Most homes are now constructed in much the same manner, and the same applies for the way our walls are built. In the past, most walls were made of plaster, but this is becoming increasingly uncommon. If your home was constructed in the last fifty years, chances are you have a walls made of drywall.
Drywall is the common building material because it’s cheap and easy to repair. However, drywall is very easy to damage because it’s so thin. Chances are if you have drywall in your home, then you have marks, cracks, or holes in the surface of your walls. This happens all the time and with the wear and tear of living and raising children, it’s practically inevitable. Here’s how to fix these problems.
If you have minor damage to the surface area of your walls, you don’t need to replace entire sections of your wall. Often, it just takes simple cosmetic work and you’re good to go. You can go to any hardware store and pick up a paste-like substance called spackle. This is a finishing product and the only other thing you’ll need is a putty knife which is used for applying the spackle. For any cracks or pot marks, apply a small dab of spackle and smooth the surface with the putty knife. It’s important to note that if the spackle you bought is pink, grey, or some other color, don’t worry because it will dry white.
If the damage is a little more severe than a simple crack or mark, then you might need to replace a section of the drywall. Depending on the severity of the damage, it might only call for a drywall cutter or heavy-duty box cutter. Cut out the section that is damaged and throw it away. Measure the size that you need to replace and cut a replacement piece according to need. You’ll want to anchor the piece to support beam that runs every sixteen inches along your wall’s interior. After the replacement piece is set, fill in the gaps with spackle and smooth it over. This will dry and look seamless. You’ll have to repaint the area, but after you do so the wall will look as good as new.
For more heavy-duty repair, you may have to replace entire sections of your wall. Before you do this, you should move your furniture to another room or rent a space with a self storage company until the job is done. Replacing entire portions of a wall can be a messy job and you don’t want to damage or destroy any of your furniture. Make sure to wear a mask or something to protect your mouth because a lot of dust and debris will be floating around. When replacing entire sections of a wall you should be careful it tearing out the old and make sure you have large enough sections to accommodate the width and height of the room.
There are many reasons why you might need to replace the drywall in your house, but if you have mold growth, it’s best to cut out a larger portion to replace that just the small area that you see. Often times the mold has reached the interior of the drywall and the infected area is twice the size of what you can actually see. If you don’t feel that your skills are sufficient for the job at hand, then you should contact a licensed contractor that can do the job. In most cases, this isn’t necessary as replacing drywall is one of the easiest home construction projects.
Originally posted 2011-07-29 06:37:09.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 20, 2012 in
Drywall
Box of Drywall Nails
Drywall can make a great surface for your home, but if you don't know how to work with it, it can be just as frustrating as most materials. This is particularly the case if you've got some annoying drywall nails on your hands. As drywall gets older and the wood changes, nails can sometimes change position, leading them to make bumps in the wall or even crack them open. If you want to fix those annoying drywall nails, this article will help you get started.
First, consult this article on "How Stuff Works" in order to check out the equipment you might be needing. A nail set will come in handy, as well as some basic tools like a hammer and sandpaper.
Next, you'll want to drive the popped nails back to where they were. If one is sticking out too far, simply remove it so that you can drive it back in again. You can use your nail set at this point. Remember that you're using your nail set, so the nail might go deeper than you originally thought it would be.
One of the reasons this nail might have popped out in the first place is that the change in the wood put pressure on it, squeezing it out of place. You can relieve some of this pressure by driving in a new nail about two inches above the old one onto the same stud in the drywall.
At this point, your drywall won't look very good - in fact, you will probably have two holes with nails in them. That's why it's important to be ready to cover up the drywall again. Clean out the area and then fill in the holes with a spackling compound. You can use your putty knife for this. Make sure the area is even with the rest of the drywall. After this spackle has dried, sand down the area and then apply primer and paint to match the rest of the drywall. Make sure that you touch up this area as needed, but allow it time to dry.
After these repairs, your drywall should look good as new, and hopefully with the repairs you've made, you won't have to worry about that drywall nail popping out again for a while. Doing these quick repairs should help you better understand how drywall works, as well.
Photo Credits: Bistrosavage
Originally posted 2010-01-21 03:53:36.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 4, 2012 in
Drywall, Handyman, How to Fix, Walls
Measure the hole before starting repair.
When you own your own home, seeing a hole in your drywall can be really frustrating. You've went through all the work to attain a mortgage loan, work forty hours a week to make the payments, and still everything seems to take time and money! But what if you had another option that didn't take nearly as much of your time and money? That solution is known as skillful home improvement. Even if you've never fancied yourself a do-it-yourselfer, with this article, you may just find yourself inspired.
First, repairing a small hole in your drywall will mean finding some necessary tools. In addition to primer and properly-colored paint, you'll want to find a wallboard taping knife at least half a foot wide, a drywall sanding block, wallboard joint compound, and a metal drywall patch with adhesive mesh. Note: you're going to want to measure the drywall hole size before buying the metal drywall patch.
Measure the hole in your drywall - since we describe it as a "small" hole, there's a good chance it's somewhere up to 8 inches. Once you've got it measured, go to your hardware store and buy the drywall patch mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Once you have this patch, you can simply peel it and apply it to the part of the wall with the hole in it.
Take your wallboard taping knife and apply the wallboard joint compound to the patch, being sure to fill all of the holes in the area. Give it a good two or three coats to make sure the entire area is well-covered and relatively smooth (if it's not perfect, don't worry; you'll be sanding it down once it dries).
After waiting for it to dry, take your sanding block and sand off the area so that it's smooth and consistent with the rest of the drywall. Don't worry about making mistakes, because you can simply fill those in and begin the process of filling in and sanding over again. It's frustrating, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't get past it.
With the area properly sanded and dried, you should be ready to apply the primer. Now you can put the primer on the area and wait for it to dry. Once it's dried, roll the paint on (much like how you would apply the paint on the rest of the wall) and voila! You have a fixed drywall hole.
Photo Credits: soxophone player
Originally posted 2009-09-30 03:55:55.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on August 18, 2011 in
Drywall, Handyman, How to Fix
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