What a drywall repair involves
- Find the cause. A water stain means a leak somewhere. Cracks running from the corners of doors and windows usually mean the house has moved. Patch without fixing the cause and you'll be patching again.
- Cut out the damage back to sound board, or to the nearest studs on a bigger hole.
- Fit new board, screwed to the framing or to backing set behind the hole.
- Tape and mud. Joint tape is bedded in compound, then more coats go on, each one wider and thinner, sanded between.
- Texture to match the wall around it: orange peel, knockdown, or smooth.
- Prime and paint, so the patch doesn't show through as a dull spot.
New walls and rooms
New drywall goes up in full sheets with as few joints as possible. Outside corners get metal or paper-faced corner bead. Then come three coats of compound, sanding, texture and primer, and the room is ready to paint.
What affects the cost of drywall work
| Size and number of repairs | One small hole and a whole ceiling are very different jobs. Several small repairs in one visit cost less than separate visits. |
|---|---|
| Water damage | Wet insulation, stained board or soft framing behind the wall adds work. The leak has to be fixed before the drywall. |
| Where it is | Ceilings and stairwells are slower and need more setup than a wall at eye level. |
| Texture | Smooth walls show every flaw and need more finishing. Matching an older hand-applied texture takes more care than spraying orange peel. |
| Finish level | A wall under strong window light with flat paint needs a smoother finish than the inside of a closet. |
| Paint | Whether the repair gets primed and painted, and whether the whole wall needs repainting for the color to match. |
[PLACEHOLDER: typical price ranges, e.g. a fist-sized hole patched and painted, and a ceiling section replaced after a leak].
How long a drywall repair takes
Joint compound has to dry between coats. Standard compound usually needs about a day per coat, less with fast-setting mud. So even a small patch is often two or three short visits rather than one long one.
[PLACEHOLDER: typical timeline for a single patch, and for drywalling one room].