Drywall & Taping

Guy Oulette (Former owner of Bridger Drywall) and friend install wallboard. Photo taken during a field visit for one of the classes I taught at Gallating College.

Here is a gallery of drywall repairs that can be made without creating much mess or taking much time but it will generally consist of several visits over the course of a number of days to allow for each coat of drywall compound to completely dry and for the coats of paint to dry. I apologize not only for the lack of finished product photos but also for the poor quality of the photos. I am hoping that their meaning is still easy to grasp.

College Kids Roughhousing

This kind of thing is common and can lead to the kind of damage shown above. Whatever the cause, the damage went entirely through the wall.

More Roughhousing Damage

This hole is only slightly larger than the one at left (which is on the other side of the wall) but is close enough to the studs to warrant cutting the sheetrock out all the way to them and this can actually make the repair go faster and make it a bit easier to blend in the repair because it doesn't fall into the in-between category of repair sizes that can be difficult to blend.

Hole is Squared Off for Repair

Opening is now ready for 1/2 x 3" plywood cleats to be installed around the edges (except at the switch where half the stud has been exposed) and have the piece of replacement drywall be cut to fit, inserted, and screwed off.

Bigger Hole is Squared Off for Repair

This opening is basically the same only slightly larger. I apparently overlooked taking a photo of those steps. 😬

Damage from Furniture

This is also common for not only rental units but family homes. There is a corner ding as is shown at left as well as another depression in the drywall just above the black object on the stairs.

Corner Ding Closeup

This is a closeup of the photo at left near the bottom of the stairwall end. This is a relatively easy repair and can be prevented with an inexpensive corner guard.

Small Gouges

This is a closeup of the photo above near the top of the stairwall end. These are easy repairs and can genrally be repaired with spackle type products.

Easier Than Expected Repair

Even though this depression seems as though it would be difficult to repair, it is made much easier by the fact that it did not punch through to the inside of the wall. It needed only prefilling, taping, and finish coating to be fixed.

Either a Tape Coat Failure or Moisture May Be Present

The darker photo above the one directly above shows some perfatape bubbling and falling away. This is primarily from three different reasons. There is either moisture present in the ceiling indicating some type of leak in the floor joist cavity, moisture from cooking that is causing the tape to delaminate from the wall board, or a poor bedding of the perfatape when taping the ceiling joints. It might even be a combination of the last two. In this case it was the last one as there was very little bedding mud showing when I took the drooping tape down to redo the job. The clean repair can be seen in the bottom photo. Yea! A photo of a finished product!