Drywall Repair – Repairing the Sheetrock, Recoating the Joints and Nails

Acoustic ceilings are generally applied for one of three reasons:

1. Someone actually liked the look of acoustic-popcorn ceilings. Umm, ok, everyone is entitled to their opinion and there are a lot of folks out there who are in this category.
2. When the home was built the builder wanted to hide flaws and/or and speed the construction of your house. It is much quicker to spray on a coat of acoustic than finish drywall for paint.
3. The ceiling was damaged at some point and acoustic was applied to cover the damage. We have repaired ceilings that have been stepped thru by electricians, roofers, pest control contractors, alarm installers, cable and satellite installers, plumbers, insulators, and yes, even home owners working in the attic or crawl space.

Before you can apply wall texture or paint if is absolutely necessary to repair and recoat all joints and nail heads. Any hidden damage to drywall will also need to be dealt with sometimes by replacing sections of drywall.

We use professional quality Ames taping tools for both speed and quality of finish. These tools are very expensive to buy and maintain and therefore not practical for the average home owner. A single home or room can be finished with inexpensive taping tools provided in the list below.

We also do not use premixed coating compounds but use fast setting compounds that are mixed on site as needed. These coating materials provide a set fixed set time that ranges from 20 to 90 minutes and allow us to apply as many coats as needed in the same day. Again this is because of the need for speed. It would not be economical to come back to your home several days in a row because we need to wait for the mud to dry.

Fast set compounds are available from most home improvement centers. If you opt to go this route only mix the amount you can use before the set time and rinse your tools before the mix begins to set.

Materials and Tools Needed:

• 6” drywall knife
• 12” drywall knife
• 18” drywall knife. Not always needed but works very well when floating out high spots in the ceiling to blend with lower areas
• Drywall Pan
• Drywall joint compound. Either a ready mixed or dry mix formula
• Drywall sanding pole
• Sandpaper for the sanding pole

Repairing the Drywall under Your Old Acoustic-Popcorn Ceiling

Inspect the drywall for damage or weak spots and replace any bad pieces. It is not necessary to replace the entire sheet of drywall. You can cut out the damaged area and replace it.

Overtime drywall nails will occasionally pop loose allowing the drywall to sag. Using ring-shank galvanized nails or drywall screws secure these sections. It is rare to find an entire ceiling that needs to be re-nailed but it does happen. This is usually because the contractor didn’t use screws or the proper type of nails.

Inspect all joints for bubbles or tape that is popping loose. If you encounter an area that is in need of repair using a utility knife cut across the joint to the left and right of the bad area then pull the tape free. You do not need to remove the entire joint but do not attempt to stick a bad area back into place. It probably won’t work and will pop loose again when you apply wall texture and paint.

Recoating Joints and Nails

Application of the joint compound is as much an art as a science. It takes a lot of practice to become an expert and working overhead is not the way to learn this skill. This is one phase of removing your acoustic-popcorn ceiling you may want to subcontract to an expert.