Water Leak & Drywall Repair

Join us as we investigate a suspected water leak & drywall repair. 

What prompted the project?

• Upon moving some large items in the garage, water damage was noticed near the baseboard on the wall which is directly behind the fridge on the other side. 

Results?

• No damage was found on the kitchen side. We made a hole in the drywall on the garage side & the water was turned on to the fridge for a few days to observe if was was leaking.

Materials/tools:

• Vacuum with hand held tools—to clean the back side of the fridge
• Wet/Dry vac for garage clean up
• Multimaster tool
• Hammer
• Utility knife/metal ruler
• Drywall scrap 
• Pencil
• Paint
• Drill/bits/drywall screws
• Support boards (needed if drywall scrap is not drilled into place on a stud)
• Spackle/putty knife
• Sander/sandpaper
• Dust mask/goggles/ear protection

Tips:

• DIY instructions demonstrating how to repair drywall show using a piece of wood secured behind the hole to fasten the new patch in place. We did not do this as there was a stud available in one part of the hole & a horizontal piece available in the second part of the patch. The patch secured to the vertical stud remained exactly in place. On the other hand, the piece secured to the horizontal place moved about 1/4” lower than the other part of the patch. If this repair was in a more obvious place (other than the garage), we would have needed to remove the patch & insert a vertical piece of wood onto which the patch was attached. This was a great learning experience & would be easy to replicate again.
• The big box hardware stores sells small sheets of drywall for repair. We had to ask for it as we walked right by it. In our store it was in a box on the floor directly across from the large sheets of dry wall.

Update: 10/2/15 We have a friend that owns a drywall company that gave us some good ideas if we do this project again.

You can apply drywall tape with mud on it along the joints and then skim drywall mud over the screws.  They also make "mesh" tape that has an adhesive along the back so it will stick to the drywall, then you can apply Sheetrock mud to fill the surface and cover it.

Also, when you use drywall screws they are designed to be installed so they compress the paper on the surface, but not to break through.  The paper is the key to holding everything together.  If you drive the screw too far in and break through the paper, it just crushes the gypsum core and larger pieces will come loose.