Drywall Repair: How Much It Costs for Small Holes and Why Its Importance Is Undeniable
Drywall is also known as plasterboard, gypsum wallboard, sheetrock, or wallboard. It is a construction material used with many essential properties such as durability and easy installation, which makes it apt for the creation of your home’s ceiling and wall. If you encounter any problems, drywall repair is unavoidable.
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What Are the Benefits of Using Drywall?
Before the birth of the now renowned usage of drywall for the interiors of households, plasters were the primitive construction material utilized for the interiors of buildings (the walls). The gradual replacement was due to the significant benefits that come with the use of drywall as a building material. They include:
– Drywall is easy to install and repair
– Drywall lasts longer than plasters
– Drywall add fire resistance to walls and ceilings
The Durability of Drywall
The durability of drywall is responsible for its longevity, but this depends on how well its installation was done. If drywalls are improperly installed, it can lead to various issues. Here are a few signs that indicate the impairment of drywall:
Water damage: The durability of drywall can be alleviated by moisture. Drywalls are susceptible to moisture, and if not properly attended to, they may lead to the growth of mold and mildew, which ultimately leads to serious health issues.
Cracks on the drywall: Drywall primarily cracks at the joints, which may be due to expansion and contraction. But it is due to the structural integrity of your home in most cases.
Bigger holes: Bigger holes in drywall are always due to ad hoc accidents.
Smaller holes: Small holes develop in the drywall as a result of the intermittent collision of things such as doorknob against the wall.
Lifters or split drywall tape: Improper installation coupled with wear and tear are the major factors that contribute to the losing and lifting of drywall tapes.
According to the topic, we would be focusing only on one type of damage to the drywall, which is the small hole caused by doorknobs or any other thing that dents the wall. However, the fixing of small holes in drywall is a do-it-yourself project for several homeowners. The difficulty in this project is almost absent, and it requires no experience to get the job done.
All that is needed is to get the appropriate materials apt for the job, and they are easy to find. These materials include a sheet of drywall, drywall knife, mud pan, tape, utility knife, joint compound, scrap wood, scrap paper. All of which you will use to fix the small hole in the wall before including other tools such as a paintbrush, roller, and tray to repaint the designated area and make it uniform with the existing drywall.
Drywall Repair for Small Holes Involves Three Processes or Stages
Preparation stage: Preparation of the hole for the addition of drywall is the first stage of fixing damaged drywall, which involves the making of a large convenient opening around the hole after you have measured it with tape to give a perfectly square opening for the patch with a chalk line.
The chalk line is then traced with a keyhole saw to cut out the perfect square. However, one must be careful to cut out the entire perimeter of the drywall before its removal to forestall the extension of the opening to the rest of the wall. A wood furring would be placed in the altered wall to act as a backing component for holding the new drywall.
Addition of drywall: The addition of the new drywall to the altered space you have made during the preparation stage is a crucial part that demands patience. Because you will have to measure the opening and rely on the numbers while measuring the piece of new drywall to make it fit for the opening, any additions or subtraction from the drywall would be a waste.
Taping stage: The taping of the drywall is the ultimate stage of fixing holes. However, if there are some holes between the new drywall and the existing drywall, you will have to add mud to seal the alteration before taping. Tapes such as fiber mesh tape are used for such a process, after which several coats that must be dried before the application of the other would be applied over the taped area until it is flat and smooth. But if there are scratch marks on the repairs, extra coating the area would make it smooth. With the aid of sandpaper, the smooth area is then sanded before the application of paints to make the new drywall uniform with the existing drywall.
DIY Drywall Repair Or Hiring a Pro
The DIY method for drywall repair saves one from the costs of hiring a professional drywall installer. That is the only advantage that comes with doing it yourself. Still, it may be accompanied by several disadvantages that will call for drywall repair and installation due to a low-quality job.
However, if you want to increase longevity, you can benefit from a high-quality job; you may hire a professional drywall installer or drywall contractor (handymen). They charge about $50 to $75 per hole for drywall repairs, in which the total costs of the installation may cost about $150 to $225. However, the cost of repair and installation may be altered by a few factors such as size or quantity of holes and accessibility to the holes.
If it is a large hole, you will be charged more because there is an increment in the degree of difficulty and sophisticated tools used to seal the large hole with new drywall. The quantity of holes or dents present in your home also increases the labor costs of hiring a professional drywall installer because they charge about $50 to $75 per hole, hence If your home has about ten holes, you will be charged about $500 to $750.
The accessibility of the hole also plays a significant role in the increment of labor costs, whereby if the holes are difficult to reach or a few pieces of furniture would have to be displaced from their initial positions before the holes can be reached, you will be charged more.
Summary
Drywall repair and replacement may either be done by the homeowners or professionals, depending on the degree of damages done to the drywall. However, since the primary cause of drywall repairs are due to the improper installation of drywall, doing it yourself may make you run into the same problems because of the quality of job you will do, which differs from the professionalism that comes with hiring an expert that would properly install your drywall.
