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Best way to repair large amounts of drywall damage

14 years ago

When stripping wallpaper off all of my bathroom walls about 80% of the drywall was torn, some places more of the layers than in others. From what I've been reading it sounds like the best way to repair that would be to put texture on the walls using joint compound. Is this true? If not, what would be the best way to fix this problem?

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Comments (7)

snoonyb
14 years ago
Where all of the paper has been removed, cut the edges of the paper on a bias, prime all of the walls to be recovered with an oil based primer such as original KILZ or red lable BIN. the drying process will cause loose edges and areas to lift. Sand these, reprime and apply your choice of finishes.
User
14 years ago
The easiest thing is to just put 1/4" drywall right over the top of what's there. Then you only have to deal with the taping seams, not thousands of litle gouges.
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kudzu9
14 years ago
graciebear-
In case you do future wallpaper removal, there may be ways to proceed that result in less damage. How did you go about removing the wallpaper? Did you score it and steam it, or what?
graciebear10
Original Author
14 years ago
I did score it and I used DIF wallpaper remover. I don't think the drywall was primed before the wallpaper was put up.
brickeyee
14 years ago
Adging a layer of drywall (even 1/4 inch) will alter the reveal on all the trim in the room.

If the resulting appearance is acceptable it may be faster than skimming the wall.

Drywall finishers often are not very proficient at skimming large areas, but a plaster worker is usually very quick.

The use of a plasterer's trowel instead of drywall knives (of any size) really speeds up skimming large areas.
graciebear10
Original Author
14 years ago
I sanded the walls with 80 grit sandpaper and they feel quite smooth. The damage doesn't seem as bad as I first thought. So I think I'm going to try and skim coat it,
brickeyee
14 years ago
"Even a smooth wall has many different degrees of texture."

I hope you mean roller stipple or brush marks.

As long as the wall is uniform in these it will look fine.

That is why 'touching up' a rolled wall shows if you use a brush, and the brush cut in around rolled area shows as a slightly different paint texture.

Cutting in wider than needed and then not rolling as close as possible makes the effect even more noticeable.

A plaster or drywall wall should have no texture at all before painting if it was not purposely applied.

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