Drywall
Drywall Repair and Installation
We repair and install drywall across the South Bay and the Peninsula, from a single patched hole to a full wall replaced and refinished. The same two licenses that cover stucco and plastering, a Class B general building license and a C-35 Lathing and Plastering license, cover the interior side of the trade too.
Free estimates, licensed since 2018, CSLB #1044105, Class B and C-35. Se habla español.
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- CSLB #1044105, Class B and C-35
- Family owned, founded 2018
What a drywall repair covers
A drywall repair ranges from a hole punched by a doorknob to a section of wall opened up during exterior work. Small jobs are a patch: the hole cut clean, a new piece of board set in, taped, mudded and sanded to match the wall around it. Sheetrock repair and sheetrock wall repair describe the same job under the material's other common name. Larger jobs move past patching into drywall replacement, where a full section or a full wall comes out and goes back in new.
Scope sets the cost of a drywall repair more than the size of the hole does. A small patch with a matched texture is a different job from a section opened for water damage or a wall taken back to the studs. Every estimate follows a look at the actual damage, in person for anything beyond a small patch.
Skim coating
Skim coat is a thin, trowel applied layer of joint compound spread across a wall or ceiling to even out texture, hide old repairs, or leave a flat surface behind after wallpaper or heavy texture comes off. It is a full surface finish, not a spot patch: the compound goes edge to edge so the wall is one continuous plane once it is sanded and primed.
Skim coating and drywall repair overlap where a patch is too large to blend by feathering the edges alone, or where several smaller repairs sit close enough together that a full skim coat across the section is cleaner than matching each one. That taping and mudding skill, blending a patch into the surrounding wall, is what keeps a skim coat flat under raking light.
Plasterboard is drywall
Plasterboard is the British and expat term for the same wall board most of the Bay Area calls drywall or sheetrock. Anyone who grew up calling it plasterboard is not looking for a different material or a different trade, just using a different word.
Plasterboard repair and plasterboard wall repair get the same treatment as any drywall repair: the damaged section comes out, a new piece goes in, and the seams are taped, mudded and sanded until the patch disappears into the wall. If plasterboard is the word that comes naturally, use it. The job is the one described everywhere else on this page.
Drywall replacement
Not every repair ends with a patch. Water damage that has softened or delaminated a section of board, a wall opened during stucco or siding work, or a section with more damage than sound material left around it all call for replacement rather than a patch. The compromised section comes out down to the studs, new board goes up, and the seams are taped and finished to match the surrounding texture.
New drywall installation
New drywall installation covers the interior side of a remodel or new construction: framing goes up, and drywall is hung, taped, mudded and finished before paint. It is offered on its own and as part of a larger exterior job.
Taping, mudding and the finish
We hold a Class B general building license and a C-35 Lathing and Plastering license. The C-35 is the plastering trade, and the skill it represents, laying on coats and working them flat and even before they set, is the same skill a drywall finish depends on. Taping a seam so it disappears under paint is a finishing problem before it is anything else.
Texture is part of that finish. Matching a patch to the surrounding wall means matching its texture profile, whether that is a light orange peel, a heavier knockdown, or a smooth flat surface. Under strong side lighting, a flat wall sometimes needs a level 5 finish, an extra coat of compound skimmed across the whole surface so no seam or fastener head shows through the paint.
Painting is quoted and scheduled with the drywall work, so it is not a second contractor to line up.
Free estimates on drywall work, from one hole to a whole ceiling. Call (408) 690-8676 to talk it through, or book a look at the damage.
When interior walls need this kind of repair
Most drywall calls fall into a few patterns. A hole from an accident or a removed fixture. Cracking or nail pops along a taped seam as a house settles. Water stains or soft, bulging board on a wall or ceiling, usually a sign of a leak upstream that needs to be found and stopped before the drywall gets fixed, not after.
And often, interior damage that only shows up once exterior work is underway. Tearing into a wall from the outside for stucco repair or siding repair can damage the drywall on the inside face of the same wall.
Ceiling repair works the way wall repair does: cut out the compromised section, replace it, tape and finish the seams to blend with the surrounding ceiling.
Where we do this work
Drywall repair and installation run wherever the rest of our work does, covering Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. See the full list of cities.
Looking for decorative venetian plaster, lime plaster or lath and plaster wall repair instead? That is a different trade. See interior plaster.
How the job runs
A drywall repair starts with photos of the damage. For a small patch that is sometimes enough for an estimate over the phone or a video call. Anything larger, a full section, a ceiling, or new installation, gets an in person look first.
From there it follows the usual path: a written proposal, a deposit, a scheduled start, and a final walkthrough once the patch is taped, textured, sanded and, if it is part of the job, painted. Deposit terms are in writing before work begins. See the full process.
Questions
Questions people ask about this work
If yours is not here, ask us on the phone. It is a better use of your time than guessing.
Is plasterboard the same thing as drywall?
No difference in price or process. Whichever word you use, plasterboard, drywall or sheetrock, the estimate is priced on the scope of the damage, not the name for the material.
Does a skim coat change how long the job takes?
Yes. A skim coat is a full surface coat, so it adds setting and sanding time across the whole wall rather than one patch. That is reflected in the schedule on your proposal before you approve it.
What happens if the texture cannot be matched exactly?
An exact match is not always possible, especially when the existing texture is old enough that the closest stocked pattern is not identical. When that is the case, it gets flagged at the estimate, and the options, a wider feathered patch or a full skim coat across the section, get written into the proposal before the work starts.
How do I know the leak causing the damage has actually been fixed?
That gets confirmed before the drywall goes back in, not assumed. If a plumber or another trade already made the fix, we ask about it at the estimate. If exterior water intrusion was the cause, the wall is checked dry before new board goes up, because drywall closed in over a wall that is still wet just fails again.
How long does a drywall repair take?
A small patch is not a single pass, because the compound has to set hard enough to work before it can be sanded, textured and painted. A full section or a ceiling runs longer. The number of visits and the dates are on your proposal before you approve anything.
Drywall is interior. Does the exterior warranty reach it at all?
Only where the drywall damage came from exterior work we did. In that case the repair is part of the job that caused it and is handled on the same work order. Interior drywall on its own is covered by the terms in your written proposal, not by the exterior water intrusion warranty. Full terms are on our warranty page.
Related work
Other things we do on the same house
Free estimate
Patched, textured, and painted if you want it.
Photos of the damage, and the answer comes back as a patch, a section, or a full replacement, priced before anyone starts.
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Se habla español.
CSLB #1044105, Class B and C-35. Two year warranty against water intrusion on exterior stucco.