Drywall Repair
Did you know that homes built before 1960 are most likely plaster? These two wall systems require very different approaches. If your home is in need of plaster repair, we’re here to help with solutions tailored to your home’s age and construction.
Our website offers an in-depth guide to drywall repair—the most comprehensive in New York State. If you want high-quality results from trusted professionals, look no further than Carrigan Painting.
Why Choose Carrigan Painting?
Pro Tip!
If you see water dripping, poke a hole in the ceiling to let the water out. Don’t ‘hope’ it'll just go away. It won't. A screwdriver works best. Have a bucket handy!
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Sheetrock & Wallboard Repair
We believe in conservative drywall repair. We do not want to make your holes any bigger than necessary.
We begin by covering the entire room and all property with new plastic sheeting and drop cloths. We never re-use plastic from the last job.
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We will often create a 'containment box' around repairs to help contain the dust and dirt. Drywall repair is often pretty straight forward. However when it involves water damage, it can become a bit more complicated. Bowing wallboard, wet insulation, leaking roofs or pipes, are but a few examples of the complications involving drywall ceilings damaged by water.
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Water Damage Drywall Repair
Did you fix the leak?
Thats a serious question. One of our first questions. Its a waste of your money, and our time to fix a ceiling that is still leaking. Mold is bad news (CDC.gov).
How can I identify water damage and determine if it requires repair?
The most common result of water damage to a ceiling is an ugly brown stain. The brown stain is caused by moisture disturbing the dust and dirt on the surface.
What follows is a loss of its structural integrity, causing the ceiling drywall to sag. Often, this isn't apparent just by standing on the floor and looking up.
To really assess the extent of the damage, you need to shine a light across the surface towards the affected area. A flashlight (not your phone!) works good enough for this. If its sagging you will know it. There will be no second geussing. If you havent already, poke a hole in it and let the water out!
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The biggest priority right now is to get the water out and stop the leak. Your situation will dictate priority. Most often its less than a gallon of liquid. If its an active leak, you want to control where it goes, and that is where ever it will cause the least amount of damage.
In the image below, our client had a minor leak & turned off the water right away. This damage is superficial, just looks bad. We do not know why theres a white spot in the middle. We repaired the damage, primed the ceiling with oil based primer, and then painted the same.
Lancaster NY, 2022
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We often use a high powered work light when bidding repairs to create critical light.
Ceiling damage can be identified better using a flashlight and often provide answers regarding whether it's a simple water stain or if the ceiling has sustained serious damage. That's why it's crucial to address leaks with urgency!
Often times, there is insulation above the ceiling in question. Depending on the age of your home will largely determine the type of insulation you have. Wet insulation acts like a heat sink instead of an insulator. It also absorbs water like a sponge.
When drywall begins to bow or sag due to moisture saturation, it's only a matter of time before it detaches from the ceiling and falls to the floor. Unfortunately, this tends to occur at inconvenient times, like 2 AM on a school night when everyone is asleep. - Like dropping a piano
Unfortunately these homeowners had a tree fall on their house during The Lancaster Blizzard of 2022, This was the families solution to deal with the leak. Diverted the water into the bath tub. Worked extremely well!
Clarence Center NY, 2022
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If you attempt to remove the drywall yourself, you must then contend with a hole in the ceiling, which could lead directly outside! It will create a chimney effect in your house, and suck all the heat out! Our advice is to leave the drywall in place until someone looks at it, especially if its between October - April.
It might look bad, but a hole looks worse
The image below is what happens with wet drywall and insulation. The corner bead, the seam is all begininng to degrade. The wrinkles on the wall is due to the moisture trying to escape, so its collecting behind the paint creating those wrinkles. If you see this happening, you have a major leak!
This was caused by an ice dam between the kitchen and the great room. A common area to have water damage; East Amherst and Clarence especially. The problem from what we have been told, is there isnt enough flashing under the siding in that corner of the roof, and depending on which way your house points, snow collects. Its also not very well insulated in that corner due to all the framing for the great room.
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Clarence Center NY, 2023
This next image in East Amherst, same problem. Only in their case the damage was much more severe which required the removal of the affected sheetrock and installing new insulation and wallboard.
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What causes sections of ceilings to fail, and can it be repaired?
Failing ceiling sections can stem from a variety of sources:
Bowing ceilings: Often, sagging ceilings is due to excess weight from furniture or stuff in the room above. Over time, this weight can cause the ceiling's joists to sag. This situation may or may not be repairable with out the repair being noticeable. Drywall panels follow the contours of the framing. If the framing isn't straight, drywall won't fix that.
Water Damage: Leaks from pipes or roofs can lead to sagging and soft spots. Moisture will deteriorate the sheetrock, causing a pillow effect. A water leak that is not fixed, will eventually lead to a ceiling collapse. If its dripping, poke a hole in it. Its cheaper to fix.
Poor Construction: Inadequate initial installation or inexperience by the installer may also lead to premature failure.
Aging and Wear: Even the best-constructed ceilings have a lifespan. Materials expand and contract with temperature changes, leading to eventual cracking or sagging.
What is Critical Lighting?
Critical lighting is the worst kind there is when it comes to any kind of wall and ceiling repairs. Due to the nature of wallboard repair, making patches 'disapear' is almost impossible under critical-light. Below is an example of critical light from a window, casting bright sunlight across a dark ceiling.
The Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry defines critical lighting as any lighting condition that tends to magnify surface anomalies on a finished surface. The finish could be an interior painted gypsum panel wall or ceiling surface. Ceilings and walls which incur repairs should have either a flat or matte finish applied when critical lighting is involved. Lesser the sheen of the coating, the more defects it will hide. - There are limits to this!
Do you notice the ceiling is not flat? Most people only notice after the ceiling repair is complete. The big waviness your seeing is not due to moisture damage but instead due to the framing or bad drywall work; could also be a patch (It's not). The big hump and the smaller hump towards the back of the room. There is absolutely nothing we can do to fix that, and is not caused by damage. In fact, anything you do to that ceiling, will show forever. The problem is the window.
The outline of the drywall and the screws is due to excess moisture in the ceiling. Given enough time, the areas with the most moisture will be marked with brown water stains.
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Even if we skim coated the ceiling it would look worse, not better. The reason being is that drywall panels are thin and follow the curvature of the framing. If the framing isnt square and flat, you get this type of waviness. Happens a lot in long walls. The moment you fix the damage to that ceiling, those repairs will be visible forever due to the shadow casting of the critical lighting caused by that window behind the camera.
When repairing drywall, it's necessary to apply additional material to the existing wall or ceiling surface to smoothly blend the repair. This subtly raises the repaired area compared to the surrounding ceiling or wall surface. Despite decades of experience providing insights to address this issue, in certain homes, complete avoidance is impossible. The only definitive solution would be to replace the ceiling, but this can be costly and always creates new problems.
Experienced Drywall Repair
Source of Drywall Cracks
Drywall cracks upto about 1/8" are typically stress cracks and will sometimes re-appear. Large open cracks 1/4" & larger are typically related to structural problems.
Small cracks, hairline cracks are typically the result of natural movement of the structure. For example around your fireplace in your living room or bedroom. Small cracks from Lancaster winters, wind storms, the occasional blizzard, are usually not a cause for concern, however large open cracks often signify substantial movement.
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716-697-3560
Cracks between the top of a doorway, or the corner of a window going to the floor, are examples of cracks that generally speaking, can not be repaired. So in that case, we do our best to hide them. These areas are natural stress points for homes.
Our method for repairing drywall cracks has a 95% success rate.
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How we repair Drywall Cracks
Drywall cracks must be opened up a bit in order to give the new material something to 'grab on to'. Depending on the material we are working with will depend on how we open the cracks.
With drywall, we V out cracks with a utility knife. Plaster can be tricky. A hatchet is often the fastest, easiest and loudest method. Oscillator works well too but creates a lot of dust and can be hard to control for a novice, not to mention dangerous.
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Once the cracks are opened, we remove any loose material from the area around the drywall cracks to make room for the thickness of the mesh tape. Then we will use drywall compound to fill in the cracks with new material. We will lay fiberglass mesh tape into the mud. Then finish the repair. This method provides the strongest possible repair for drywall cracks with out creating a hole.
The Mesh Tape Mistake
How we use mesh tape when patching drywall
The mistake many people, not just painters, from what we have seen is they do not embed the tape into the mud when patching. This is especially true with mesh tape! The correct way to apply mesh tape is to lay down a bed of mud first, then lay the mesh tape into the mud, using your knife, scrape off the excess leaving enough material to hold the tape in place and cover the joint.
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Laying tape over any hard painted surface and mudding over it does nothing but waste material. The mud will not magically connect on the backside of the tape!
In new drywall they apply the mesh tape directly to the un-painted drywall. That is why its sticky.
Common Types of damage to Drywall in WNY
Our most frequent repairs involve ceiling cracks, small and large holes and moisture damage. Its important to poke a hole in any ceiling that is dripping!
We do not offer any mold mitigation services, which requires special training, expensive insurance, and licensing to be done correctly. An excellent resource is this guide by the Environmental Protection Agency A Comprehensive Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home by the E.P.A.
We Prime Our Patchwork
We prime all of our repairs. We do this because it shows us the imperfections in our workmanship. Water stainsm nicotine staines, and soot, require an oil based primer. It usually dries with in 30 minutes and then the odor is gone. Otherwise we use a latex primer.
Complete Drywall Repair Service & Painting
Skim Coating & Level 5 Finishes
We do offer skim coating services. This is very labor intensive, and often involves a considerable amount of dust. Our skim coating services include priming. A level 5 finish, is when you apply a very thin coat of drywall compound to the entire wall or ceiling surface typically over drywall. When done correctly it gives walls and ceilings buttery smooth uniform appearance. It should be noted, that there is no 'industry standard' to a level 5 finish. So communication between all parties is critical to address any concerns.
Drywall Repair Service Schedule
We understand that you must live in your house while we are performing our work, and will do everything we can to minimize our impact into your daily life. With repair work, there are 4 distinct phases which often require blocks of days. 1-3 days at a time or more to complete our work. Multiple Phases often occur concurrently.
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Phase I
Setup & Demo: We set up the jobsite, bring in necessary tools, equpment & materials. This is by far the loudest phase of the job, as we often are using power tools and hatchets. Also tends to be the dirtiest, but we clean up daily, and we cover everything with plastic. Dust containment is an art.
Phase II
The Repair: We are installing new material in this phase. Depending on the project, this may require multiple consecutive days. We try to start this Phase as quickly as possible so the plaster or drywall can begin to dry.
Phase III
Priming & Painting: We prime all of our repairs. This shows us the imperfections in our workmanship, and provides us an opportunity to fix them while still on site. This has effectively eliminated our callbacks. Spoiler alert- We are not perfect! But we try! We also paint most of our repair work as well, giving everyone more time to inspect our work. Yes, we want you to critique our work.
Phase IV
Clean up & Touchups: Its the end of the job. We are doing a much more thoruogh clean up than previously, and we are doing any final touch ups before we conclude the job.
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The Best Drywall Repair Services in WNY!
Fully Insured - We Protect Your Home
Integrity & Honesty
The 3-Step Project
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Step 1
Schedule Consultation
We need to actually see the proposed work in person to give the most accurate bid. Pictures can hide a lot.
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Step 2
Schedule the Work
Our scheduling is pretty flexible. However repair work often requires multiple days to complete.
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Step 3
We Get It Done!
Life aside, we show up on time and get the job done, so you can move on!
