Wall Care Techniques

Walls are important components of your home's interior. They not only divide space, but they say a lot about you and your tastes from the way you decorate. As visitors enter your home the first thing they zero in on are the walls. If the walls are in good condition, tastefully decorated, and have harmonizing colors, the visitors form a positive first impression, and your decorating reputation skyrockets.

On the other hand, dings, nail holes, door knob holes, bad paint, and chipped corners all lower the value of your home and your morale. If the home is for sale, buyers will form a what-else-is-wrong-with-this-dump mentality, and that's not good for full-price offers.

If you're a new homeowner, you're probably excited about the unlimited decorating possibilities. Even more exciting, there's no landlord to tell you your security deposit is at risk if you act on your artistic impulses. But unless it's a new home, there are probably a few holes and other flaws you'll need to take care of before popping off that first paint can lid.

Interior walls are typically framed with 2x4 inch lumber. The vertical members, called studs, are spaced 16 inches apart, center to center. In fact, this is such a universal standard that just about all tape measures have the 16-inch position clearly marked. Sometimes homeowners or unscrupulous contractors try to cut corners and space studs 24 inches apart, but this creates an unsafe and less rigid wall.

Basically, walls come in two types: drywall (sometimes called sheetrock or wallboard) and plaster. In some higher-end homes, plaster can still be the wall of choice, but it takes a skilled crew to install it. You rarely find plaster walls in homes built after sheetrock came along in the 1950s. Sheetrock is much easier, faster, and cheaper to install. It commonly comes in 1/2- or 5/8-inch thick, 4 foot by 8 foot or larger sheets, and installers use battery-powered driver/drills and coarse-threaded drywall screws.

One wall problem is caused by shelves and pictures. It's amazing how often nails are left sticking out of walls when people move out of a home and the new buyer is left with a lot of patch work.

Here's an example case: The sellers had a lot of pictures on the walls, and the home looked great. However, when the buyer entered the home a few hours after closing, she found the walls a mess. Nails were sticking out everywhere, and there were several quarter-sized holes left by wallboard anchors that had been carelessly removed. Also, the previous owners had painted around some of the larger pictures, which when removed left large white rectangles on pale blue walls. Of course, the buyer was upset and angrily called her agent, but the sellers were long gone, and not much could be done about it.

When mounting pictures, shelves, and other items, it's better to tap wall anchors into a stud rather than into drywall. True, there are wall anchors that work in drywall, but the load limits are small, and if one pulls loose, you've got a sizable hole to patch.

As for hanging pictures, there are many different choices at your local home center. The key to picking one picture hanging system over another is to think ahead to when you'll need to remove whatever you're hanging. Bigger holes mean bigger patch jobs.

One of the first things many new homeowners want to do before or soon after they move in is paint the interior. Although they have high hopes for great looking walls, too often the results are disappointing. This is usually the result of poor prep work. In many cases, painting can make flaws even more noticeable. The first step in creating a great looking interior is prep the walls by getting rid of dings, holes, popped sheetrock fasteners, settling cracks and uneven spots.

Actually, prepping walls and repairing holes is an important homeowner skill to develop. It's not difficult, it's just a matter of attention to detail and a little practice and your home will always be in top condition.

The first step to becoming a drywall ding expert is assembling a tool kit. Tools you'll need are:

• 6-inch taping or spackle knives
• Utility knife and spare blades
• Assorted grit drywall and paper and sanding block
• Drywall screws
• A roll of fiberglass mesh drywall joint tape
• An electric drill with Phillips bit for setting drywall screws
• Premixed all-purpose joint compound (referred to as mud by installers)
• Straight edge
• Claw hammer

A common problem with wallboard in walls and ceilings is that as the house settles, seams open and fasteners pop out just enough to create a noticeable bump. You'll want to correct these bumps before painting or wallpapering.

To repair popped fasteners, first hammer the nail lightly until the head is just below the surface but not breaking the paper wallboard cover. If the fastener is a screw, give it a few turns with a Phillips screwdriver until it's also just below the surface.

Next, drive a drywall screw about 2 inches above or below the popped fastener to keep it from popping out again. If it's loose and the area around it is damaged, remove it. Then cut a length of fiberglass mesh tape large enough to cover both dimples. Fill the dimples with joint compound and run the flat edge of the trowel over the area to even out the fill. Let the first coat dry and then add another coat. When that coat dries, sand lightly and feather or brush the edges so they blend into the surrounding surface.

To make sure a patched area is completely feathered, hold a bright light next to the repair and look at it from the side. If you see a bump, sand lightly until the surface blends perfectly with the rest of the area. Feathering takes patience and a little practice, but this is critical to ensure that the repaired area doesn't stand out when you paint it.

Small cracks and nail holes can be filled with one or more coats of joint compound as needed and then sanded and feathered. Holes from large nails, drywall anchors and dings can be covered with a piece of mesh tape and two or three coats of compound - and then sanded and feathered, of course.

Bigger holes from doorknobs hitting the wall, moving furniture, and rough-housing kids needs a more aggressive approach. Crisscross the hole with layers of mesh tape and then force joint compound into the mesh with a six-inch trowel and scrape off the excess. Add two more coats and when dry, sand and feather to match the surrounding area.

Another approach on especially large holes is to cut out the wallboard until you expose half of the stud on both sides of the hole. Cut a piece of wallboard to fit the hole. Secure the patch by driving wallboard screws at each end into the studs; space the screws about two inches apart. Then tape, mud, and sand the seams to blend. Since you're going to have a bare section of wallboard, you'll need to brush off or vacuum the sanded area to remove dust. Then prime and paint to match the rest of the wall.

Still another hole-patching solution that doesn't require you to cut all the way to the studs on either side is to insert 1-inch by 3-inch furring strips into the hole. The wood strips will extend about two inches beyond the edge of the sheetrock. Drive screws through the sheetrock into the wood strips, giving you a base to pack the hole with joint compound. After the packing dries, cover with mesh tape and add two or three more finishing coats. When dry, sand and feather to match surrounding walls. Cracks should be filled with mud and sanded. Sometimes it's easier to cut the crack into a V with a utility knife, and then to fill with compound and sand smooth when it dries.

If you've got a really bad wall - with patches, gouges, bad mud, or poor taping - you may want to consider hiring a professional to skim the wall. Basically, the installer applies a thin, even coat of mud over the entire wall. After drying, the wall is sanded smooth and a coat of primer-sealer is applied.

For older homes with plaster walls, fixing a hole is not that difficult. It's a matter of applying several coats of fill, and then waiting for them to dry before applying a final coat of joint compound. The following steps show how:

1. Scrape and chip all loose material from around the edge of the hole and vacuum.

2. Undercut the edge of the plaster so it bevels inward towards the metal or wood strips (called lath) that form the backing. This is to create a seat for the patch.

3. Fill the hole with patching plaster available at home centers. Scrape off any excess and score the patch in a crisscross pattern so the final coat will adhere better and then let dry. The final step is to spread joint compound over the patch and smooth with the flat edge of trowel. Let dry and apply additional coats until the dried patch is roughly even with the rest of the wall. Sand and feather the patch until it's smooth and blends in.