Ep 13: The Secret Life of Drywall | Basic Drywall Diagnosis
Welcome back to How to Handyma'am! This episode is dedicated to Grandma Chris—she is endlessly encouraging and perfectly embodies the true Handyma'am spirit! We also spend some time mourning Emily's missing order of DoorDash tater tots (which resulted in 45 minutes of tears), but we eventually pull it together to talk about the main event: Drywall!
Whether you want to call it "Drywall Crimes" or "The Secret Life of Drywall," your walls are trying to tell you a story. Here is your ultimate guide to diagnosing and fixing the most common drywall issues in your home.
1. Soft Spots & Bubbling Paint
If your drywall is squishy or the paint is bubbling, you need to diagnose the root cause before you try to patch it!
A soft spot is almost always caused by a moisture problem.
Use a utility knife to cut out a square and investigate the wall cavity.
Keep in mind that water travels along studs and joists, so the actual plumbing leak might not be directly behind the soft spot.
Once drywall gets wet, its structural integrity is completely gone and the section must be replaced.
2. Straight Cracks (Along Seams & Windows)
If you see perfectly straight, parallel cracks about an inch and a half apart, those are your drywall seams separating.
This often happens when paper tape isn't applied with enough moisture or mud, preventing it from adhering properly.
You cannot permanently mud over failed tape; you have to cut it out, pull it off, and re-tape the seam.
For a tough, long-lasting fix, use fiberglass mesh tape instead of paper.
Cracks around windows and doors are incredibly common because all houses move and settle over time, so don't panic and assume it is a major foundation issue!
If you just want a temporary cosmetic fix to hide a crack, use a flexible spackling like DAP Alex Flex (the one with the yellow lid).
Flexible spackling acts like a cross between caulk and spackle with a marshmallow fluff texture, but be warned: it is very difficult to sand!
3. Nail Pops
If you notice tiny, circular indentations or little bumps popping out of your wall, you have a nail pop.
This happens when the drywall is pushed inward (like when someone leans against the wall), but the nail holding it to the stud stays put.
To fix it, drive a coarse-thread drywall screw about an inch above or below the popped nail.
Use coarse-thread screws for wood studs, because fine-thread screws are meant for commercial metal studs and will pull out of wood too easily!
Go slowly with your drill and drive the screw just deep enough to create a tiny dimple.
Do not drive the screw too deep, or you will break the paper face and ruin the integrity of the drywall holding the screw!
Once your new screw is set, you can pull out or pound in the old nail and mud over your dimple.
4. Chipped Corners
Outside corners take a beating from daily life, running kids, and fast pets.
Underneath the chipped paint and mud is usually a metal or plastic corner bead.
The easiest fix is to simply paint over the chip to hide the color difference.
For a true structural repair that won't just immediately break again, use a tiny bit of Bondo to fill the chip and sand it smooth!
5. Yellow Stains & Musty Smells
A circular, yellow stain on your ceiling or wall is almost always a water leak spreading out.
Once you fix the actual leak, you must cover the dry stain with a shellac-based primer or an oil-based primer.
Do not use water-based latex primer on a water stain, because it will just reactivate the stain and bleed right through to your topcoat!
If your walls smell musty, you likely have hidden moisture or mold growing behind the drywall.
If the house smells like stale cigarette smoke, it might be a flip house where the smoke-contaminated drywall was just painted over instead of replaced.
6. The Basement "Rot Gap"
If you are finishing a basement, your drywall should never touch the concrete floor.
Concrete is extremely porous, and your drywall will act like a sponge, wicking up that moisture and growing mold.
Always leave a "rot gap" of about an inch to an inch and a half at the bottom of the wall, which will be hidden by your baseboards anyway!
Rapid Fire: Spackle vs. Joint Compound (Mud)
Not sure which tub to reach for? Here is the quick cheat sheet!
A Dent: Use joint compound.
A Soft Spot: Use neither; you have to cut it out and replace the drywall!
A Small Hole (Nickel-sized or smaller): Use spackle.
Peeling Paint: Scrape the loose edges back first, then skim with joint compound.
Homework Assignment: Do you have a hole bigger than a nickel that needs fixing? Go look up how to make a "California Patch" or a "Pumpkin Patch" out of scrap drywall! You can also try a "flex patch," which is a super thin mesh patch that works great for holes up to 6 inches wide.
Got questions or want to show off your drywall repair skills? Send us an email at hthm@myhandymaam.com!
Episode 13 Transcript:
Hello, welcome back. Hi friends we missed you. Yes, we did. Welcome to How to Handyman, the podcast where we chase down some missing tater tots. In this episode we talk about my missing tater tots. We also talk about karaoke songs who who we sing just a little bit and then we get into the secrets of drywall. Oh yeah. I'm Arley. I'm Samantha and I'm Emily and this episode is dedicated to my grandma Chris, who is actually my husbands grandma, but she is officially my grandmother and she also refers to her for office Grandma Chris to everyone. But she is just a person who I don't know. She just gathers those around her and she really is a true grandma. She's so loving and caring and she's also so great at being like of course you can do that. Like she's so encouraging and I love her very much and she embodies the spirit of a handyman all. For sure. Everybody should have a grandma, Chris. Yeah. Well, let's get into it. All right, You said you had a chatting topic. I really had. 100 I do have one. It's slightly embarrassing and exposes my mental health. OK. So it's been kind of a long week and yesterday this is so ridiculous. I might cry talking about this, but yesterday I ordered dinner because Jace was sick of eating ravioli every single night. So I was like, I'll order something. So I ordered chicken tenders with tater tots on the side and Mac and cheese. And I was like. Chrome maneuver. Yeah. And then it came without any tater tots. Oh no. You aren't gonna cry. And I was like, I only ordered the chicken tenders because it came with a side of tater tots. I didn't even want the chicken tenders and they were not good. And then they put too much pepper on my Mac and cheese. And I'm person that really believes that you shouldn't put pepper on your Mac and cheese. And I'm sorry for those of you who are offended by that, but I like it just the carb and dairy, no spices necessary except for salt. OK. And nothing except these all these things. Well, it's three ingredients ish. Anyway, it was I was really sad for the rest of the I think everybody can identify with that. Well, we told you the story about being helping Hannah, our daughter Hannah move into her house 2 weekends ago now. And like our oh, you told that story last time basically. Oh, you didn't. Basically we Hannah ordered from DoorDash, but the police were at the pizza shop. So the door dasher had to wait for the police to be done with their business to pick up the pizza. By then it had been like an hour and 20 minutes. And he brought it to it. And he was like, Hannah was like, we'll just cancel. And he's like, please don't, I need the money. And we're like, OK, bring us the pizza. And they brought it an hour and 20 minutes later. Of course it was cold, but they also forgot one pizza. And then the one pizza they did give us was not cut, so the four of us had one giant. And we didn't have running water to clean, a utility knife to cut it. And she was like, I just kind of have my utility knife. And I was like, girl, I know where that's bad. Yeah. So yeah. And you're like, I was so hungry. Yeah, I just, like, really wanted some comfort food. I don't know what happened yesterday. What did I even do yesterday? I don't know. Wow. I really don't know. But that happens to me too. But I was like, I need something to make me feel warm and cozy. And then that happened and I was like, everything in the world is wrong. Like I'm not OK. Oh my goodness. And. Jace was like, do you want something different? I was like, no, I didn't get what I wanted. He was like trying to be nice, but I was like you're all kinds of irrational. Couldn't you go out and get tater tots? Where did you order it from? Because everywhere where you live is 4 minutes away. I was emotionally incapable of. Where did you order it from? Food. The Heist Girl. Girl, that's literally blacks from your house. I was not in an emotional state to do anything. Did you call them to say please bring my tater tots because you're they're only three minutes from or three blocks from your house. They could have brought it. No. You just lost the ability to think. Well I got a refund on DoorDash and then I cried for 45 minutes. In which time James could have gone to get your tater tots and come back and you could have eaten them and restored your sanity. As if you're like, this is a rational response to an upsetting event and so therefore you must have been thinking rationally. But I was, I was crying because I didn't have tater tots like a 2 year old. Well, so would you have told the two year old to go walk three blocks in the dark? I would have said I will go get them for you sweetheart. Well, then next time I'll ask her daughter, I can confirm. Once. Oh gosh. This one time the ice cream truck came by our house and no, it came one block over. No, it drove by our house and did not stop. Like by the time we got out with our money it was gone and the girls were sobbing. I took off after that ice cream in my bare feet. I chased it three blocks and I was like, please come back. And he did. Did you get to ride in the ice cream truck. No, I did not. I don't get in. I don't get in ice cream trucks. Yeah, I can buy ice cream from them, but. You know how like Crime Junkie does like life roll? That's how to Handyman life roll #1. Do not get in an ice cream ice cream truck. I don't know if I can. You know there is a freezer compartment. You know what's good for free? What's good in a freezer compartment other than ice cream, dead bodies, bodies or tater tots? Bodies or dead bodies, Because that'd be a really bad way to die. Well, I feel like that's not the worst way to go. No, because you mostly. Get do the topic of the worst way. Just kidding. Oh, you have a China topic that's more upbeat? Tell us. If you guys gone to your head, had to pick a karaoke song, what would you pick? I would pick the room where it happens. Yeah, from Hamilton or whatever the and anybody tell me somebody to love. What's the name of that song? By clean somebody to love. Somebody to love by clean and anybody. Specifically the Ella enchanted version. Yeah. Yeah, which I've already talked about, but it has to be somebody. Yeah, because you need the Giants and the I can hear the Giants and I can see them when I'm singing slithering through the crowd, which I know I've already painted that picture on the podcast, but it needs to be reiterated that that movie is a cultural moment. It's true. And I'm going to watch that tonight. Actually, on my tombstone, can we figure out a way to have a little video player that's solar powered and it just says Ella Enchanted on a loop? OK, the whole strange magic. Well, what's your pick? Either Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright. That's so good, I thought I was going to be a famous singer. I learned to sing that song real good or anything. Taylor Swift because unfortunately I have this scary skill where I can pretty much name any Taylor Swift song from the first one to four notes. My gosh. It's impressive. How about you? I think Oklahoma, OH. My gosh, please don't. Bones. No, no, no, not that one either. You're in trouble. Hello. I would. I would sing. I think I would probably do, I mean almost anything from the Mamma Mia or the Hairspray soundtrack. I'm addicted. But probably the you know what I got so much that I wanna do. My dream in love with you is magic. She doesn't like Mamma Mia, but I can't let go. Or that song from Jesus Christ Superstar. Everything's all right, everything's fine. I'm sorry. Now it's going to be clicked by I Don't Like Jesus Christ. Also, there's the thing that I was saying that would drive you nuts because I think your reactions are about to be funny. What? No. Never do that again. It's from the immigrant song by Led Zeppelin, but it's like Thor Ragnarok. No, it's a plane during the fight scene and Thor Ragnarok and it got stuck in my head when that came out. I had to listen to that so many times. Just sit down on the couch. Just be eating Mac and cheese and all of a sudden. Because it's like screamed here. I'll go for a bit. And I do that over and over. But I just logged off right there, OK? We should get back on topic, OK. I mean, we have not get back on topic because we've never been on topic. We should get to let's land the plane of talking about the topic. One more, one more. I have one more, I have one more little side note. So we have to tell the listeners this. So the other day I had a rough night and I came in and I was telling Samantha about it and I was like, this is crazy. So keep in mind we are not related in any way, shape or form except we live, we have redhead energy and we work together. OK. I don't even know her. No, but I come in to work just. My boss, my landlord, I don't like her at all. Yeah, we never even. I don't even know what she looks like. Anyway so I had a rough night and I came in and rough night meaning like I didn't sleep well. Not that I was like out partying or something. It's like the coke really got into me anyway, so I Friday afternoon. Came into work and I was like, oh, the past two nights have been kind of hard. I was like, I had this dream last night that Jason's doctor, Jason's my boyfriend by the way, and Jason's been having a lot of bloody noses lately. And I had in my dream, his doctor had said that the reason his nose was bleeding so much is because of the new shoes that I got him. And I was like so sad. And when I woke up and I was like, whatever. And so I told that to Samantha and she's like, wait, I'm like what? Did you tell me this already? Because I already know this. I was like, no, I just had the dream last night. I had the dream that Jason's nose was bleeding because of his shoes. I don't like that. I mean, not new shoes, it wasn't exactly the same dream, but like he was wearing the wrong shoes and that's why his nose was bleeding. I was like having the weirdest, like deja vu, freaky. Seriously, I was like, what is happening I was like, I it was huh. And she was like, I already knew that. And I was like, whoa, I bought him some new shoes. So that was crazy anyway. Let's have a job. You're all harmonized. Is that what we call Harmony. I think it's just two notes existing close by to one another. Okay, Oh my gosh, people. Okay. People, you're just as bad as getting off topic as the rest of us. So you're like here's my Halo. This is the Midwest. Hello. I thought it went intermediate. At the end of the episode, we're like, but in the beginning we're like we can't get to the main time. We're like this thing happened to me when I was 3. Yeah, I'm sorry if you don't like banter. This thing despise for you and if you need it this far, you bet we should have a trigger. You like being at all sounds of banter? Huh. We should have a trigger warning at the meeting of episodes that's like this episode contains excessive amounts of banter or just the like? The minute count. Yeah. You can start the topic. Start at 27 minutes and 30 seconds. It's like 55 minutes later, OK. Anyway, we are talking about drywall today, OK. And what we were talking about, well, we tried to pick a name for the episode and we all picked something different. So we chose Samantha's pick. What was it? And I'll tell you in a second. Come on. I need to know now. OK, and if you guys think that you have a more clever name for this episode, let us know, because I'm curious, because I feel like we came up with a lot of good ideas and we picked a mediumly interesting one damn, why'd you pick it if you don't like it because apparently really mine was like too much or something. I like when I was describing mine, you were like, I don't get it. So I just said it more emphatic. So I was like drywall or buy wall and you were like, what? I was like drywall. All right, bye bye. Wow, bye wall. And you were like moving on. Here's some other ideas. OK this then. I'm going to share mine then too. It was drywall crimes, Dun Dun. I like that one. And then Samantha's was The Secret Life of drywall. It's like The Secret Life of Mormon wise. Yeah, or I think mine is more on topic. Yeah, but like crimes against drywall or drywall committing crimes, Yeah, I feel like the drywall in the context of this episode would be the perpetrator sometimes like special victims unit drywall edition yeah and we're the victims because we have to succeed. Have you ever watched Resident Alien? No, he fall. He's an alien, but he falls in love with law and order. That's how we learn how to speak English. So he every time someone says something related to crime, he goes kung kung. Why does he do it like that? He's an alien. But it's clearly Dun dung. He's an alien. An alien. He also says this is some bullshit. Just like that. Yep. Oh my gosh, So we got it. There's shirts that say this is some bullshit. Dang, OK. Anyways, we're seeing ground time Let us know whose name you liked the best and if you have a better one. All right, I like drywall by wall. Bye. This is awesome. Yeah, it's fine. We're getting to it. OK, so let's talk. We're going to talk about some common drywall problems and their what they look like and what their causes and what you should do to fix them or replace it. So we'll start with a soft spot, a soft spot in your drywall. So maybe the paint is bubbling. Well, it could be either if if there's like a little soft spot. So the first thing you have to do is diagnose. You need to find out why it's soft because if you try and patch it, but there's moisture coming from the other side that you're just the problems just going to come back. So if I had a like a squishy or an area of drywall where the paint was like lifting up or bubbling, the first thing I would do is take a utility knife and kind of like probe that area a little bit. And if it's soft, I would start cutting. I cut out a little bit and kind of then you can feel the drywall whether or not it's wet. And then if it's if it's, if you continue to cut and it continues to be wet, you're eventually going to cut out a square and like find out what is happening behind this wall because plumbing in houses runs through lots of interior walls. So there's, I mean, a reasonable chance if your drywall is wet that your plumbing is leaking behind the wall. So if you you first need to find out why is it soft and water? Travels. So this is a random aside, it's on topic, but if you cut open your wall and you're like there's, there's no plumbing here. Drywall water travels along like studs and joists. It's very like you can have the leak can start here and kind of travel like this and you're looking over here, but the leak is over here. Yeah. So not to scare you. But you need to be a diagnostician. Yeah, it's like go looking. So the problem of soft spots in drywall is usually moisture. Sometimes it can be because it was crushed or compacted. And so now it's just like loose like dust sitting between the front paper and the back paper. But that's not as common as it being a moisture problem. And then you want to investigate and most likely replacing it, unless it's like a drip where you can remove it, like scoop it out and then put something new. But once drywall's like wet, its structural integrity is out the window. So you'd have to replace that section with a new piece of drywall. And make sure you solve the problem, the underlying problem, before fixing the drywall. Yeah, we had an interesting situation like this happened this week. We did field, we had a client who is handy herself but she fixed it was your client so if I'm telling it wrong please let me know. But she had a pinhole size hole in her ceiling that had been a stain forever and she was like I fixed it and it keeps doing this. So we did the yucky job of crawling through the attic and figuring it out. Her entire vent stack pipe, which often has condensate and stuff in it, was shattered upstairs. Like it was PVC and someone had clearly stepped on it. So. So that probably saved someone from falling through the ceiling, Yeah. It did but yeah, so we first they I imagine them first they uncovered and there was like this long like just linear crack. And then the next section they uncovered was like a jagged it was like in the picture, it was like a completely jagged step, like a broken bone, like a really broken bone. I'm like, well that explains it. Is it a compound fracture when it exits your body? This compound is broken in more than one place. So the reason why she was getting a pinhole and not like a big problem is it's the vent stack. So it's largely air traveling through there, but they exit through your roof typically. So you're going to get some moisture penetration like in a bad storm or you're going to get just in extreme weather conditions where you have you have like the temperature change is so significant, especially in the when you drain warm water. There's still. Yeah, So you get condensation, which is fine in APDC pipe. It's, you know, going to evaporate eventually. But when it's broken, then it will just drip, drip, drip. And so it took 12 years for it to open up big enough to like be like, oh, there's a problem. So you can tell it was just like the tiniest little drips but. And that's how the Grand Canyon was made. But a lot of times true with drywall, learning how to fix it first involves figuring out what went wrong in the first place. Yeah, because otherwise, what this episode's all about repeated practice of repairing your drywall 'cause you'll keep doing it. Yep. OK, so the next one is suppose you see cracks along your wall and they're straight. And it seems like a lot of the time there are two cracks traveling together. I have plaster walls at my house, so when you say cracks in walls, I'm like, like, it's like a war movie to me because I'm like my whole wall's going to come down. Not, I mean, it's the, it's the taped seam. They'll be about this far apart. I'm doing for listeners, I'm doing like an inch and a half finger measurement and they'll be about an inch and a half and they'll parallel and they're perfectly straight. That will be the seams of your drywall. Yeah. And if the this happens a lot with paper tape, I mean, all tape, every kind drywall tape has its own unique problems. But paper tape has to be wet enough when it's installed, otherwise it just dries and becomes crackly. And then it just doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't adhere. So yeah. Yeah, so I have a tip for. That the solution. What's the solution M? Well, I know that we wet it now. Don't. We I mean for fixing it like if you I was going to say my tip for if you are drywalling with paper tape, you you want a thick mud bed under it to be sure that it kind of gets fixed. If you want to really take the time, my brother Joe, who's a perfectionist about home repair kinds of things, he runs it through a bucket of water, his paper tape. Yeah. So it's damp. Not he doesn't soak it, but it's damp when he puts it on the wall. And the wallpaper buckets that you like? Yeah, feed it through then you get perfect adhesion, Yeah. But how would you fix it? How would you fix it? So one thing to know, if you need a like a super temporary repair, like let's say you're very overbearing, mother-in-law is coming over and you just know she's going to comment on it. You could slide some adhesive behind it and kind of press it down temporary. But the real way to fix tape, it cannot be fixed that way. You have to pull off that once the tape has been installed and then failed is not reinstallable. So you, so you just. Go as far as the tape because they'll probably a place. Usually there's a place where it's still adhered, so you'll go a little bit into that area and cut it with a sharp utility knife and then go as far down as you need to. And then you'll pull that right off the wall and it's going to send drywall. It's kind of chips. It is. It'll like send some chips and then you'll be left with like a perfectly rectangular like little cavern up and down that's like an eighth of an inch deep. And you then you re tape it and re mud it. OK. Samantha, what if I don't want to re tape it? What happens if I just mud it? Then the chances are, because your house moves, the whole purpose of tape is to kind of keep those seams together. So you absolutely can for temporary if you want. Or if it doesn't really matter to you, you could just skim coat it with drywall joint compound. But the tape is what keeps those cracks between the two sheets of drywall from becoming apparent. So as your house moves, if you only have joint compound, you're going to, you're going to be able to, then you'll just get one really straight crack in the wall. Yeah. I've we've also for some customers, they're like, I just don't want to see the dark crack and we've put in like that that really flexible spackle. And just yellow light. Into the crack and then we just paint it and it's not it doesn't fix the problem, but tape mostly is there for like in short spans. It's really there in like a visual, like a cosmetic, so. I have the exact product. The Alex Flex Flexible Spackling Flexible eliminate recurring cracks, but it has a yellow lid. This. You can use it in the way you're talking about, but that product is particularly helpful on cracks and plaster where so if you have a crack in your plaster, you you can't just fill it. That's not going to fix it. The way to fix it is to kind of dig out a channel maybe half an inch wide. So if it's like a single crack, you want to dig out a channel half an inch wide because otherwise you don't have enough depth to put something into. But if you dig that out, then you can use the the product that Emily just mentioned and you can use a putty knife and put it into that. You can fill that crack with it. And this stuff is kind of like if Spackle and caulk had a baby. Yeah, it has a lot of flexibility, which I will say be be mindful of how much you put on and how much you scrape off when it's wet because it's very difficult to sand. It really is. So I once, like, really did a ceiling upright with it and then was like, very, very upset with myself as I just had to sand and sand and sand. It's like sanding caulk. It's also a surprising texture. It's like if you're normally using spackle, which is kind of like a pudding or like a paste, and then you use like whipped cream. I was going to say marshmallow fluff. Yeah, and there's a lot like that it was kind of. I think it's the. Same consistency as like if you imagine squishing one of those orange circus peanut candies because it's kind of, it has some resistance, but it's kind of floofy. So it's kind of odd. Yeah, weird. But it is not necessarily something you need to even investigate really. You don't need to do an exploratory search to find anything deeper beneath it. No, if underneath your cheek it is wet, then you might have to investigate. But this is really just cosmetic and you can just replace the tape and repair the area. Yeah. And you should know it doesn't mean for those of you that might be nervous, new homeowners and nervous, the fact that you have cracks in your walls almost never means you have a structural problem. It just means that the house moves, which is very normal. And the amount it moves depends on the age, how it was built, the kind of structure like not just how well it was built, but the structure that was built and how much seismic activity you have. You know, it doesn't have to be earthquakes to have seismic activity. You have movement, so if you have a lot of that, then you're just going to have those cracks happen as plaster separates or as drywall seams separate even. In new homes especially, a lot of new homes are built on areas that like used to be. Marshes or used to be. So they don't have virgin soil. They have like, filled dirt, Yeah. They have settled a lot and where we live, the Capital Region of Michigan specifically, there's a lot of houses. This is so interesting that have been moved. You can see if you look at a houses foundation from the outside, if it has pillars kind of coming out, Yeah, that's where it was moved and those has. Settled in the big version of Lincoln Logs. Yeah. And they literally did it with logs and they kept. And so a few houses we looked at, the basements were really short and it's because they like dug those prior to putting the house on top of it yeah, so just some reassurance that if you have cracks, that's a pretty normal part of owning a house and every. House moves. Every house moves, it's true. OK, there are small circles that are popping out. I know you tell. It's a nail pop. So when drywall is installed with nails, if the nail starts coming out or the drywall goes in, then the nail goes. And a lot of times it won't be a complete exposure. It will be like, I'm trying to think of like if you emboss a piece of paper, you know how it just kind of presses it in a little. It will look like that. Yeah. It will be like a little indented button or a little button that's a tiny bit. It's almost like it doesn't have quite enough tension to break the paint. Yeah, but enough to see it. It will eventually paint it. Has a little. Bit of stretch, yeah, it will eventually pop out, especially if it's a place where like people put like lean on the wall. Yeah, it's going to press the drywall in and the nail stays and yeah. Cuz usually drywalls installed with ring Shank nails, I believe, which are like if you our, our best practice is to install drywall with screws. Yeah. But when they're installed, they usually try to use some sort of screw or some sort of nail that has a Shank, A twisty Shank. And so yeah, they're more likely to stay. They're not gonna, Yeah. So the. Solution will also show nail pops eventually. They will that that's not a screw problem, that's a drywall installation problem. Because you, if you only install dry, if you don't, if the drywall isn't pressed against the stud when you put the screw in, then you've got empty space between the back of the drywall and the stud. So if you lean on the wall, you're going to push the drywall along the screw. So the fix, if you have this problem in your house, it's a very easy fix. You're going to go about an inch up or down from where that nail pop is. And then you're going to put a screw in and you press it in. You don't want it to go all the way, like all the way through, cuz then it's not holding on to anything. Yeah. So you'll screw your screw in until it's like flush with the surface of the wall. And then just a little kiss further, just the tiniest kiss further. And a dimple, a tiny little dimple. And what that does is it it recesses the screw head so that you can mud over it. And then you're going to either pound that nail in or pull that nail out, depending on if you can get ahold of it, how far out it is, and then you do your repair. And when you're screwing in drywall screws, like I can have a tendency to just like RAM stuff in with a drill, like I'm just like, I'm getting this in there. No matter what happens. You want to go pretty slow. Yeah, you do, because it's. Really easy, like drywalls 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch thick. So it's really easy to just go. Right through and then it like. Stud and then it often pops it back out and then you're like, what is happening? Yes, if we think about what drywall is, it's basically dust compacted with paper holding both sides of it together. So once you you disrupt the paper on either side and you have broken it this the integrity of the drywall is gone. So if you put your screw all the way through, then you don't have the head of it really holding that first layer of paper, the drywall middle and then the last piece of paper against the the stud. One last piece of advice is there are course drywall screws and fine thread drywall screws and they look exactly like what they sound like. You'll have one that has really wide kind of spirally teeth and one that are really close together. The fine toothed ones are for metal studs which are nearly always only found in a commercial setting. So if it's your house you want the course thread drywall screws because they do a better job of grabbing a hold of the wood and then and staying put the the fine thread ones will pull out more easily. Also ask us Howie now. Yeah. Yep. OK, what do we got next? Let us talk about chips on the corners of your drywall. Are we getting close? No, I just was wondering. I'm excited to hear what Emmy says about this. Oh, well, that's pretty common because people be living in their homes. So just when you like catch it on the corner or your dog flying by too fast or your kids are hitting it with their toy cars in the house and stuff, and they're actually kind of a pain in the butt to repair just because they can reoccur really quickly. So I don't know. What product recommendations would you guys have? I have a recommendation, yeah. So if you just want to not see the chip, just paint over it. You'll still have the divot but it won't be noticeable because of the color. You can try wood filler, but wood filler is not a material that works well in a shallow depression. So my best bet is bondo, just a tiny bit of bondo to fill it and then once the bondo cures, which is like 45 minutes, you can just sand it. And Bondo has structural integrity, so it will stay. I would not recommend in general that homeowners bother with them because as soon as you fix that one, they're going to be another one. And then if you live in your house, like a house that you live in, you're going to have those. But if it really bothers you, then I would recommend the Bondo, which is a two-part product. Or you can go grandma old school and get clear. Protectors for your you. Can you can or metal one, I mean, or wood ones. They make those too, yeah. Yeah, sometimes if there's a big dent in it or something, it might mean that your corner bead. So the there the very corner of your drywall is not usually drywall what's underneath it. If the paint chips is almost always metal or plastic, Yep, it might mean that no quarter Mead was used. Maybe somebody just taped the corner or maybe the metal bead has has lived its life and it is time for it to be replaced. And so it's just going to. Especially in moist area. Yeah, that happens a lot with metal, A corner bead and a. Bathroom, so it could be a corner bead situation, but most of the time it's just somebody bumped into it and you can either fix it or not depending on how much it bothers. You the paint really is it kind of goes. Away. It does, yeah. OK. Cracks by doors and windows. You're gonna talk about this one? You can. Why? Like why they happen or how to fix them? I think I'll defer to you on why to fix them. Cracks near doors and windows normally happen because houses move and when you install drywall, you're supposed to put a full piece around that opening. So like I've seen professional drywallers, if you have a door opening, they'll just like basically cover up the door opening with a sheet of drywall and then they go cut out the door because the drywall. Is going to run through it Kool-aid? Means, yes, the drywall is going to be a lot more sound, structurally sound in that moving environment if it's one piece. But normally the what the easier thing to do or the like tendency to use scraps there is to have one that goes up to the the edge of the window and then one above the window and then one on the other side of the window. And so those, those seams open up a lot. But what's your once your wall is already drywalled that way. Arlie, what's your recommendation for repair? Well, I would probably say something like that DAP flex or I mean it depends on probably if you have a pretty new build and crack is starting, it's probably going to be a while before you're done. Is your house is like settled, settled and then you also have the temperature changes and like everything expanding and contracting. I would think like what I would do in my house is put some like flex, DAP, flex or some caulk in the hole and just paint over it because it won't make it disappear entirely, but it will give you longer in in between. So say like your crack reappears, you know, three months after you fixed it with drywall mud. It'll probably give you like six or seven months of no crack. You know it gives you at least more time in between having to repair that crack. Or you hang a beautiful piece of. Artwork right where that. Yeah. The most correct fix would be to cut out the drywall around the window or the door frame and replace it, but that's rarely practical or necessary. I think though, too, if you're going to let's say it's cracking at the seams, if you are so inclined, the fiberglass drywall tape, it's probably the hardiest kind of tape to keep the drywall from moving. So you could simply, you know, pull the old tape off the seams and put fiberglass mesh tape, when applied correctly, will actually buy you quite a bit of time. Yeah. With any drywall, if you can push on it and it moves, it needs to be secured to stop cracking. That's a very good like. Around windows and doors, if you push on it and it has even a bit of flex, just add some more screws. Yeah, you'll feel it. You go slow, you'll feel it draw into the stud. Yeah, it shouldn't move at all, not even a little bit. It should move with your studs expanding and contracting. It'll do that. It'll move with that. But it should not move independently from anything else around it. But doors and windows are going to be your most common places that you're going to get cracks because they're kind of a weak spot. And if your drywall wasn't cut out of one piece, the weakest spot of that area is going to be that seam. And it's just going to, it's the easiest thing for it to to pull on. And so, yeah, but a lot of people get get concerned that cracks around your windows and doors means that there's a foundation issue there. There isn't. There's other signs of, you know, foundation issues in drywall if it is also accompanied with other symptoms. Like your doors don't close because the strike, the spring latch no longer lines up with the strike plate. That's a good sign that your house is settling. But usually if you have foundation issues, those won't be found on your walls, they'll be found in your basement or your crawl. Space, Yeah, yeah, you'll have other symptoms that are a little bit more prevalent and issues. So I wouldn't see any cracks and assume foundational. Problems. Yes. Atkins Razor says the simplest answer is usually the correct 1. So it could just be that your drywall was installed in more pieces than necessary. Yeah, OK. What about a yellow stain on your wall or ceiling? Water. Water nearly always. Yep. I mean, you have smoker stains, but that's going to be like widespread. It's going to be everywhere. It's not going to be localized in one location unless you have a smoker that literally sits in the same place to smoke all the time, which we have a family member who did that. You're going to get right above that. You're going to get a lot yellower than other places. But yeah, especially if it's roundish, it's because the water spreads out in ripples. Like, not actual ripples, but, you know, spreads out. Yeah. So if it's roundish, you're nearly always you have water penetration somewhere. And to fix this, so first of all, you need to address the water issue, which we've chatted about previously, but say you knew it was because your roof is leaking and you have a new roof and now you're trying to fix it. Use a shellac primer. Nothing latex based. So I learned which is water based. I learned it's because it keeps reactivating the stain when you add more water to it and it just brings it through your layers. So a shellac base that won't reactivate the water stain allows you to get. Or straight up oil primer. Yeah, yeah. But then you have to worry about if you can paint. That's true. That's one of the like secret hero traits of shellac based primer is you can use oil or latex based paint over it. It is them together, it being them together. But I've we've run into one ceiling stain that we needed two coats shellac. Based primer. Yeah. I think at Sue and Laura's we needed like 3 or 4. It was like a long, it had been leaking. It was very. It was like almost coffee colored by the time we got to it, Yeah. So that is as long as it's not wet, it can be fixed and it's just cosmetic. Yep. If you touch it and it starts to crumble, you're gonna have to replace that stuff. But most of the time when we see that stuff, it's a slower leak usually, and it means that the drywall, although it's like been affected, it has time to dry out. Yeah, at certain points. And it kind of keeps that structural integrity, especially if it's just one spot. Yeah, I've seen. It a lot with people's appliances leaking like into their finished basements like when if a fridge water line just has like a little drip. And stuff. We've seen it quite a bit, but that's as long as it's intact. Then it's just a strictly cosmetic issue and it needs a very specific fix. And if shellac based primer and paint. The correct tool if you're ever worried about moisture anything you can stick it with a moisture meter, which are quite expensive A. Moisture meter looks like a Taser. It does look like. It looks like a Taser 'cause it just has like the 2, not a Taser gun, but like a handheld Taser has the two probes on the end. You literally just like you can poke it into your skin. It's not it's not like stabby. Oh, you could. I mean you. Have to be careful, they are sharp. But you just poke it into whatever surface and it will tell you the moisture percentage and pretty much anything that is like in our house should be 12% or less moisture. That's just normal. Like if if it's drier than that, you're getting bloody noses. But and. I would just say like you don't need a moisture meter. I'm just saying if you like noticing a lot of these issues in your house. Or or you're a tool geek and yeah, or. You recently had an inspection and the inspector was like, oh, I wouldn't worry about that. And you like have a gut feeling. That's a great way without removing your wall. That's true. You could go without digging out a water stain. You could put the moisture meter right in the center of it and it will tell you whether there's any. Moisture are switches between wood and building material. So because there's a little bit different moisture things, but I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of tool libraries like my library offers tools and moisture meters, one of them. And I you may be able to rent one at Home Depot or other rental places because I believe they're about $100.00. So if you're not going to use it often or maybe you start a tool library for you and your girlfriends, which would be kind of fun that you. Know that would be. OK, so this one is accompanied by maybe my favorite story, and then I have a little bonus so your wall smells funny. Smells funny. That's interesting. I would. Chillax just. Kidding. It depends very much on what kind of funny. Just funny. Did your? Cats pee on then. So. I say to the person who doesn't have a cat. This is on the backs of a story from my last apartment that this wasn't drywall, it was a door. But my door to the bathroom smelt really weird. Like dokey. Yeah, but like, cow manure almost. Yes. And it wasn't like only sometimes. It was all of the time it smelt like but not all of the door smell. Right, only parts of it. Only parts of the door I. Remember, you're like, will you come over and sniff my door? Yes, she was. I was like, man, that was gonna pick me up one day because I was like, oh, I was like the bathroom smells. Then you have people over and they're like, what is happening in your? Bathroom and I could not figure out what it was and then I thought it was like from the drain or something like a sewer smell or like maybe I don't know, I couldn't figure it out and then it was the door and. And then you were gonna pick me up for something I was like, would you come in and smell my door? I'm. Like, that's a weird invitation, but OK. And she was like, this is the weirdest thing I have ever. I don't think we figured out why did we. It must have been something with the moisture in the air being exposed to the door in the paint. Because we ended up just shellacking it, right? Yeah, We just seal it. Lacking it. Yeah. Which? Is. Shellac primer. Shellac, not shellac, wood finish. Yeah, so. Which also might have worked. I believe it's almost always because of moisture if something smells weird. Yeah, it's yeah, like kind of musty. Musty It might be that there was a leak and like even if you still don't have a leak, there's moisture somewhere and there's growing mold behind the. Wall We've seen a lot of mold in people's corners of their closets and stuff. Yeah. So it's important to investigate those smells. It's also possible this is this happens in houses where they get sold and a smoker has lived there. Particularly if it's a flip house where they will just seal over it. Like they don't remove the contaminated drywall and they'll just seal over it and eventually. And sneaks back out yeah, yeah, if you ever go into. A. House that you want to buy and it smells like cigarette smoke in there. The bad news is that cigarette smell sinks into your drywall. It sinks into your subfloor, it sinks into everything. So often the best course of action is to remove all of that. Stuff is all the. So if an. Inspector is like you can just paint over. Or put an ionizer or whatever. What do you call those thing? Ozone. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, it doesn't. No, don't do it unless it's like you can get a house for $40,000 and then maybe that's worth it to you to have to deal with it later. But in general, like when we went how I went out house shopping with my daughter Hannah, we walked into one house and it was like it literally hit you in the face as you walked in and the house was freshly painted. You could tell they were trying to cover it up, but it was like, no, if you're a non-smoker, it's just not a smell that's really very tolerable. True, but investigate the smells. I do have in your basement, if you had some flooding and stuff and you have some drywall, your drywall should have something called a rot gap at the bottom, which is it still called a rot gap with. Drywall I think. It is what typically with decks but like. Wood. It's called a ROT. Description, even if it's not that. Like your drywall should be trimmed about an inch, an inch and a half above the floor and then like a baseboard or something goes in. But if you think about how drywall's made, it's not waterproof clearly. And it's. It's a thumbprint stuff. It just Wicks that stuff up and then you can start getting that. Much and you don't even need to have a flood. So let's say it's in your basement and you've finished your basement. If the drywall goes all the way down to concrete, concrete is porous. Concrete will you won't have like standing water, but it's moist. So and that the drywall we'll suck it right out of the concrete and then it just compounds over time and you get mold a lot of times near the bottom. So you can solve that problem by just installing an inch off the floor. Or if you already have the drywall there and you're worried about that, just trim it with a utility knife all the way. Around, yeah, we've done that for customers before we pull off the moldy baseboard. But it's best with the multi tool. It is, yeah. Multi tool, yeah. OK, I have a little bonus around here and I want you guys to tell me if you should use spackle or joint compound for an. Issue and for those of you that might not know the term joint compound drywall mud, yes, So spackle or drywall mud, OK. OK, a Dent 321. Joint compound? OK Drywall mud? Yep. And the reason for that is you cannot skim coat with spackle. Yeah, OK. A Soft Spot 321. Neither gonna dig it out if it's soft. Well, then you have to dig it out, and then you have to use. Mud, unless it's tiny, then you can use speckle. Oh if it's a if it's a nickel sizer larger the hole. I would say joint compound. If it's a hole and it's and it's dry and it's a hole, then you can use speckle if it's smaller than a nickel. What say you? What say you? I think that's good. Yeah, I definitely think that your first reaction was correct, that it needs to be removed. Yeah, because can't. Nothing works. Nothing works. Moisted. Yeah, yeah. OK, a crack 321 flexibles back. Yeah, or caulk. But mud if you not do well with, crack if you. Dig out the crack. I would say joint compound if you take the time to dig it out and the reason why drywall mud you cannot. So spackle requires depth for adherence. So it goes into a hole and it will fill a hole and it may dry and shrink a little and then you have to do a second coat. That's not unusual for a larger hole. That's a great use for spackle, but spackle, if you just put it like skim it over a surface, it will just fall off, like it will crack and fall off. So the reason for drywall mud or joint compound is it has the adhesion where you can spread it thin and it will stick to the wall. Yeah, it does OK. Peeling like peeling paint. 321 mud. Well, OK, I'm sorry, but I would like you have to scrape the peeling paint off first. OK, I. Scrape it to where the edges are. To where it doesn't chip off easily anymore. Yeah, you scrape it back until it's hard to get it off and then joint compound. I agree, I think you guys were perfect then those. Anyway, that was just a little fun game at the end. I hope you guys learned something and you guys should send us pictures of your current drywall situation and we can help diagnose that wall. Can I have? You guys get excited. You go ahead. I have a favorite patch tool, patching patch, patch. A patching patch. First of all, if you are like oh I'm gonna get a drywall patch for this hole for the love of God the ones that have metal on them are so hard to blend in please. Those are good for big holes that need structure. Yeah, but I. Have an alternate solution for that though. That will link below that are called a flex patch yeah and they have like things on them so you can cut them out for like outlets just scissors yeah and they really work well and they get really strong again and they can do up to like 6 inch holes. I really like that product. I really very beginner friendly and you can it's so thin that it's because one of the problems with patches is sometimes it's really hard to blend them out. That product has, I don't know, less than a 16th of an inch. And so it lets you like skim coat it into your wall and it just disappears. I have an alternative, but it's homework. Can I assign homework to the listeners? Yeah. OK. I want you to Google Pumpkin patch and California Patch I. Don't know what? A pumpkin patch. Is a pumpkin patch you know what the lid of to do the. Homework. OK, well, they have to do more research, but basically the lid of a pumpkin, you know what it looks like when you carve a pumpkin? That's what a pumpkin patch is. It's angled. It's a circle, but it's angled. Oh, like when you're like. Yes, exactly. And then a California patch, you can look up what it is, but if you have a large hole and you it that needs structural integrity, you can't just shove Mudder Spackle in a giant hole. It's just going to fall through. Yes. So a pumpkin patch or a drywall patch or a pumpkin patch or a California patch are ways to cut pieces of drywall to fill your hole that are magic. So. But look it up and then tell us what you think. Anyway, we missed you guys. I'm glad that you're back, that we're back, that we're. All made it to the end of this episode with the crazy banter every episode. Yes, thank you. They should get like like a blue ribbon. I know. I wish we could just have a podcast where we just chatted and chatted, chatted and people just look, you know, why do we have to? I know that's called us on a daily basis. We just don't record it. Anyways, anyways, you want to tell them where they can find us? Yes, I. Do. So. If you want us to be your handyman, you can find us at my handyman.com. We're on Facebook and Instagram and other places, and our website ismyhandyman.com where you can see the galleries of our photos, examples of our work, and lots of other fun stuff. But we. Service the capital. Area yes, the greater Lansing area in Michigan. If you want to be your own handyman, then you can go how to handyman, how to handyman, how to handyman maam at any of the social platforms. You can also go to How to handyman.com and that will take you to the how to handyman page on our website and we have. Like A blog and we have links to stuff and. Fun. And if you want to e-mail us, it's HTHM at my handyman.com. My handyman man, if you love what we're doing and you want to help us teach women how to care for their own homes, then please like, follow, subscribe, leave a review. You might not realize how much of a difference it makes, but the more of those things there are, then the more the algorithm chooses you to show you to strangers, which is how you grow. So if you can do those things for. Us. That would be great. You do a nice thing or comment or leave reviews. We know, we know. We see all of them and. Then we share it with each other and we're. Like all those? Hours and tired nights are worth it. They are. So thanks for being here. We'll see you on Tuesday. Bye.
