1

I am in currently in the process of finishing my master closet. Whoever started this project (one of the previous owners as the house is 70 years old) drywalled roughly 2/3rds of the walls/ceiling and did not tape any of it. I finished drywalling the rest of the space (lighter color drywall you can see in pictures is what I did. Brown paper is the existing drywall that was here already). Before I start taping and mudding all of it, I am wondering if I should rip the old drywall out and replace it with new drywall. Here are my main reasons for doing so:

  1. The old drywall was installed with nails (I used screws on the new stuff) and those will eventually be visible with time/vibration.
  2. It seems as though leftover/scrap pieces of drywall from other rooms were used for this closet as there are tons of small pieces of drywall used to cover the wall which results in a lot of seams that will need to be taped and mudded.
  3. There was water damage to some of the drywall at some point due to a storm that damaged the roof. You can tell from the dark stains in various pictures. I know the roof has been fixed and there is no active water in the area and the stains are dry and likely will not create issues but still a concern I have.

Half of me is tempted to just replace the old drywall now rather than starting to mud and tape it just to see that it turn out poorly and I end up ripping it all out and replacing it anyway, and then having to tape and mud it all over again. The other half of me is telling myself that this is a closet and no one will spend that much time looking at the quality of the finish besides me obviously. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I should also note that I am very handy but this was my first time putting drywall up and will be my first time mudding and taping drywall, if that changes the answer at all. enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

isherwood
  • 119,766
  • 7
  • 148
  • 349
Yev Foster
  • 11
  • 1
  • Protip: You don't "mud and tape". You just tape. You can tape without mud, and the pros are just called "tapers". – isherwood Dec 11 '20 at 03:46
  • Unfortunately, what you _should_ do is entirely up to you. Some would just run with what you've got, others would rip it all out and start over. You can do either - there is no code involvement either way. You mentioned that the water damage has long since dried and there's no apparent lasting damage to the older drywall. This is pure opinion at this point. You've got one good answer saying go with what you've got, I could write up an equally reasoned answer to tell you to rip it out and neither would be wrong. – FreeMan Dec 11 '20 at 12:44

1 Answers1

2

Nope. It'll finish up just like new drywall would. If the areas with water staining aren't soft they're not a concern, and whether you replace some of it to reduce seams is entirely up to you. Well done butt joints are as invisible as recessed seam joints.

I would consider adding some screws to help prevent nail pops by securing the sheets better, but not too long ago all drywall was installed with nails and it was never really a problem. We use screws now mostly for speed.

Do use a quality sealer/primer when you're done, though to ensure a uniform paint color and texture.

isherwood
  • 119,766
  • 7
  • 148
  • 349