# Gouged drywall. Need HELP !



## tiorunder (Jan 21, 2010)

Hey !

Hired daughter to remove wallpaper from bathroom walls - the walls were left gouged and the paper from the drywall is torn out all over the place. The damage is everywhere. The wife wants to paint the walls, but being a autobody man I know the walls need to be repaired before we can paint. How does one go about repairing this type of damage without replacing the drywall ? HELP !!!

Thanx in advance. John.


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## inspectorD (Jan 21, 2010)

Joint compound, just like bondo , only for the walls. 


Nestor gave a good talk on how it works   http://www.houserepairtalk.com/f109/finish-drywall-basement-8301/,

Hope this helps.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 22, 2010)

Tiorunder:

You can use joint compound to fill in the gouges, but to do a top notch job you need to replace the strength of the missing paper.  Drywall get's virtually all of it's strength from the paper on each side of it.  Paper is very strong in tension, so for drywall to bend, the paper on one side or the other has to stretch.  It's paper's high strength in tension that makes drywall a surprisingly strong and rigid material, considering what it's made of.

If it's just the white surface paper that's missing in certain spots, it's not a big deal and you can just paint over the exposed brown paper with a product called "Guardz" that will seal the surface of the rough brown paper, keeping it down while you skim coat over those areas with joint compound.

If it's more than the white surface paper that's missing, then you should apply strips of self adhesive fiberglass mesh drywall joint tape as a replacement for the paper.  

Fiberglass mesh drywall tape is also very strong in tension.  Apply the strips of mesh in one direction across the areas of missing paper, then paint over that area with white wood glue diluted with enough water to make a paintable consistancy liquid.  As the white wood glue dries, it'll bond the fiberglass mesh to the underlying brown paper.  Then apply a second coat of fiberglass mesh strips going perpendicular to the first coat, and paint with dilute white wood glue again.  The fiberglass mesh layer is now bonded to the existing brown paper, and is a reasonable substitute for the original paper in terms of strength.

Ditto the above paragraph if the surface paper is even missing in places, thereby exposing the gypsum core.  You can apply strips of fiberglass mesh and use dilute white wood glue to bond them to the gypsum core, thereby repairing the drywall and restoring it's original strength.

Once you've got your drywall gouges repaired with fiberglass mesh, you need to skim coat over the surface to restore the wall to it's original smoothness.  If you're a rank newbie, there are two ways you can do this:

1. Use a very fine tooth "V" notch trowel to trowel joint compound onto the wall.  Allow those joint compound ridges to dry.  Give the ridges a very light sanding just to flatten out the peaks of the ridges.  Then, holding the trowel upside down, fill in the trowel ridges with more joint compound using the un-notched edge of the trowel.

2. Use a less fine tooth "V" notch trowel to trowel joint compound onto the wall, and immediately use a flat regular plastering trowel and a spray bottle to mist the wet joint compound with water and trowel it smooth.  By misting the surface of the joint compound with water, you make it easier to trowel smooth.

Try experimenting with both of these methods on the wall before choosing the one that works best for you.

When the skim coat is dry, give it a light sanding to make the wall smooth, touch up any rough areas, sand them smooth, prime and paint.



In both cases, the result is a more or less uniform thickness of joint compound over the entire wall.

And, as with ALL plaster repairs, work with a bright light shining at a sharp angle to the wall to exagerate the roughness of the wall.  When the wall looks "Not as bad as it could be" under critical lighting, it'll look better under normal lighting.  When it looks OK under critical lighting, it'll look perfect under normal lighting.


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## Wuzzat? (Jan 22, 2010)

You can also get "wet sanding" sponges to eliminate raising dust when sanding.

I recommend pre-mixed joint compound; the 'hot mud' option dries very fast but I was not able to get consistent results.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jan 22, 2010)

Premixed joint compounds are an attractive option for newbies because they figure that they won't have the additional challenge of mixing a joint compound powder with water to get the right consistancy.  That's simply not true because you need to have the wrists of a mountain gorilla to spread a premix without thinning it with water first.  So, with either a premix or powder, you're still mixing the mud to a proper consistancy either way.

But, by having the latitude to use more or less (or none at all) glue into your mixing water before using that solution to mix your joint compound in, you have total control over the mud you're using, and when you combine that with some experience, it can't help but result in better quality work being done.  You can mix a stickier and harder mud than you can buy anywhere, apply half the amount you mixed up, and then mix powder and water into what's left in the mixing container to immediately top coat with a softer mud that'll be easier to sand smooth when dry.

Just go to any place that repairs small kitchen appliances and ask for a scrap blade for a kitchen mixer.  Mount that in an electric drill, and you can mix your joint compound up quick and easy in 7-11 Big Gulp cups or large soup cans.  Put the mixing can in a cardboard box when mixing so that the spinning blade doesn't throw joint compound all over the place.

I'm not saying newbies shouldn't use premixed muds, cuz I know they will anyway.  I'm just not recommending they do because as you develop confidence and experience mixing your mud from powder and white wood glue allows you much greater flexibility than you can have using premixed muds.

I use Synko Pro Set 90 "Lite Sand" as a joint compound.  There are many joint compounds that are as good or better I expect, but I've always been happy with it and have never felt the need to go shopping for a better joint compound.


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## bobtheblindguy (Jan 22, 2010)

Better off next time just giving her the money she asks for.


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