions, all while remembering the core products that first put Trim-Tex on their radar.

Behind the Scenes with Gilbert Taping: Exploring the Possibilities with Trim-Tex

Trim-Tex: What was the highlight of your visit?

Allison: It was nice looking around the factory, seeing where all the product comes from and everything that goes into it. We use your product all the time, but we never knew that you recycle all this plastic that goes into the corners, what the process looks like and that you do everything in one facility.

Kaïla: We got introduced to a lot of different products that we’ve never seen before. And everyone was so welcoming and nice. It was overall a great experience.

Allison: And seeing everything that's been created in all the offices and around with all the different products, that was really nice.

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Trim-Tex: You spent some time with our Women’s Group, teaching them how to fix commonly encountered drywall repair issues. How was that?

Kaïla: Oh, that was great. It was super inclusive and felt close. Everyone was super nice, and it felt like they were willing to learn from us.

Allison: It almost felt like a big group of friends just patching holes together.

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Trim-Tex: What were your favorite Trim-Tex products before visiting our headquarters?

Allison: The Tear Aways and Archways because there's no other product you can get the arch with. And for Tear Away, I mean, there's other options but the Flat Tear Away saved us many, many times when there was no space to have anything go into the back of the wall.

Kaïla: We’ve used Tear Away a little bit everywhere; windows, doors, sometimes when drywall ends up butting up to a brick wall. And we’ve been seeing a lot more archways.

Allison: Yeah, like every second or third house now. It’s simple details but it still adds a lot of character to the house and the product works well.

Kaïla: But Chamfer Bead is our favorite look and we actually installed it in our father’s house.

Allison: We all like the look of it, it makes everything feel more open. We did drywall around the basement windows, and I find that Chamfer just makes it even more open with the light coming in.

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Trim-Tex: Now that you learned about all our products, which ones do you wish you could use on your jobs?

Allison: Closed Angle and Fast Edge Paper, those were the two things that we didn’t even know were available and now we’re hoping to get out in Edmonton.

Trim-Tex: Why?

Kaïla: Honestly, the Mud Lock Technology is really good. With other paper-covered beads, sometimes you get air bubbles behind and stuff like that. And with Fast Edge Paper, we haven’t had any problems like that. It’s actually refreshing.

Allison: Even with really bad framing, you’ll see we’ll have to fill a big gap with mud before putting the bead on, and it doesn’t pull back out. It just stays in place. It’s easy to work with, and we can get a nice straight line at the end of the day. And I love that you can play a little with the angle of it. So that would help as well because we can make it an 81-degree like those Closed Angle beads and have that same result but use less mud.

Kaïla: Buttboard, for sure.

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Trim-Tex: You’re not framers, you’re not hangers, but you finish the drywall. Do you wish your hangers used Buttboard?

Allison: Absolutely, yeah! That would save so much time. If you could align all the butts together, it would be so easy to finish. Even if you coat by hand, you’d just have to run one joint rather than multiple. And you only have to go 12-inch wide rather than 30. Though sometimes we've had to go even seven trowels wide because of how crooked it was.

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Kaïla: There are just so many possibilities that it makes you wish you could talk directly to the builder and say, “you should do this, you should do that,” instead of just working with everything square all the time. Sometimes we get jobs with Reveals or Archways, but usually it’s just all plain and modern. But I get that’s kind of the new trend.

Allison: Yeah, the new trend is like big square rooms with no details. I mean, it's easy to work with but we don't get to use all the different products that we think could elevate a space.

Kaïla: It’s like limiting in terms of artistic creation.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Allison and Kaïla, whose visit was a refreshing blend of discovery and camaraderie. We’re glad we were able to take them behind the scenes and get to know them better. They came away armed with knowledge and inspiration, ready to bring a new level of expertise and creativity to the world of drywall.

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This interview has been edited and condensed.

Behind the Scenes with Gilbert Taping: Exploring the Possibilities with Trim-Tex

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