SHEETROCK REPAIR LIKE AN EXPERT

The walls of our home are more fragile than you might think, it doesn’t take much to knock a big hole right in the wall. Even a small water leak can quickly weaken and destroy areas of your drywall doing permeant damage. Accidents happen, sometimes when simply moving a piece of furniture, it ends up hitting the wall, or the kids throw something heavy and sure enough, it ends up cracking or piercing the sheetrock. Your walls can be damaged any number of ways through the course of everyday life. Just a heads up, in this article I will be using the words sheetrock and drywall interchangeably. I am going to walk you step by step through the process of repairing sheetrock damage and making your walls as good as new.  ​

STEP ONE- PREP AND MATERIALS

The first step to getting your walls back to normal is to prep the area. Drywall and compound mud can be very dusty and messy, so you will want to put down plastic or a drop cloth. You will need to purchase enough sheetrock for the repair, please note that it must be the same thickness as the sheetrock you are replacing. You will also need drywall tape, and compound joint mud. A few more items are required to do the job, including drywall nails or screws, an utility razor blade to cut the drywall, a 6 inch putty blade along with a 12 inch blade, and a mud pan. Depending weather your walls are smooth or have a type of texture, you will also need to purchase a can or two of touch up texture spray cans. Please note if you are repairing a large area or replacing an entire wall or room, you may need to rent an air compressor and texture hopper to blow the texture. ​

REMOVE THE DAMAGED DAYWALL

Now that you have protected the area from dust and messes, you will need to remove the damaged sheetrock. You will want to do this by determining where the wooden studs are around the damaged area, and cut the sheetrock using your utility blade on the studs, so that the new piece of drywall can be nailed or screwed to the stud on each side. You will also cut a few inches above and below the damaged area in a straight line.

MEASURE AND CUT

Once the damaged sheetrock is cut away in a square or rectangle, you can measure the are and cut a new piece of sheetrock to be nailed or screwed  in its place. The new sheetrock should be measured and marked, and straight lines drawn, then the lines should be scored, which means a light cut is made along the line. The sheet rock can then be stood up and being the opposite way breaking he sheetrock along the line. Then the opposite site can be cut until the piece breaks free. This will be repeated along the other measured line, until you are left with a new piece of cut sheetrock the exact size of your cut away area.

TAPE AND FLOAT AND WET SAND

​After the new piece has been nailed or screwed into the studs securely, you will want to place some joint mud into the pan and use your putty blade to lightly spread the mud over the cracks around the replaced drywall. Then you will need to cut four pieces of drywall tape the length of each crack. Place the tome over the mud and then holding in on one side, slide your blade down the tape forcing much of the mud out from under the tape and securing the tape to the wall. After you have done this for all four sides, and the mud has begun to dry, you will want to trawl more mud over the tape scraping away all the excess leaving only a thin layer over the tape each time. After this this layer dries you will want to switch to the 12 inch blade making your floats wider. This will help even out the transition from old sheetrock to the replaced sheetrock. After this had dried, you will want to san the area smooth, a great trick for this is to wet sand. This is done by using a wet rag and wiping the area essentially melting away the imperfections and leveling the area.

PRIME AND PAINT

Now you are ready to prime the area and then apply paint. If you do not have the exact can of paint the wall was originally painted with, you will have to match it as close as possible, in this case you will want to then paint the entire wall from corner to corner, floor to ceiling. Now your wall is repaired and should look a good as the day it was originally built. Hope this step by step guild has helped you with your sheetrock and drywall repair project. If you feel like you would rather hire a professional sheetrock repairmen for your project, please consider our Austin Handyman service for your job.