Toronto Renovation Stories & Expert Advice

drywall horrors

Last summer we moved into a brand spanking new house. Until now, all of the houses we've lived in have been a minimum of 50 years old. In fact I got very used to hearing "wow, I've never seen plumbing/electrical work/heating and cooling systems like this," from the tradespeople. I was looking forward to a new home with all the modern conveniences including insulation, Energy Star appliances, high efficiency furnace and water saving toilets....I dream big, don't I?

After being comfortably settled into our new home for a few months, our contractor told us that some of the drywall needed attention. Apparently that bump in our stairwell wall wasn't exactly normal; drywall homes have straight walls. I was used to plaster walls which are often curved and bumpy, so I just thought it was normal. As the dry wall contractor showed me all the deficiencies the last team (now a defunct business) had left, the pit in my stomach grew. I knew that "nail pops" were a normal part of new build or addition (part of the "settling" that occurs once you're living in a house), but I had overlooked the taping ripples in the corners, the gouges in the skim coat and the evident joins between pieces of drywall in the ceiling (one ceiling was so bad they had to redrywall over it to get it smooth).

Now, if you're like me, you might be asking yourself why does it matter if gouges or tape ripples are showing? I could barely see them until they were pointed out to me. But it turns out that once you paint and it has even a touch of gloss in it or apply any colour darker than white, the deficiencies in the drywall become a beacon of poor workmanship. So we agreed to live through the dust and the inconvenience and have the walls redone -- at the builder's expense.

It took four weeks and we ended up moving out for ten days, but when it was over the walls really did look good...nice and straight and smooth. But it was a hassle for everyone.

Our "Hindsight" lesson:

We had decided not to do a home inspection before we'd moved in given that it was a new house. That was a mistake. An inspector would have caught this problem and the builder would have been able to fix it before we moved in instead of us having to live through it and their having to work around us and our furniture. My advice to you is even if you've bought a new home and you have a preinspection set up with the builder before you move in, hire an independent inspector and get a second opinion. It could save both of you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Labels: drywall, home inspections

Posted by Cathy
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