LESLIE: We have John in New Jersey who’s got some wallboard damage. What happened, John?
JOHN: Well, I had a leak in the ceiling and what I am now facing is that there are two – the two pieces of wallboard where they are seamed and there’s a piece of tape over it, the tape has come loose. But in addition to the tape coming loose I believe that the paper has separated on the wallboard itself from the composition material that’s between the – that’s on the wallboard. And I’m not sure – I mean I’ve thought of three options: one is cut that piece out and put another piece in, which is something I can’t do; the other one is to just put up another piece of tape and spackle it over; the other is to cut back the paper from the wallboard that’s separated from the composition and spackle and then put tape over it in the seam and then spackle the whole thing. But I’m …
TOM: Alright, John, let us see if we can straighten you out on this. Just tell me one thing. The area where the paper is separated from the drywall, is it just in the area where the tape was; like a fairly concentrated area there; couple of inches?
JOHN: Yeah, maybe in an inch or two.
LESLIE: And does it run the entire seam or is it just in a short section?
JOHN: (overlapping voices) No, no, no, no. This is maybe only about a – somewhere about 10 inches or 12 inches.
TOM: Alright, this is easy to fix. What …
LESLIE: And you can do it yourself.
TOM: Yeah. What I’m thinking …
JOHN: Yes.
TOM: What I’m thinking here, Leslie, is to do a little surgery here. Get a utility knife.
JOHN: Right.
TOM: Cut out the loose tape. Cut off the paper that’s separated from the drywall. Get that area cleaned up. Then get some fiberglass tape. Put it over …
LESLIE: It’s the meshy one.
TOM: Yeah, the meshy, sticky one. Put it over the seam. And then probably with about three coats of spackle you should be able to rebuild that area. Don’t have to cut the drywall out.
JOHN: OK, so just clean it up. Get the loose tape off. Cut the paper off of the wallboard that is loose.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
JOHN: And then put a piece of that fiberglass mesh tape – which I know what you’re talking about – put that up there and then spackle over the whole thing.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: That’s exactly right.
JOHN: OK. Thank you very, very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, John. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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