Drywall Installation and Repair in Sandy, Utah

To ask for one, call (801) 735-8491 or use the estimate form. Say which rooms are involved, what is cracked, damaged or changing, roughly how big the area is, and, if you know it, when the house was built.

Sandy's 1970s homes and the drywall work they need

Census figures show when Sandy was built. Of about 34,790 homes in the city, 11,256 went up between 1970 and 1979, more than in any other decade. Another 6,174 followed in the 1980s, and the median Sandy home was built in 1985.

Drywall in a house that age has lived through remodels, moves and a lot of winters. The usual jobs are cracked tape over long seams, cracks climbing from the top corners of door and window openings, dented corner bead, and old patches that never matched the wall around them. Many homes from that period also have sprayed acoustic ceilings, the bumpy texture people call popcorn.

Matching is most of the skill in these houses. A patch on a texture applied decades ago has to copy its pattern and thickness, and the way it was sprayed or troweled, then take paint the same way the old wall does.

Testing older Sandy ceilings and walls for asbestos

About 6 in 10 Sandy homes were built before 1990, and that matters under Utah's asbestos rules. Utah dropped its asbestos inspection requirement for renovating houses and small buildings of up to four units built from January 1, 1992 onward. Anything older still falls under the rule.

Utah's Department of Environmental Quality says asbestos was used in sprayed popcorn ceilings and even in sheetrock, and EPA's list of household products that may contain it includes textured paint and the patching compounds used on walls and ceilings. In December 1977, partway through Sandy's biggest building decade, federal regulators announced a ban on consumer patching compounds that contained asbestos.

So when a contractor is going to scrape a popcorn ceiling or cut out old walls in a pre-1992 Sandy home, the state requires an inspection first, by an asbestos inspector who holds Utah certification. If the test finds asbestos, DEQ says it has to be removed by an asbestos-removal contractor with state certification before the drywall work starts.

Plaster and lath in Sandy's oldest houses

The Census counts nearly 800 Sandy homes built before 1950. The National Park Service notes that plaster was the usual wall finish in American buildings until the 1930s or 40s, often laid over strips of wood lath and held on by plaster squeezed between them, called keys.

Plaster fails in its own ways: long cracks across ceilings, bulges where the keys have broken and the plaster has let go of the lath, and crumbling around old door frames. Small cracks can be patched with setting compound and mesh tape. Where a ceiling sags or a wall is mostly old patches, the common fixes are covering it with thin drywall screwed through to the framing, or taking it down and hanging new board. Tearing out plaster makes heavy dust, so the asbestos questions above apply here too.

Wasatch fault cracks on Sandy's east side

The Wasatch fault passes through the east side of Sandy. Near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Utah Geological Survey says the fault shows some of its largest scarps, more than 100 feet high, built up by repeated large earthquakes. You can see them from the G.K. Gilbert Geologic View Park at 9800 South Wasatch Boulevard in Sandy. When the park opened, its project geologist pointed out that homes nearby are built astride the fault.

Movement in a house, from settling or from shaking, usually shows in the drywall first. Look for diagonal cracks off the top corners of door frames and windows, cracks where a wall meets the ceiling, and nail heads pushing through the paint. Most are cosmetic. A crack that keeps widening, a door that begins to bind or a floor that starts to slope is a reason to have the structure checked before anything is patched.

When the cause is ordinary movement, the repair is to open the crack, retape it, then finish and texture it to match. For cracks where walls meet the ceiling, USG's handbook recommends pulling fasteners that sit within about 6 inches of the corner before retaping, so the joint can flex when the framing moves.

Sandy's own building rule for wildland areas

Sandy is one of only two Utah cities, with Park City, that have their own amendment to the residential building code written into state law. Sandy's adds a section on ignition-resistant construction: buildings in areas the city designates as Wildland-Urban Interface must be built to ignition-resistant standards, as the Fire Marshal determines, using the 2006 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code.

Those standards govern a building's exterior, so they seldom touch interior drywall. They do matter if you are adding on or rebuilding near the foothills. Settle the exterior wall design with the Fire Marshal before framing starts, so the walls are built and finished once.

What affects the cost of drywall work in Sandy

A few things move the cost of a job: how much board is coming out or going up; tall ceilings and stairwells, which need scaffolding or planks; how hard the existing texture is to match; and whether an asbestos inspection or removal has to happen first.

Drying time counts too. Taping and finishing takes several coats, and each must dry before the next, so even a small patch takes more than one visit. Rooms cleared of furniture, with floors covered, make the work go faster.

Drywall questions from Sandy homeowners

Do I need an asbestos test before removing a popcorn ceiling in Sandy?

Yes, for a pre-1992 house when a contractor does the job. Utah requires an inspection by an asbestos inspector with state certification before renovation, and any asbestos found has to come out before the ceiling work starts. Homes in buildings of up to four units built from 1992 on are exempt.

Can a patch match the texture on 1970s walls?

Usually, yes. The texture is copied by hand or with a hopper gun, tried on a scrap of board first, and feathered into the wall around the patch. A texture that has been painted many times can take an extra coat to blend, and sometimes the best match is to retexture the whole wall from corner to corner.

Is a new crack near the ceiling a sign of earthquake damage?

Usually it comes from ordinary movement, such as framing drying out or settling. After an earthquake, check for new diagonal cracks at door and window corners, doors that stick, and cracks in the foundation. Anything that is new after a quake or keeps widening should be seen by a structural engineer before the drywall is patched.

Can old plaster walls be covered with drywall?

Yes. Thin drywall can be fastened with long screws through the plaster into the framing, then taped and finished, which saves tearing the plaster out. Outlet boxes and trim need extending to sit flush with the new surface. Plaster that is loose or sagging should come down first.

How do I get a free drywall estimate in Sandy?

Phone (801) 735-8491, or use the estimate form on this site: it asks for your contact details, the service, and a note about the job. Estimates are free and there is no obligation.