Repairing Your Home

« Back to Home

How To Restore Water Damaged Drywall

Posted on

Water damage is always likely to damage drywall. For instance, a leaked pipe inside a wall can penetrate the drywall from the inside where there is not paint or primer to waterproof it. Water damaged drywall becomes very weak and swollen. Also, there is an extreme risk of mold formation within soggy drywall that does not dry out. This is why you need to repair and replace water damaged drywall as soon as possible. This article explains the easiest way to do it.

Remove the Damaged Area

99% of the time it will simply be much easier to just remove the damaged part of the drywall. Of course, you want to fix damaged ceiling drywall quicker because it runs the risk of falling. You do not need to take off the entire 8'X4' drywall sheet. Instead, you need to use a drywall knife to cut out the affected area. For safety, you should cut an extra foot around the damaged area. To make the job easier, you want to cut straight lines. Try to cut out a square or rectangle piece. This makes it much easier to cut the replacement piece.

Look for the Studs

You should also look for the studs in the wall when cutting out the piece. If you cut the drywall out in a straight line along the stud, right down the center, this will make it easier to attach the replacement piece because you can drill right into the stud. Measure the hole and transfer the measurements onto a new piece of drywall. Make sure you do not cut the replacement too small. The gap on any edges should be less than 1" wide. So, it is better to cut it big at first and then cut it down to size.

Attach the Board

Now, you need to attach the board to the wall. Mark where the wood studs are before you put the board in place. Securely screw in the replacement and then tape the edges with drywall tape. Then, you just need to fill the screw holes and tape with drywall patch. Make the patches as flat as possible. The final step will be to replicate the texture on the rest of the wall. Spray-on and hand-troweled textures are usually the easiest to match.

At this point, all that is left to do is paint the replacement area. Hopefully, you will still have the paint from when the walls were originally painted. Contact a company like Sparklean DKI Water Damage for more information.


Share