How To Stop A Water Leak And Fix A Water Damaged Drywall Ceiling

Tools and Supplies Used

Have you ever come home and looked up at your ceiling to find a large water stain on your ceiling drywall? This was the exact scenario I walked into in my basement and I documented the entire process and broke out each step into a separate chapter. Remember, just doing even a few of these steps like cutting out the damaged drywall, finding the leak, and stopping the leak can help avoid $1,000 in damage to your ceiling and flooring.

Chapters
0:00 The Problem
0:54 Cutting out the damaged drywall
1:47 Finding the source of the water leak
2:12 Stopping The Leak and Replacing Damaged Copper Pipe
6:23 Removing All The Damaged Drywall And Prep For New Drywall Patch
8:42 Cutting Out And Installing New Drywall Patch
10:03 Starting To Mud The Drywall Patch
15:17 Matching Knockdown Texture And Painting
17:58 End Product With New Drywall and Knockdown Texture

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DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[EverydayHomeRepairs]

Tools and Supplies Used

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[craigwiest]

Good information. Especially liked the use of a jig to cut drywall back to half the joist.

[kenmore]

Agree with existing comments, your jig is awesome! For the knockdown texture, what i did in the past and it worked pretty well is apply lots of texture, let it dry overnight, then sand off the high stuff. That way there is no smearing.

[cakekomo]

Omg I haven’t watched this yet but I am so happy you’ve released this one! I had a leak repaired (by a roof replacement) last year and d have been putting off fixing the stain. My wife will be thrilled if I can pull this off!

[mysteryman]

In my experience when needing to replace a section of drywall, I find simply affixing new 2x4 runs to existing studs or joists saves time and speeds up the repair. Cutting into the drywall to expose half the joist (as shown at 7:15) looks to be tedious and adds unnecessary dust to the job. Just my 2 cents. Keep the change.

[deanberman]

I'm a DIYer myself, not a professional. However one thing that saved my life was getting a shop vac drywall sander attachment. You really should look into that instead of using the sanding blocks. Completely different experience and final result!

[CoorsLight]

i've had good luck with the Homax 4121 texture sprayer (with manual hand pump) for approx $23. It's made out of plastic but has held up well over the years. It's a lot cheaper than buying the cans especially if you have a larger job. You can buy a 15 lb box of the Homax dry mix for about $24 (covers approx 500-600 sq ft.). I like pre-mixing a large batch of the texture and pouring into an old shampoo bottle with a screw on cap. During the job I can keep re-filling the sprayer's hopper from the old shampoo bottle as i spray on the texture.

[Stashmo]

In occupied homes, I’ve had success using a large stiff sponge instead of most sanding. Also works well to blend patches into adjacent areas.

[nicholasbreed]

I've been using fibafuse tape recently and really like it. My son's friend's dad is a drywaller who says that's all he uses now, except for inside corners. The only thing I don't like about fibafuse is it makes my hands itchy for about 2 days if I don't wear gloves

[ObsessiveAboutCats]

Thank you, that canned drywall texture stuff is exactly what I need for a project I have. I got the drywall patched but never got around to texturing it. I appreciate you!

PS I hate drywall repair.

[vg]

I think the drywall cutting guide you made is brilliant! Straight-line cuts in the center of the 2x4s. That makes cutting and mounting the replacement drywall much more accurate for less gap filler. Too bad part of the ceiling finish ripped when a panel fell, but you handled that, too. Yeah, I think there's a good bit more painting to do, but great job, Scott. Thanks

[PaulMikna]

You did a great job on this repair... I do a ton of drywall repairs and painting professionally, and for a basement with that ceiling texture, it's more than passable in that situation. As you mentioned, if it's upstairs with a ton of natural lighting you would likely need to really dial in the texture match and repaint the entire ceiling.

[richardnowacki]

I would have just attached another 2x4 next the existing 2x4

[budgetaudiophilelife-long]

THANKS SCOTT, FOR SHARING THIS, making it much easier nowadays with the new tools 🤗💚💚💚

[leeb.]

I like the jig. Gonna make one for myself. While some commenters say they would sister a 2x4 to an existing one, that would take me more time. I would have to drive to the lumber yard, buy the board, get my chop saw out and cut to size, etc. It’s fine if you already have 2x4s on hand and a chop saw set-up, but most homeowners don’t. Having the jig available would get the job done quicker, so I can enjoy the rest of my weekend!

[robertjames-life]

Very timely video, we have a few roof leaks over our newly remodeled bedroom and bathroom! I wish mine was from an easily detectable source as a pipe, I been putting patch all over suspected leaks and it’s still leaking. Time for a new roof! 😡

[dcharnas]

Scott, Take a look at the Makita Drywall Saw. Model XDS01Z. It will change your life when doing repairs in drywall. It is cordless, and has a built in vacuum port for dust collection. P.S. The device you built for the oscillating saw is very clever!

[todd]

Working with drywallers for years --- the most important thing to do is to sand the edges down even more before applying the texture.

[cubex]

You should have primed your entire patch area and painted two coats on your entire ceiling. Your finish would have bothered me but you did a very great job on everything else. Congrats!!!

[tomekc]

Thank you so much. This is exactly what I have and I thought I was in deep deep trouble