Drywall Repairs: Hard Work for a Smooth Finish

The best quality paint and most skilled painter will be insufficient to paint a wall that is inadequately prepared.  That is why I talk so much about prep work in my blog and why Matthew’s Painting places such an emphasis on our interior  painters’ drywall repair skills.

Imperfections in drywall can be the most difficult to cover up with paint and if a patching job is not done right, it will stand out once painting is completed.   Small holes, dings and dents are fairly easy to cover with spackling, so many people will take this on themselves, forgoing the advantages of a painting professional. What they fail to realize is that the true challenge is to smooth the surface – or match the texture – so that the patch job doesn’t show up after painting.  This is hard to do right and is always a messy job.

Almost any paint job will require touch-up work on the dry-wall.  Many need a lot more than touch up.   One of the more common problems is nails or screws that have popped out.  These may need to be removed and replaced with new screws.  It is important that the new screws are not applied in the same place where the old ones were.   Once the dry-wall is secured, both the old hole and the new screws must be covered and smoothed over.

Smoothing the edges is very important because painting over a surface will amplify the smallest grooves.  One of the most common mistakes I see amateurs make is to think they have sufficiently smoothed over a drywall patch, only to find their patch job glaring out at them because they failed to match the patch’s texture to the existing surface or failed to spot prime the repair with the right primer.

Stress cracks and more serious damage such as a hole made by a slamming door knob will require reinforcement with fiberglass tape.   We want to make sure the patch is solid and that it will not show through the paint job.  That’s why we may apply 2-3 thin coats of a quick set joint compound spread over a larger area than normal.  This method ensures that even minor nicks are filled and makes it easier to achieve smoothly -sanded and feathered edges so that our drywall repairs don’t have ridges, humps, and lines.

Sanding down spackling creates a lot of dust that will get into everything.  This is why Matthews Painting sets up plastic sheeting ‘walls’ to isolate the space we work in when sanding spackling compound.  We have created an exclusive ventilation system using a turbine ducted fan and air control system to exhaust the dusty air out of your house right away.  This is an example of small but important steps we take to make your interior re-decorating project the least intrusive as possible.  If you’ve ever had a home covered in the fine white dust of sanded spackling compound, you understand the value in taking this extra pre-caution.  And you and your family will, quite literally, breathe better.

Another important detail that sets our professional residential painting company apart is that, when repairing drywall or ceilings, we will re-texture them to closely match the original drywall texture: it’s not always about making the surface smooth.  This is hard to do by yourself.  If your job requires retexture like stomp, spanish lace or popcorn, you should probably talk to us.  If there is water damage and stains on your dry wall or ceilings, we will make sure it is well concealed by applying the right primer.   There are a lot of small details that Matthews’ professionals know how to do when you need to repair your dry wall in preparation for painting.  Find out more by contacting us for a complimentary consultation today.