If your home is ready for a fresh coat of paint, you may be tempted to grab a can of paint and your supplies and just start painting. Before you do though, it’s important that you check the condition of your walls and prep them adequately. If there are any flaws, holes, or imperfections, they need to be repaired first! In this blog post, we’re breaking down how to repair drywall before painting so you can achieve the best, most even finish on your walls in the end.
In This Post
How to Spot Areas of Drywall That Need Repairing
Over time, all of the traffic and wear and tear can cause your interior walls to get damaged, whether that be from nail holes when hanging pictures, dings from kids’ toys, or other imperfections such as dents from doors opening.
While you may see signs that it’s time for a fresh paint job, make sure to take a good look at the condition of the walls first. If there are areas that need some TLC, you want to repair the drywall before painting. There may be areas that need patched as well as areas where the drywall paper may be peeling.
To find these areas, remove any decorations or furniture that’s covering the walls and take a good look with a utility light to spot these imperfections. Circle them with a pencil or place a piece of tape next to them so you can repair them before painting.
Go over the wall with the light a few times to ensure you don’t miss any spots. While they may not be super noticeable at first, they most definitely will be after you paint over top of them.
How to Repair Drywall Before Painting
Once you’ve identified and marked all the areas of the wall that need attention, it’s time to fix them up! This may require different types of drywall repairs with varying degrees of time and difficulty, depending on the imperfection and severity of the damage to your wall. Follow these steps to learn how to repair drywall before painting for different types of damage.
Nail and Screw Holes
When repairing nail and screw holes from hanging pictures or other decorations, fill them with drywall mud or spackle first. Wipe off any excess spackle before it dries so there’s not a big spot of spackle, which can cause an uneven surface (especially if the wall is textured). Once it dries, smooth the surface by sanding the area. Make sure the area that you spackled blends well with the surrounding surface before painting to avoid uneven coverage.
Nail Pops
To fix nail pops (areas where the nail pushes the drywall out), use a 5-in-1 tool and a putty knife to scrape off the piece of the wall that is no longer attached and is protruding. Fill the hole with drywall mud or spackle. Again, wipe off the excess before it dries. After drying, sand it smooth before painting.
Uneven Texture
If you have uneven texture on your wall, wavy drywall, or a laundry list of issues to fix, we recommend a full skim coat (also called a level 5 finish). A skim coat involves covering the entire wall with a thin layer of joint compound to smooth out the imperfections before painting.
Corner Cracks
Sometimes, cracks occur directly in the corner of the room or where door frames, window frames, baseboards, crown molding, etc, meet the drywall. For these types of cracks, use caulking to fill them in before painting. Make sure the caulk is dry and smooth before painting.
Seam or Corner Bead Cracks
When the seams of drywall paper separate from the wall or the corner beads separate from the wall, you can try to re-mud or glue them down. However, more often than not, that isn’t the best fix. If you’re wondering how to repair torn drywall paper before painting, it’s best to remove the damaged drywall. Replace the metal corner beads with new ones. For paper seams, use fiber mesh seams instead of the paper version, as the fiber mesh has a higher tensile strength and holds the mud better than the paper. After applying mud over the seams, sand the surface before painting.
Medium Holes
To repair medium-sized holes in the wall, we recommend using fiber mesh patching kits. These are self-adhesive patches that are easy to put over holes before mudding over top of. Once the mud dries, sand the area smooth before painting.
Large Holes
For holes that are too large to patch, cut out and replace sections of drywall with either 2×2 drywall repair squares or by purchasing larger sheets of 4×8 drywall for any holes larger than a 2×2 square. Secure the new drywall with screws, apply a layer of joint compound, and sand walls before painting.
Pro Tip: For every patched or repaired area, make sure you sand it down so the surface is smooth. You don’t want to create more bumps and ridges, which will show through your new coat of paint. This is really important to ensure your paint goes on smoothly and evenly, leaving a high-quality finish.
Repairing drywall before painting does take some extra effort and time, but it’s an essential part of the process and is key to achieving a professional looking paint job.
If you’re ready to get your drywall repaired and your home’s paint job freshened up, get in touch with our team to schedule an interior painting consultation. Visit our contact page today!
