Drywall

With housing starts and residential permits at 40-year lows, the last thing builders need are increases in the costs of materials. That, however, is just what they expect to be dealing with in early December, as major drywall producers plan a 25 percent price increase that likely will take effect in the first week of the month. For builders and remodelers wrestling with ways to stay afloat until the housing market makes its promised recovery, higher materials prices are not welcome.

New-home buyers have a major advantage over people who buy existing houses: They can see behind the walls without punching a big hole in the drywall or plaster. Behind the plaster walls of pre-1940 houses can be found wood lath, horsehair or straw; discontinued wiring; gas lines that were disconnected when electricity was introduced; lots of dirt; and skeletons of long-dead small mammals. The spaces on the unexposed side of drywall are much cleaner and better organized.

Following his usual Monday afternoon routine, Raj Shah parked his minivan and strolled up to the Chester County Library in Exton yesterday intent on reading the Sunday newspapers. What he ran into was anything but routine. The front doors were locked, covered with signs printed on bright yellow paper notifying the public that the library was closed until further notice for emergency repairs to the ceiling. "I had a lot of things to do," said Shah, 45, a computer programmer from Exton.

Got some drywalling to do? Call a professional. There are plenty of them around, and the vast majority appear to know what they're doing. But if you have a small project, are improving a space where the perfection patrol will never wander, or have some minor repairs to make, you might give it a try yourself. There are two rules to follow if you embark on a job such as drywalling a room: Always make sure you have another person working with you. A 4-by-8 sheet of half-inch or 5/8-inch drywall does not weigh all that much, but it is unwieldy to carry and maneuver, and you are more likely to knock the edges into walls and floors, necessitating repairs.

Have you noticed that nails have popped out of your drywall? Popped nails are fairly easy to fix. Here are a couple of options: If the nail will still hold, you can simply tap it back in. Since you will need to cover your repair area anyway, it's a good idea to add a nail an inch above and an inch below the popped nail. That can take some of the strain off the nail that popped. Special, ringed drywall nails may be a good choice. They hold better than plain nails and bite into the wood framing under the drywall a lot better.

You're a do-it-yourselfer who's just bought this great little trinity shell, and now you're ready to rebuild. Your first stop? William F. Comly & Son, the huge auction house just off Kensington and Allegheny. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, it will be offering you not only the building materials you will need - from dimensional lumber, including cedar and mahogany, to cabinets - but also some of the tools to do the work. There are dozens of sheets of drywall, and to hang it on, at least two lots of dimensional 2-by-4 studs, with about 250 2-by-4s per lot. To attach the drywall to the studs, there are several hundred boxes of drywall nails (no drywall screws, however, although builders these days tend to prefer them)

Don't knock West Virginia David Sweet, campaign manager for Ed Rendell's bid for governor, made a comment at a United Way of Pennsylvania forum (Dec. 7): "In the next eight years, Pennsylvania will either be an economic power or a sophisticated West Virginia. " Mr. Sweet should have realized that Philadelphia, which Mr. Rendell governed for eight years, has a higher unemployment rate than the state of West Virginia. Also, according to the Census Bureau, during Mr. Rendell's tenure as mayor, West Virginia had an increase in population while Philadelphia's declined by nearly 5 percent.

Rick Brennan is a pleasant, friendly guy, the kind you'd expect to bring an extra pack of hot dogs or hamburgers to a backyard barbecue without even being asked. So it's hard to imagine that his very presence can freeze a carpenter in mid-saw or cause the most pious plumber to mutter expletives. Brennan is the inspection specialist for Realen Homes, the man who makes sure that everything you don't see when you walk into the house of your dreams is as good and proper as what you do see. He's Realen's front-end man - from footings to framing - the stuff behind the concrete foundations and the finished drywall.

We had a leak in an upstairs bathroom that is fixed now, but the water caused a sagging spot on the drywall ceiling below. Can you tell us how to fix it ourselves? To get started you will need to remove the damaged drywall. Turn off the power before cutting into the ceiling just in case you accidentally run across any wiring. A keyhole saw is a good way to cut drywall. Remove enough of the drywall to expose some joist area on which to nail your patch piece. Use either nails or drywall screws to install the sheetrock patch on the joists.

Jen Smith and Deedee Braga were about to tackle the job of hanging drywall in the Jones family's fire-damaged house on South First Avenue in Coatesville one recent Saturday. But first there was the matter of bringing in the drywall from a truck parked outside and then preparing what were once plaster and lath walls for the installation. After lugging in the heavy and cumbersome 4-by-8-foot sheets of drywall, the two West Chester University students set about tearing out some old molding and moving an electrical outlet so that it would be flush with the new wall.

Question: Our bedroom was rebuilt by the previous homeowner after a fire with what I'm guessing is an old style of wallboard; wallpaper was then put directly over that wallboard. I've been trying to remove the wallpaper, but it is completely an uphill battle. Where the seams were spackled, the wallpaper comes off easily when dampened with water. But on most of the rest of the space, the paper might as well be glued to the thin layers of cardboard-like wallboard. Once the paper is saturated and scraping is attempted, trying to get it off often tears or gouges the surface of the wallboard.

With housing starts and residential permits at 40-year lows, the last thing builders need are increases in the costs of materials. That, however, is just what they expect to be dealing with in early December, as major drywall producers plan a 25 percent price increase that likely will take effect in the first week of the month. For builders and remodelers wrestling with ways to stay afloat until the housing market makes its promised recovery, higher materials prices are not welcome.

Question: Two years after apartment renovations, there are cracks in the taping where the drywall meets the existing wall and ceiling, and where two pieces of drywall were joined horizontally to reach the ceiling or vertically to the next piece of drywall. Can this be fixed? Answer: Woodbury contractor Jay Cipriani says poor installation is a likely cause. The drywall compound, or "mud," into which the paper tape was embedded wasn't wet enough to bond the paper to the drywall.

Question: Our 1960s ranch house has dark paneling in the den and two bathrooms, which is just ugh. What is feasible to do away with it entirely? There is no drywall behind it, only the studs. There are three-inch strips of darker wood at the top and bottom to frame the rooms. Answer: No drywall is a good thing, because there is no job worse than removing paneling glued to wallboard. I would remove the paneling, then put up Sheetrock in the den and bathrooms. In the bathrooms, use mold-resistant drywalls and primer with an additive that deters growth of mold and mildew in high-moisture areas.

Question: We bought new construction a couple of years back and are having trouble getting the builder to come to repair things. For example, screws in the drywall keep protruding from the wall, so many that my wife suggested we use them as coat hooks. There are other issues, but the popped screws are the biggest pain. What should we do? Answer: The likely reason drywall screws are popping is the age of the lumber used to frame your walls. I heard many a popped-screw complaint during the building boom a few years back.

I cut out a couple of sections of our master-bedroom ceiling last spring to try to extricate some squirrel squatters. Not such a smart idea, as it turned out - plus, it left me with two sizable holes in the drywall. Unless such repairs are part of a major remodeling project, the typical drywall contractor isn't likely to sign on. It's up to you to make the fixes. But the job isn't difficult if you take your time. Need to know: Which tools you'll need for the job. Some, you probably have around the house - a hammer, scissors, a tape measure, a metal straight-edge, a dust mask, and a utility knife.

Instead of staring at prison walls, a Delaware County man will construct apartment walls this weekend. Chester County Court Judge Anthony A. Sarcione agreed yesterday to defer the 3- to 12-month jail sentence of Mark Pietrazak, 42, of Linwood, who was convicted by a jury in May of harassment - but not to avoid hammering the defendant. Pietrazak, who works in construction, requested a three-day delay because he said he was in the middle of a renovation project that involved putting up drywall for a Chester resident.

Got some drywalling to do? Call a professional. There are plenty of them around, and the vast majority appear to know what they're doing. But if you have a small project, are improving a space where the perfection patrol will never wander, or have some minor repairs to make, you might give it a try yourself. There are two rules to follow if you embark on a job such as drywalling a room: Always make sure you have another person working with you. A 4-by-8 sheet of half-inch or 5/8-inch drywall does not weigh all that much, but it is unwieldy to carry and maneuver, and you are more likely to knock the edges into walls and floors, necessitating repairs.

Roland Reed's work space looked more like a hospital operating room than the first-floor hallway of a rowhouse in the city's Spring Garden section. There was plastic everywhere, protecting the floor, sealing doorways to the living room and the kitchen - all designed to keep dust and debris confined to a space Reed could easily keep clean. Refreshing, especially when too many contractors are not so tidy. But then, Reed, 43, busily at work on a ceiling less than half an arm's reach above him, is, according to his customers, unusual in many respects.

Following his usual Monday afternoon routine, Raj Shah parked his minivan and strolled up to the Chester County Library in Exton yesterday intent on reading the Sunday newspapers. What he ran into was anything but routine. The front doors were locked, covered with signs printed on bright yellow paper notifying the public that the library was closed until further notice for emergency repairs to the ceiling. "I had a lot of things to do," said Shah, 45, a computer programmer from Exton.