Drywall Repair & Painting in Biddeford, ME

Biddeford grew around its mills, so much of the housing dates from the 1860s to the 1920s: wood-frame two- and three-family buildings, worker housing and larger homes later subdivided into apartments. Walls are frequently lath and plaster rather than drywall, floors and frames have settled, and access is tight — all of which shapes how a repair is done.

Plaster is the first thing we assess. It fails differently from board: it delaminates from the lath in sheets, cracks run out of door and window corners, and a small loose spot often sits at the edge of a much larger soft area. Where it is sound we cut back to solid material and build the patch up in coats until it meets the original thickness, then feather it so no ridge catches the light. Where a ceiling has lost its keys across a wide area, boarding over it is the honest answer and we say that at the estimate rather than selling a skim coat that will not hold.

Settlement is the second. These buildings have moved for a century, so cracks reopen at the same corners if they are only filled. We cut them out, tape properly and, where movement is ongoing, tell you plainly that it may show again rather than implying a patch makes a structural issue disappear.

Access shapes the schedule in the converted multi-family buildings. Board and staging come up narrow interior stairs or an exterior porch stair in a building where other people live, so we run protection on shared halls, contain dust at the unit door rather than the room door, and size material to what actually fits around the turns. On tight jobs we cut sheets down outside instead of forcing full sheets up a stairwell.

Exteriors here are old clapboard with many layers of paint, and York County weather plus coastal damp means prep is most of the job: wash, scrape to a sound edge, sand the transition, spot-prime bare wood, caulk, then coat. Rake and fascia boards always need the most attention.