Drywall ceiling repair

What drywall ceiling repair costs

Where you land depends on how much board has to come out, whether the ceiling is smooth or textured, how high it is, and whether the repaint can stop at a corner or has to cover the whole ceiling. For the same work on walls, see drywall repair cost.

Common causes, and what each one needs

• Water stains. A roof, plumbing or bathroom leak above. If the board is dry and firm once the leak is fixed, a stain-blocking primer and paint may be all it needs. If it is soft, crumbling or keeps staining, that section is cut out and replaced.
• Sagging or bulging. Water weight, or drywall fastened too far apart. A dry, hard sag can often be screwed back up; a soft or wet one is replaced.
• Cracks along the seams. Tape joints that were under-filled or have moved. The tape is re-bedded and finished; caulk and paint will not hold.
• Cracks where the ceiling meets the wall, in winter. Often truss uplift: roof trusses bow upward as the attic gets cold and dry, lifting the ceiling away from interior walls, then settle back in summer. More tape does not fix it. A detail that lets the joint move does.
• Nail pops. Small round bumps in a line, from fasteners working loose as the framing shrinks.

Fix the cause first

Repairing a stained or sagging ceiling before the leak is found and fixed means paying for the same repair twice. Roofs, plumbing and bathroom exhaust fans are the usual culprits, and some of those need a roofer or a licensed plumber, not a handyman. We tell you which on the first call rather than patch over a live leak.

Textured and popcorn ceilings

Smooth ceilings are the easiest to repair invisibly. Knockdown and orange-peel textures can be matched with spray texture and some practice. Popcorn, or acoustic, ceilings are the hardest: new popcorn texture rarely matches decades-old material, so the choice is often between a visible patch and re-texturing or removing texture from the whole ceiling.

Popcorn and other textured ceiling coatings applied before the 1980s can contain asbestos. Have a sample tested before anyone scrapes, sands or cuts into one. Testing is inexpensive, and a contractor who skips the question is telling you something about how they work.

How a ceiling repair is done

1. Protect the room: furniture out or covered, floor sheeted, and power to fixtures in the work area switched off.
2. Cut out damaged board back to solid material, ideally to the nearest joists so the new piece can be screwed to framing.
3. Check the cavity: dry, no mold, insulation in place, and no damaged joists.
4. Screw in new drywall, tape the seams and apply joint compound in thin coats, with drying time between each.
5. Match the texture, prime with a stain-blocking primer, and paint, usually the whole ceiling, because ceiling white yellows over time and a fresh patch stands out.

Should you do it yourself?

Nail pops and hairline cracks are reasonable DIY jobs if you are comfortable on a ladder; the method is the same as on a wall (see how to fix a hole in drywall). Replacing ceiling board is harder: sheets are heavy and awkward overhead, and joint compound on a ceiling shows every flaw under a light fixture. For anything bigger than a hand-sized patch, most homeowners are better off with a fixed quote.