LESLIE: Richard in California, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today? Need some drywall removal advice?
RICHARD: Oh, my question is – well, what happened is I had an under-the-sink water filter burst. Flooded my house. And I’ve had two people say that – one person said that I need to replace all the drywall that got wet. Another person says that it’s fine – the drywall is fine. My question is: what do I need to do? What is the proper thing to do?
LESLIE: Well, Richard, what does the drywall look like? Did it dry out or does it look all sponge-y and gross?
RICHARD: It looks like it just dried out.
TOM: Right. If it dried out, then there wasn’t enough water to form it. There’s no reason to perform a drywall removal. Sometimes, when you get a bad leak and especially with a ceiling leak, water will sit above a drywall and it will cause it to kind of swell and buckle downward. And when it deforms like that, there’s no fix for it. You have to do a drywall removal.
But if it just got wet because of the leak and then dried out and it’s still flat, then I wouldn’t worry about it. You may have – if there’s any joints in the drywall that have to – that have separated and have to re-taped or repaired, certainly, you could do all that. But otherwise, I think you’re fine just the way it is. Now, I would recommend that you prime it first, with a solvent-based primer or an oil-based primer, to make sure that you’ve sealed in any staining. But once you do that, I think that you’re pretty much good to go and you’re done. I don’t see a reason to replace it.
RICHARD: Saves a lot of work.
TOM: Alright. Well, that’s what we try to do, Rich. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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