Drywall Installation and Repair in Provo, Utah

Plaster walls, rentals and basement apartments all draw on the same five services: repair and patching, drywall installation, taping and finishing, texture and texture matching, and popcorn ceiling removal. Estimates are free, with no obligation. Call (801) 735-8491 or use the estimate form to tell us about the job.

Provo's oldest neighborhoods and what is behind their walls

Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024 count about 2,560 Provo homes built before 1940, roughly 7 percent of the city, and nearly one in five built before 1960.

Many of the oldest stand in the Provo East Central Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It covers about 50 blocks from 100 East to 600 East and from 500 North to 500 South, with 847 buildings, most of them single-family houses from about 1900 to 1925. Bungalows make up 40 percent of the homes that count toward its history.

The district's nomination found 81 percent of those historic buildings were brick, against 72 percent of the historic buildings surveyed across Provo, plus a few early adobe houses later covered in stucco. In houses like these the plaster can sit straight on the brick or on wood lath, and that decides how a wall is patched.

Patching plaster on brick and lath in older Provo homes

Old plaster is thicker than drywall. The National Park Service's plaster repair guide sets a minimum of 7/8 inch over wood lath and 5/8 inch over brick, so a 1/2-inch drywall patch is shimmed or layered until it sits flush, and the door and window trim keeps the same reveal.

Cracks and sags have causes. Wood lath swells and shrinks with humidity and old nails rust, so plaster can lose the keys that hold it on. Loose ceiling plaster that is still sound can be screwed back to the lath with plaster washers. A cracked or sagging ceiling that isn't water-damaged can often stay in place under new furring and board, which skips the dust of tearing it out.

Damp is the other problem. On a brick house, water wicking up from the foundation or splashing off pavement carries salts into the plaster, which shows as bubbling or white powder. The guide is clear that the water has to be stopped outside first, because a patch on a wet wall fails again.

Historic landmarks and the Provo Landmarks Commission

Provo designates its own historic sites and landmarks, and a seven-member Landmarks Commission reviews applications for Certificates of Historic Appropriateness. If your house is a designated landmark, ask the city before any work starts.

For original plaster worth keeping, the Park Service guide favors repairing it in place with wet plaster, or using a thin veneer plaster system over special gypsum panels when it can't be saved, because both look more like the old walls than plain drywall does.

Rental turnovers and student housing in Provo

Most Provo homes are rented. The city's 2023 General Plan counts 59 percent of homes as renter-occupied, against 68 percent owner-occupied across Utah County, and one of its housing goals is a program with the universities to watch student housing quality. Any home lived in by someone other than an owner needs a Provo rental dwelling license, even when the tenants are family and pay nothing.

Between tenants, drywall work tends to be small and steady: doorknob holes, anchor holes, dents along hallways and stains from an old leak. Each patch is cut square, backed, taped, textured to match and primed, ready for paint.

Age matters here too. Nearly half of Provo's homes were built before 1980, and in a home built before 1978 the EPA's lead paint rules cover anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces, including landlords working on their own rentals. Utah also requires an asbestos inspection before a contractor cuts into ceiling texture or joint compound in a house built before 1992.

What Provo checks before approving a basement apartment

Where the zone allows it, Provo permits one accessory apartment in an owner-occupied, single-family home, inside the house, over a garage or in an addition. It needs a building permit, and the city's handout says the interior inspection covers the entire home, apartment included.

For an apartment that was built earlier without a permit, the handout lists minimum health and safety standards. These touch the walls and ceilings:

• Ceilings at least 7 feet high in every room, unless the Chief Building Official accepts another fix
• Smoke detectors in each bedroom and in the hall or room next to the bedrooms
• One escape window per bedroom with 5.0 square feet of opening at or below ground or 5.7 above, and a sill no higher than 44 inches

Planning the drywall around Provo's apartment inspection

After the preliminary inspection the city sends a correction list, and all work must be finished within six months of getting the permit. Drywall decides the ceiling height more than anything else. Board fastened straight to the joists keeps every inch, while a hung ceiling or a deep duct soffit can push a room under 7 feet.

A new escape window leaves a deep opening in the foundation wall, and its returns get board, corner bead and finish like any other wall. Smoke detector wiring is easiest to run before the ceiling is closed.

Inside each room the order is the usual one: ceilings first, so the wall sheets help hold up their edges, then the walls, then tape and three coats of compound, sanded and primed before paint.

Drywall questions from Provo homeowners

Can old plaster walls in Provo be patched with drywall?

Yes, for most holes and cracked sections. The board is shimmed out to the plaster's thickness, at least 5/8 inch on brick and 7/8 inch on wood lath, then taped and skimmed so the edge blends in.

Why is plaster crumbling near the floor of my brick house?

Usually moisture. Water wicking up from the foundation or splashing off a paved area carries salts into the plaster, and a repair fails again unless the water is stopped outside first.

Do I need a rental license for part of my Provo house?

Yes, whenever someone other than an owner lives there, family included. A basement apartment also needs a building permit and the city's interior inspection, and the owner has to live in the home.

What does Provo's basement apartment inspection look at?

The whole house. The preliminary inspection checks minimum health and safety items such as ceiling height, smoke detectors and escape windows, then the city sends a correction list with a deadline for the building permit.

How do I get a free estimate for a Provo home?

Call (801) 735-8491 or use the estimate form, and say when the house was built, whether the walls are plaster or drywall, and which rooms need work. Estimates are free, with no obligation.