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Drywall — Hang, Tape & Finish
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What clients said
"Efficient and expert. Got the drywall repair done in a day and it looks perfect. Will hire Ed again for future projects."
"Ed did an amazing job on our kitchen refresh. The cabinet paint looks brand new. He showed up when he said he would, cleaned up every day."
Drywall work we handle
- Drywall installation (new walls, ceilings, garages)
- Drywall repair (holes, cracks, dented corners)
- Wall skim coating (level 5 smooth finish)
- Ceiling drywall work (new install, repair, replacement)
- Joint taping and sanding (proper mud finish)
- Popcorn ceiling removal (scrape, patch, texture, paint)
- Texture matching (smooth, orange peel, knockdown, hand-troweled)
- Ceiling repair (drywall + insulation replacement)
- Corner bead and drywall trim install
Common drywall situations
Popcorn ceiling removal
Cover floors and furniture. Wet down the ceiling, scrape carefully. Patch imperfections, sand smooth, prime, paint. Standard-size room: 1-2 days.
Wall damage from moving furniture
Small holes (nail, doorknob): patch and blend, usually 1-2 hours. Larger holes (foot through wall): backer strip, drywall patch, tape, mud, texture, paint. Half a day.
Pricing
- Small drywall patch (up to 4"): $150
- Medium patch (4-12" + texture): $250
- Large patch (12-24"): $400
- New wall drywall: $2.50/sqft (labor only)
- Ceiling drywall: $3/sqft
- Popcorn ceiling removal: $2/sqft
- Level 5 skim coat (smooth finish): $1.20/sqft
Plaster is not drywall, and the repair is not the same
Most houses in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee older than the 1950s have lath and plaster, not drywall. The two look identical once painted and behave nothing alike. Plaster cracks along lath lines, lets go in sheets when it has lost its keys, and cannot be patched with a quick skim if the layer behind it has failed.
We check what the wall actually is before quoting. Patching plaster so the repair disappears takes more coats and more drying time than patching drywall, and pricing it as if it were drywall is how a job runs over.
Why the skim coat is the job
On a wall that will catch daylight — a long hallway, an open room with one window — every ridge, every sanding scratch and every joint shows up in low afternoon light no matter how good the paint is. Flat paint hides a little. It does not hide a bad surface.
So the hours go into the surface rather than the colour: joints feathered wide, a skim where the old and new meet, and sanding done properly instead of quickly. The painting itself is the short part.
What a ceiling crack is usually telling you
A hairline crack that reappears in the same place after being filled is movement, not a cosmetic fault. Filling it again will give you the same crack by spring. In older houses the cause is often seasonal — the frame moves with humidity — and the fix is to detail the joint so it can move without splitting.
We will tell you when a crack is cosmetic and when it is structural enough to need somebody else to look at it first.
FAQ
How long for texture to dry?
Depends on humidity. In a normal room, 24 hours between mud coats is safe. Rushing this is why patches crack later.
Can you match my existing texture perfectly?
Usually yes. Bring samples or take a photo and I'll match. Some 40+ year old textures (hand-troweled artisan work) can be tough to duplicate exactly.
Where we do this work
Drywall and painting across Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut — Enfield, CT, Suffield, CT, Windsor, CT, and 16 more towns. Same crew, same pricing, same schedule in every one of them.
Often booked alongside interior and exterior painting and full home renovation. Worth reading first: Skim coating: what it is, and when your walls need one.