Wet Drywall and Walls in Hurst, TX

Wet drywall is a speed problem because gypsum board pulls water upward through its paper face and core. In a typical Hurst home on a slab, water from a burst supply line, a leaking water heater in a hall closet or an overflowing washer spreads across the floor and touches the bottom edge of every wall in its path. Within an hour or two the wet line can be several inches up the wall, and inside the cavity the insulation and the bottom plate soak up even more. Older homes from the 1950s through the 1980s often have interior walls that have been patched and repainted many times, which hides how far the water has really gone.

At 1 hour water has wicked a few inches up the board and the baseboards are starting to swell. By 24 hours the wet line can reach a foot or more, paint bubbles and the paper face goes soft. Between 24 and 48 hours the warm, dark wall cavity is where mold can start, often out of sight on the back side of the board. After a week the bottom of the drywall crumbles when pressed, baseboards have split, and the insulation smells musty, so far more wall has to be cut out than if drying had started the first day.

Drywall that got wet from clean water, such as a supply line or a water heater, and that is still firm can often be dried in place when the crew gets to it early. Baseboards are pulled so the bottom edge of the wall can breathe, small holes are drilled near the floor behind where the base will go back, and air is pushed into the cavity while dehumidifiers pull water out of the room. Wood studs and bottom plates dry well with steady airflow. Painted plaster-smooth walls in older Hurst homes often dry without cracking if the board itself has not softened.

Board that is soft, crumbling, stained or wet for more than a couple of days usually has to come out. Water from a toilet overflow, a dishwasher drain or a floor drain backup is category 2 or 3, and porous drywall that soaked it up is removed. The usual method is a flood cut, a straight cut a few inches above the highest wet reading, which keeps the patch neat. Wet fiberglass insulation in exterior walls is replaced because it stays matted, and swollen particleboard or MDF baseboards are replaced rather than dried.

Wet walls turn up in every part of Hurst, but the pattern changes with the house. In neighborhoods such as Walker Oaks, Oakwood Park and Prestondale Estates, many homes have water heaters in a hall closet or the garage, so a tank failure soaks the walls of a hallway and the bedrooms on either side. Homes near Chisholm Park and along Norwood Dr often have kitchens and laundry rooms that back onto bedrooms, so a washer hose or a dishwasher leak spreads through a shared wall. Apartments near the North East Mall area and the freeways see wet walls between neighboring units.

In Bedford, many 1980s homes and apartments have long shared walls where one leak can wet two or three rooms. Euless has many rentals with similar stacked and side-by-side layouts. Richland Hills homes from the 1950s often have older plumbing inside interior walls, where a slow leak can wet drywall for weeks before anyone sees it. One call from any of these towns or from Hurst connects you with a local restoration pro who can measure the walls.