Drywall Repair & Patching

The work, in detail

What drywall repair & patching actually means on your project.

Drywall repair is the line item most painters quote as a small add-on and execute as an afterthought — and it is the line item most likely to ruin an otherwise good paint job. A patch that is not feathered correctly, not properly textured to match, or not primed before paint will telegraph through the finish coat in raking light for the life of the paint job. Every time the homeowner notices it they will mentally subtract from their satisfaction with the rest of the work, even if every other surface is flawless.

We treat drywall repair as a craft category in its own right. Small holes (under one inch) are patched with mesh tape and joint compound in three coats, sanded smooth with progressively finer grits, and primed before any paint is applied. Medium holes (one to four inches) get a backer-board patch with the original drywall opening squared and the patch screwed in. Large holes and water damage (anything bigger than a fist) get a full-section drywall replacement with new drywall cut to match the opening, screwed into the framing, taped, mudded in three coats, and textured to match the surrounding wall.

Texture matching is the part of drywall repair that separates the patches that disappear from the patches that announce themselves. Knockdown, orange peel, and skip-trowel textures all require a specific spray pattern and a specific knockdown timing to match the surrounding wall. We have a hopper, a compressor, and the experience to match any standard residential texture. On smooth-wall homes we level-five finish the patch with a final skim coat and sand to a feather edge that fully blends with the surrounding drywall.

Settling cracks are a particular Central Arkansas specialty because of the regional clay soil. Conway, Maumelle, and the river-bottom neighborhoods of west Little Rock all sit on expansive soil that swells in wet seasons and contracts in drought, causing seasonal foundation movement that telegraphs through interior drywall as recurring hairline cracks at door corners, window heads, and ceiling-to-wall transitions. The repair technique for these cracks is different from the repair technique for impact damage: we use mesh tape with elastomeric crack-bridging compound rather than rigid joint compound, and we feather wider than usual to distribute future seasonal movement across a larger area. The crack will return eventually if the foundation movement continues, but the elastomeric bridge typically extends the cycle from one season to three or more.

Ceiling repairs deserve their own paragraph because gravity is unforgiving. A wall patch that is slightly proud of the surrounding surface reads as a minor imperfection; a ceiling patch that is slightly proud throws shadows in raking light and is visible from across the room. We use longer trowels, more coats of mud, and longer cure times on ceiling repairs than on wall repairs, and we always prime ceiling patches before paint to neutralize any gloss differential between the new mud and the surrounding ceiling paint. A correctly executed ceiling patch is invisible from any angle in the actual lighting of the room.