Drywall 101

As I discussed in my last couple of postings, drywall cracks are the worst!  They are unsightly and ruin the décor of any room.  They instantly draw the visitors’ eye away from your art, your décor, your furnishings, and instead your visitor is constantly left trying not to stare at the crack in your wall!  It’s awful!  But what’s causing those cracks?  Well there could be many different things causing a drywall crack. In my last blog I discussed drywall cracks caused by house settling.

Today, I want to back up a bit and give a brief overview of drywall, call it, Drywall 101:

Drywall, also known as wallboard, gypsum or sheetrock, is a panel made of gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper. It is used to make interior walls and ceilings. Drywall construction became prevalent as a speedier alternative to traditional lath and plaster methods in the late 1940’s early 1950’s.

As an opposed to a week-long plaster application, an entire house can be drywalled in one or two days by two experienced technicians or drywallers.  In new construction projects, the work of installing and finishing drywall is often split between the drywall hangers, who install the wallboard, and the tapers and mudmen, or float crew, who finish the joints and cover the fastener heads with drywall compound or mud. Everything is then sanded to a fin finish, primed and painted or finished to the customer’s specification.

Drywall is typically a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of gypsum board that is screwed to a framed wall or ceiling and is the base of your walls and ceilings in your home, if your home was built after approx. 1950. The drywall joints or seams are typically covered with a mesh tape then “mudded” with drywall mud to give the appearance of a single piece to the wall of ceiling. As we discussed before, as houses age, the foundation can settle causing the weakest point in the drywall to give way and cause minor cracking.

Whether the crack is in the seam or in the middle of the drywall, the overall process to repair is the same. First the drywall MUST be secured. If there is any movement when pressure is applied to the drywall, it will cause the crack to reappear. Once secured, the repair process can begin.

If you have a drywall repair that you need taken care of, Andy onCall has the skilled handyman to take care of it for you. Call us today for a free estimate and get that pesky crack taken care of today!