Repairing Water Damaged Drywall

Water damaged ceilings can definitely be a safety hazard in your home, but not everyone has the money to hire a professional to repair or replace the section of drywall affected. It may just be a badly discolored piece of drywall or it could be that the tape between one section of drywall and another is sagging down. Even worse, the drywall could be weak in the middle and eventually collapse onto someone you care about. Something needs to be done about these water damaged areas of ceiling not only for structural purposes, but also for cosmetic ones, as well.

If the ceiling is only discolored badly with water stains, all you really should have to do is paint over it with primer first and then paint over that with the color of the rest of the ceiling. Your ceiling may be a traditional and ordinary white, but other colors will cover up the stains better, so consider this an opportunity to change the color of your ceiling. You will not have as much trouble covering up the stains with a paint that is not white.

No matter where the damaged piece of drywall is in your home, repairing it should be pretty easy. If it is the tape that is sagging down and coming apart from the drywall, all you need to do is remove the tape. Replace the tape and place joint compound over it. Smooth this out until the tape is not noticeable, paint over it with primer, then with the color of your ceiling.

If the drywall is sagging or cracked in the middle, then it needs to be completely replaced. You need to take out the entire damaged part of the drywall all the way to the joists, because the new piece of drywall needs something solid to hang onto or it will fall. It needs to be cut down the center of a joist in the ceiling so the new piece has something to rest on. Cut the new drywall to fit the part that you removed, screw it in with a drill, and tape over it the seam. Use joint compound over the tape and screws and smooth it out until the seams and screws are not noticeable anymore. Paint over it with primer the same way you would if you were only replacing the tape as mentioned earlier and then paint the color you desire back over it.

Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Sewage Damage Clean-up and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.