Drywall repairs

[Winemaker]

I am having a piece of drywall replaced 8'x 16" replaced because of a dumba$$ tenant, who has rented from me for 17 years. I would normally do it myself, but my blood boils over her stupidity of ignoring her self created water leak. The repair includes cutting out and replacing the bad piece, scrapping surrounding loose material, and repainting using my paint, quoted at $285, making 3 visits.

 

[NgineER]

A good drywall guy would use 5 minute setting (hot) mud and get the job done in an hour finish and all. But you’d still probably pay $100 to get it fixed, not worth it otherwise. Very hard to not get cracks if you have a hole cut out due to having to fill the gap with a drying mud that will shrink and crack.

 

[NgineER]

A popcorn ceiling is very easy... The ceiling part makes it difficult.

Nice work senator

 

[DatumPoint5]

Unfortunately, some dust is unavoidable.

For a small job like this, I would not use a sander. You can get the same (if not better) results by taking a bucket of clean water, soaking a dishrag/dishtowel in the water and repeatedly running them over the seam of the sheetrock paste (after the paste dries). Sometimes takes a minute or two to re-activate the paste..... I have been finishing walls/ceilings to a "glass smooth" finish with this method for years.

 

[Cobra9777]

I did the exact same repair several years ago, and for same reason. It's OK, but I've never been totally happy with the result. You can see a faint line along the edges if the light hits it a certain way. And the texture is close but noticeably different. The texture in that room is "crow's foot," which cannot be sprayed on. I bought the proper texture brush and practiced on some scrap drywall. But the finished result was just... blah. I think I may have overdone it, i.e. tried to make too many crow's feet in a small area.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably hire a painter or handyman who has more experience than I do. We had a painter replace a 15 X 10 foot section of ceiling in our master bedroom after a leak. He charged $900 and that included re-texturing the entire ceiling and painting. He did a reasonably nice job. After he was done, I had to do some touch-up painting where the ceiling meets the wall. Wall and ceiling are different colors and I wasn't happy with the line.

 

[Grabberson]

My lifelong hobby has been remodeling. I've done everything from replace water heaters to install pocket doors, and of course, lots and lots of drywall. I frequently do stuff like this with my friends for the low-low price of materials, conversation and beers. I help and guide them as they do the actual work.

Do you have a knowledgeable friend and can tackle this together? You might have a great time, learn a ton, and be able to do drywall yourself from now on. What an opportunity!

 

[Koogie]

The difficulty I had with the textured walls and ceiling was painting it afterwards, in my case the ceilings and walls are painted a different color. Very difficult to get a straight line cut in between the walls and ceiling, painters tape by itself just doesn't work in this case.

Saw a tip on Youtube once for that (never had to do it myself).

Take a flathead screwdriver and run the edge along the joint where the wall sheet meets the ceiling sheet. Essentially creating a shallow groove. Then when you paint there is a clearly delineated line between the wall and the ceiling. It makes a clean transition point that pleases the eye.

 

[Chuckanut]

Saw a tip on Youtube once for that (never had to do it myself).

Take a flathead screwdriver and run the edge along the joint where the wall sheet meets the ceiling sheet. Essentially creating a shallow groove. Then when you paint there is a clearly delineated line between the wall and the ceiling. It makes a clean transition point that pleases the eye.

WOW! Thanks for that tip. I have the exact same problem. I try to fill in the little hills and valleys with a very fine tipped art style painters brush and it helps, but getting a straight line is not possible. I will try that the next time I paint a room.

The problem with doing the drywall repair myself is that it is the ceiling and I have doubts as to how well I can do that myself. I have done small repairs in walls and that is not a big issue. I often do small repairs myself. But doing it from a ladder looking up in a small cramped bathroom, while trying to attach a chunk of drywall that will probably be 3x5 feet once I cut out the messy junk, well.... not so sure it is worth the effort.

 

[wolf]

WOW! Thanks for that tip. I have the exact same problem. I try to fill in the little hills and valleys with a very fine tipped art style painters brush and it helps, but getting a straight line is not possible. I will try that the next time I paint a room.

The problem with doing the drywall repair myself is that it is the ceiling and I have doubts as to how well I can do that myself. I have done small repairs in walls and that is not a big issue. I often do small repairs myself. But doing it from a ladder looking up in a small cramped bathroom, while trying to attach a chunk of drywall that will probably be 3x5 feet once I cut out the messy junk, well.... not so sure it is worth the effort.

Get a friend to help hold up the drywall.

If no friend, build simple "T" frame as your extra hands. Or should I say "H" frame using 2x4s.

 

[NgineER]

You could also screw a 2x4 to the wall to make a shelf to rest one end of the drywall on and then use a 2x4 to hold the other end up with, or just screw it in.
As you move away from the wall, screw the 2x4 in the next sheet right before the Joint to form the shelf. Works well on a lower ceiling, but anything over 8’ will be trickier.

 

[Jerry1]

Saw a tip on Youtube once for that (never had to do it myself).

Take a flathead screwdriver and run the edge along the joint where the wall sheet meets the ceiling sheet. Essentially creating a shallow groove. Then when you paint there is a clearly delineated line between the wall and the ceiling. It makes a clean transition point that pleases the eye.

WOW! Thanks for that tip. I have the exact same problem. I try to fill in the little hills and valleys with a very fine tipped art style painters brush and it helps, but getting a straight line is not possible. I will try that the next time I paint a room.

One thing I learned in painting over the years is that after you paint the ceiling (with some overlap onto the wall), it looks better to just take your brush and cut in along the ceiling. What I found out is that it looks bad if you don't go all the way to the ceiling because (obviously), you see the ceiling color on the wall (usually white and very noticeable). The "trick" is that you go up to the ceiling with your brush - cutting in the best you can. The reward is that if you get a little (very little, we're not being sloppy here), it is very difficult to see the wall color on the ceiling. You'd basically have to stand under the area being very close to the wall and look up. Otherwise, with natural shading and just the angle, you're not going to see the wall color on the ceiling. Long smooth strokes with the cut in bristles just touching the ceiling and you'll be looking good.

 

[Music Lover]

Cutting paint in corners and applying mud are both skills that require some time to learn. I can do both competently now after lots of practice, but when I first started it looked horrible.

 

[zinger1457]

Saw a tip on Youtube once for that (never had to do it myself).

Take a flathead screwdriver and run the edge along the joint where the wall sheet meets the ceiling sheet. Essentially creating a shallow groove. Then when you paint there is a clearly delineated line between the wall and the ceiling. It makes a clean transition point that pleases the eye.

After some trial and error this is the tip I ended up using, may seem like extra work but the results were excellent. Place a nice bead of caulking between the wall and ceiling joint. This fills in any ridges from the texture and gives you a nice smooth joint to work with. Paint the ceiling and paint over the caulking completely going down the wall 1-2". Tape the joint along the caulking to get ready to paint the walls then paint the tape edge on the wall side with the same color used to paint the ceiling. This helps to seal the tape edge on the wall side and ensures none of the wall paint gets underneath the tape. Paint the walls. Ended up with a perfect straight line after pulling the tape, just don't let the paint completely dry.

 

[davemartin88]

I’m pretty good at DIY but drywall is the one skill I’m not allowed to do in my own house. I think a good drywall person will be able to do this in one trip for around $100 if you are taking care of the painting.