Project: Dining Room Ceiling/Mold sucks

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So in my last post I talked about tearing down the paneling that was so liberally applied in our living and dining room areas.  Sadly, when we tore it down we discovered why paneling was so popular in the first place - it certainly covers up the drywall problems! One of the major problems that we discovered was mold. Yuck!

There was obviously a time when there had been some water leakage - thankfully the previous owners had had a new roof put on before they put it up for sale, so wherever the leak was, it should be fixed by now.

Unfortunately - we still had mold. And severe drywall damage in that area.  Ew.



After a lot of standing around with our hands on our hips and some choice words, we did what any first time homeowner and new DIYers would do - we turned to the internet!  Turns out we're far from the first people to encounter this, and there are SO many options to get rid of it that we weren't really sure which one to chose! We ended up going with the simple bleach and water solution since that is what we had on hand... and wouldn't you know it - the next morning there was some slight discoloration where the mold had been - but no mold!  Cue happy dance!

The happy dance was short-lived though because when we got up there again we discovered that the drywall was damaged enough that a small hole formed when we started scraping some of the paint off. Add that to the concern that we had about mold being on top of the drywall - and that small hole turned into this...

Yeesh, right?  I made the mistake of cutting this hole on an evening when I was home alone.  While cutting through the drywall was no problem, pulling the piece down resulted in drywall chunks and fiberglass pieces in my hair, down my shirt, in my shoes, and, of course, all over the floor! I actually cut one smaller hole before that previous picture and then got smart with the second, larger hole by holding a trash can up when I pulled it down.  MUCH less disgustingness in my hair, shirt, and shoes.  Lesson noted.

Now - to fill that hole!  Since there wasn't a support beam that I could screw the old drywall edge and the new drywall edge to, we had to install a short piece of 2x4" between the ceiling beams.  By using extra long screws and predrilling the holes at a 45 degree angle that support piece went in pretty smoothly.  Then it was just a matter of cutting a piece of drywall to fit and using drywall screws to fasten it to the ceiling beams on either side and the new support piece.  If you have never installed drywall, expect a bit of a learning curve - and a few extra holes to fill with drywall compound.  It is super easy to overscrew (apparently that isn't a word. whatevs - you get what I mean) and break through the paper layer of the drywall.  If you do that your screw isn't any good and won't be holding on to anything - so you need to rescrew (what?! apparently that isn't a word either!).

The next step is to use drywall tape around the entire edge and then start your drywall compound application.  This is a gross, disgusting, and painfully slow process.  I have to give HUGE credit to my dad who volunteered to come down for 5 days to help me tackle the drywall patching in the dining room (which was major due to allllllll of the paneling that had been in there!).  More on that project later - but for now - a shot of the slowly camouflaged hole in the dining room ceiling!

My dog just rolled off her doggie bed and thunked her head against the floor. She's either bored or dumb... either way I suppose it is time for a walk!

Anyone out there taken on a similar project recently? I need verification that we did it correctly! :)