Answers
Straight Answers to What People Actually Ask Us
Every question here came from a real conversation on a job or a phone call. No sales pitch, no invented price ranges, and where the honest answer is that it depends, we say what it depends on.
Drywall & Ceilings
How much does drywall repair cost?
A drywall repair is priced from four things. How big the damaged area is, what caused it, how hard the existing texture is to match, and whether the room has to be protected or emptied to work in it. A doorknob hole in a hallway and a doorknob hole in a finished basement with a home theatre in it are not the same job, and an honest estimate will say why.
Read the answerWhat is a Level 5 drywall finish?
Level 5 is the highest of the six drywall finish levels. It adds a thin skim coat of joint compound across the entire surface, not just over the seams and fasteners, so the whole wall has one uniform texture and porosity. You need it where light rakes across a wall, where the paint has any sheen, and on large flat ceilings.
Read the answerThere is a brown stain on my ceiling. What does it mean?
A brown or yellow ring on a ceiling is water that came through from above and dried, leaving the minerals and tannins it carried behind. The stain itself is cosmetic. What matters is whether the water is still coming, and whether the board and the insulation above it are still wet.
Read the answerIs a sagging ceiling dangerous?
Yes, treat it as dangerous. A ceiling that bows, feels soft, or has pulled away from the framing has lost either its fastening or its strength, and saturated drywall is heavy. It does not fail gradually. It holds, and then a whole section comes down at once.
Read the answerCan you match my existing wall texture?
Usually yes. Knockdown, orange peel, skip trowel and smooth are all matchable, and a good match makes a repair disappear without repainting the room. What decides it is not the texture itself but how much the surrounding wall has changed since that texture went on.
Read the answerHow does popcorn ceiling removal work?
The texture is wetted, scraped off, and then the bare ceiling underneath is skimmed, sanded, primed and painted. The scraping is the fast part. The finishing afterwards is most of the work, because the ceiling under the texture was only ever finished to the standard the texture was going to hide.
Read the answerHow long does drywall installation take?
Hanging board is the fast part and finishing is the slow part, because each coat of joint compound has to dry before the next one goes on. A single room is usually a few days end to end. A whole floor or a gut renovation runs into a week or more, and cold or humid weather stretches both.
Read the answerDo you install soundproof and fire-rated drywall?
Yes to both. Fire-rated board is Type X or Type C and is required by code in specific assemblies rather than chosen for preference. Sound control is different, because no single board makes a room quiet on its own. It comes from the whole wall assembly, and the sealing matters as much as the material.
Read the answerA plumber cut my wall open. Who closes it back up?
Usually not the plumber. Most trades cut the access they need, make the repair and leave the opening, because closing and finishing drywall is a different trade. That is the job we get called for most often, and it is worth doing once the pipe has been tested rather than immediately.
Read the answerWhy do the cracks in my ceiling keep coming back?
Because filling a crack does not fix what is opening it. A crack along a ceiling seam is a joint that has failed or a structure that is moving, and caulk or compound smeared over the line will reopen at the next seasonal swing. The joint has to be opened and rebuilt.
Read the answerWater & Storm Damage
Water is coming into my house. What do I do first?
Stop the water, make the area safe, then document it before anything gets moved or thrown out. Those three come before calling anyone, including us, and they take about ten minutes. What you do in the first hour decides how much of the house is still repairable and how much of the claim gets paid.
Read the answerDo you do the dry-out, or only the rebuild?
Both. We extract the water, dry the structure, remove what cannot be saved, and then rebuild the walls, ceilings, floors and finishes that came out. Most property owners end up managing two companies for this, and the gap between them is where the schedule and the claim usually go wrong.
Read the answerHow does an insurance claim work with a contractor?
The insurer writes a scope of repairs and a price for it. Your contractor prices the same work independently, and where the two differ, the contractor documents why and asks for a supplement. You choose who does the work. Nobody can require you to use a particular company.
Read the answerDoes insurance cover water damage?
Usually yes when the water arrived suddenly and accidentally, and usually no when it arrived slowly or came in from outside at ground level. A burst supply line is the classic covered loss. A shower pan that has been leaking behind the tile for two years, and rising flood water, generally are not. Your policy decides, not us.
Read the answerWhat is insurance restoration?
Insurance restoration is the whole job of returning a damaged property to the condition it was in before the loss, paid through a claim. It runs in three stages. Mitigation stops the damage spreading. Remediation deals with anything hazardous, mould in particular. Reconstruction rebuilds what came out.
Read the answerCan I choose my own restoration contractor?
Yes. The property owner chooses who does the work. Insurers keep preferred vendor programmes and will often steer you toward one on the first call, but a recommendation is not a condition of the claim and nothing in a standard policy requires a particular company.
Read the answerThe dry-out is finished. What happens now?
You are at the start of the rebuild, holding a folder and an open wall. The next steps are confirming the structure is genuinely dry, getting the mitigation documentation into the hands of whoever is writing the reconstruction scope, and having that scope written before anything gets closed up.
Read the answerHow do I know if there is mould behind the wall?
The strongest signal is a persistent musty smell in a place that has been wet, with no visible source. Add staining that keeps coming back, warped trim or baseboard, and a known water event that was never properly dried, and you have enough to open a small inspection hole rather than guess.
Read the answerWhat does emergency board up and tarping involve?
Covering every opening in the building so weather, animals and people cannot get in while permanent repairs are arranged. Windows and doors get sheeted, a damaged roof gets tarped, and openings in walls get framed and closed. It is temporary by design and buys weeks, not months.
Read the answerWhat does sewage backup cleanup involve?
It is handled differently from a clean water loss because the water is contaminated. Porous material that has been in contact with it comes out rather than being dried, the area is contained and cleaned rather than just extracted, and nobody should be in the space without protection.
Read the answerRoofing
Does my roof need a repair or a replacement?
A repair makes sense when the roof is sound and something specific failed. A replacement makes sense when the shingles are at the end of their life, when there have been leaks in more than one area, or when the decking underneath has gone soft. Age alone does not decide it, and neither does one leak.
Read the answerThe roof leaked and damaged my ceiling. Who fixes what?
One leak leaves two jobs. The roof has to be made watertight, and the ceiling, insulation and anything below it has to be repaired. Split between a roofer and a drywall contractor, the second job usually waits weeks and each company points at the other over what caused what.
Read the answerHow much does a roof replacement cost?
A roof is priced by the squares of surface area, not by the footprint of the house, and then adjusted for how hard that surface is to work on. Pitch, the number of existing layers, the state of the decking underneath, and how many penetrations there are move the number more than the shingle you pick.
Read the answerRemodeling
Will I get a fixed price for a remodel?
Yes for the work we can see, and the honest answer is that some of a remodel cannot be seen until the walls are open. A good estimate prices the known scope firmly, names the unknowns as allowances with a figure attached, and tells you what happens if one of them turns out worse than expected.
Read the answerHow long does a remodel take?
Less time than most people expect on site, and more time than most people expect overall. The construction itself is usually the shorter half. Permits, inspections, material lead times and decisions waiting on the homeowner are what stretch a project, and only one of those is under the contractor.
Read the answerShould I frame with metal studs or wood?
Steel for most commercial interior partitions and for basements and any wall where moisture is a risk. Wood where the wall carries load, where things get hung off it, and in most ordinary residential work. Both are correct, and the answer follows the job rather than a preference.
Read the answerCan you build an in-law suite in my basement?
Usually yes, and the constraints are decided before any design. Egress, ceiling height, moisture, and whether your jurisdiction permits a separate dwelling unit at that address. Those four questions decide whether you are building an in-law suite, a legal rental, or a finished basement with a bedroom that will not appraise as one.
Read the answerDo I need to move out during a remodel?
Usually not. Single room projects and most bathroom and basement work are liveable with containment and a bit of planning. The ones that are genuinely hard are a whole-home renovation, a kitchen if you have nowhere else to cook, and any job where the only bathroom is out of service.
Read the answerPainting
What is included in a painting quote?
A real painting quote names the surfaces, the preparation, the primer, the number of coats, the product and the sheen. A quote that gives you a price per room and nothing else is not cheaper than the others. It has just left out the parts that decide whether the job lasts.
Read the answerHow much does interior painting cost?
Interior painting generally runs $2 to $4 per square foot for walls, or roughly $300 to $700 per room. Trim, doors and ceilings are priced separately. Where a job lands in that range is decided mostly by preparation, ceiling height and how many coats the colour change actually needs.
Read the answerFlooring
My floor got wet. Can it be saved?
It depends on the material and on how long it stayed wet. Solid hardwood and tile often come back. Laminate almost never does. What decides the job either way is the subfloor underneath, because a floor laid back over a subfloor that stayed wet will fail again whatever it is made of.
Read the answerWhat flooring should I choose for my room?
Match the floor to the moisture in the room and the traffic it takes. LVP for basements, kitchens, rentals and anywhere water is a possibility. Tile for bathrooms and entryways. Real or engineered wood in living space where you want the material to be real. Carpet in bedrooms and on stairs. Laminate only where the room stays dry.
Read the answerMy floor feels soft and spongy. What causes that?
A floor that gives underfoot is a structural problem below the surface, not a flooring problem. It is usually water damage to the subfloor, joists spanning further than the sheathing thickness supports, or a subfloor that was never fastened properly. Replacing the surface over it does nothing.
Read the answerHVAC
Should I repair or replace my HVAC system?
Repair a system that is under about ten years old and has failed once. Start pricing a replacement when the system is past fifteen, when the repair involves the compressor or the coil, or when it has needed work in each of the last few seasons. A system that has broken three times will break a fourth.
Read the answerHow often does an HVAC system need maintenance?
Twice a year for most systems. Cooling before summer, heating before winter. A heat pump, which runs year round, benefits most from both. Filters are separate and get changed far more often than that, usually every one to three months depending on the filter and whether there are pets in the house.
Read the answerWhy is my furnace blowing cold air?
Four things cause it most often. The fan is set to on instead of auto, the filter is clogged and the furnace is overheating and shutting the burners off, the flame sensor is dirty, or the ignitor has failed. The first is not a fault at all and takes ten seconds to check.
Read the answerCommercial & Property Management
What is a tenant improvement?
A tenant improvement is the construction that turns a leased commercial space into something a specific tenant can operate in. Partitions, ceilings, flooring, finishes, lighting and the mechanical and electrical work that follows the new layout. It is usually funded partly or wholly by an allowance negotiated into the lease.
Read the answerWhat is a unit turn?
A unit turn is everything done between one resident moving out and the next moving in. Patch, paint, flooring, fixtures, hardware, cleaning and whatever the move-out inspection found. The work is ordinary. What makes it hard is that every day the unit sits empty is rent that does not get collected.
Read the answerWhat are common area renovations?
Renovation of the shared parts of a residential or commercial building. Lobbies, corridors, elevator lobbies, stairwells, amenity and fitness rooms, laundry rooms, mail areas and leasing offices. The work is not unusual. Doing it while people are living in the building is what makes it its own discipline.
Read the answerCan you work around our business hours?
Yes. Occupied commercial work is normally phased, with the noisy and disruptive scopes run after hours or at weekends and the quiet work carried on during the day. It costs more per hour and it usually saves more than it costs, because the alternative is closing.
Read the answerDo you work as a subcontractor for general contractors?
Yes. We take trade packages from general contractors and construction managers, mainly drywall, framing, ceilings, paint and flooring, and we also pick up the reconstruction behind other trades on property-damage work. We do not represent ourselves as performing another contractor's licensed trade.
Read the answerDo you work with property managers and rentals?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Single rentals, apartment communities, condo associations and HOA-managed property. What changes with managed property is not the trade work, it is the coordination. Access, tenant notice, who authorises what, and documentation that the manager can put in a file.
Read the answerPermits & Hiring
Do I need a permit for interior work in Maryland?
Usually yes for anything structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical, and usually no for finishes. Painting, flooring and replacing drywall on existing framing are ordinarily not permit work. Moving a wall, adding a circuit, relocating a drain or changing egress ordinarily is. The county decides, not the state, so the answer changes between Montgomery, Prince George and Charles.
Read the answerHow does the permit process work in Washington DC?
Permits in the District are issued by the Department of Buildings, and most interior work beyond finishes needs one. What usually delays a DC project is not the permit desk. It is historic review, condo board approval, and the fact that a rowhouse shares walls with somebody who also has to be considered.
Read the answerShould I hire a handyman or a bonded and insured contractor?
A handyman is the right call for small, low risk work with no permit and no trade licence involved. Once the job touches structure, systems, permits, or costs enough that a mistake would hurt, you want a bonded and insured contractor. The difference is not skill. It is who carries the loss when something goes wrong.
Read the answerWorking With Us
What work do you not take on?
We decline work outside the trades we self-perform or coordinate, anything requiring a licence we would have to represent falsely, and jobs where the customer wants the symptom covered rather than the cause fixed. A contractor who says yes to everything is telling you something about the quality of the yes.
Read the answerWhat does your warranty cover?
All labour is warranted for one year from completion. If something fails because of how we did the work, we come back and fix it at no charge. Materials carry whatever warranty the manufacturer gives them, which is separate and is written into your contract.
Read the answerHow fast can you come out and start?
For an emergency, we respond within 24 to 48 hours. For ordinary work, most repairs can be priced from photos within a day or two and scheduled from there. What sets the start date is usually material lead time and permits rather than crew availability.
Read the answerQuestion Not Here?
Call and ask. We answer every day from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, and you will get the same answer on the phone that you would get here.