Drywall corner repair?
 

The plumber (or his helper) smacked a toilet into the corner of my wall and the metal strip is now exposed.

I guess I'll need to put a little spackle there before primer & paint. Will it stick by itself, or do I need to use something to make sure it adheres ok?

If so, what?

The exposed metal is < 1" in length.

Just aply the sheet rock mud let it dry and sand it smooth then paint

Very simple repair

Use drywall mud. Prime, paint, done.

JR

can I use one of those small "repair" containers of spackel or whatever it is, instead of buying a 5 gallon pail of mud?

Yes it's pretty much all the same thing

BTW why aren't they fixing it? If I did that to one of my customers I sure as hell would be fixing

Bout 15 yrs ago when I was an apprentice I dropped the lid to a toilet tank on a customers hard work floor, our insurance had it repaired

Ha - well, that is the other question. They did not even acknowledge they did the damage. Someone let out a yelp and I heard the smack, then looked at it and saw the damage.

When the main guy was leaving, I pointedly stared at it, but he did not say anything. Maybe the helper did it and did not tell him (but he'd have heard it happen unless he was outside at the time).

They are supposed to return to put the caps on the nuts for the toilet - I may directly ask him about it then.

I'm not so sure I want them to try a drywall repair, priming, and painting - that's 3 visits to fix it, which would be a hassle for me, even if they don't eff it up.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas about a deduction that would be reasonable when they present their bill.

Thanks for your help.

if the corner bead is loose, you'll want to use a few drywall screws to fasten it.

Any of the small containers of mud will work. Use a few drywall screws as mnetioned. You might need to place them on the middle or edge of the bead to make it flush. Also, you might need to hammer the corner of the bead to get it back in shape.

Deduction?

Cost of patch material + about 1 hour labor/time charge at their hourly rate (not counting the time it takes for paint/patch to dry) would be fair, IMO.

In all honesty, the patching might take 5 minutes, the sanding another 5 minutes, the priming and painting about two minutes--again, all this is actual working time, not allowing for drying or set-up/clean up. If you want to figure set-up and clean up, add another half-hour. Your call.

If the repair has a few complications, as mentioned above, then add time accordingly.

You might consider confronting them, when they return to finish, with your calculations based on the above suggestion and allow them to either accept the deduction or offer to repair it themselves, to your satisfaction. If you do make this offer and they want to do the repair, be sure it is written on the bill, initialed by you, and don't pay anything on the bill until it is done. The fact they never acknowledged the damage is a red flag that they may not be the most candid of professionals.

Are we talking about a small family owned company or a large one?

I find it strange that they would have to make a return trip to install the caps on the closet bolts??

I would make a phone call and talk to someone in charge

Something else to consider is the color and finish of the paint. You might need to paint an entire wall from corner to corner if it can't be feathered in. I've had to do this many a time for a small SRTU.

I'd look for the stuff the Dept. of Transportation uses to repair toll booths when damaged by traffic bumping into them.

It's a white putty-like material and comes in large and small plastic containers, ready to apply. I think it's called "Toll Gate Booth Paste".

Thx all - I am not sure how large the biz is - I've used this guy before; seems like he has grown some.

The nut caps were not in the package with the 2 toilet pieces he said; I'll see what happens when he comes back. Maybe he'll say "my helper told me he hit your wall - we'll take care of you."

He might also forgive his prior toilet unstopping bill (he charged an hour @ $85 was only here 10 minutes, tho I guess that is common). This trip was to deal with the 2nd stoppage in 10 days - I figured the S trap was clogged by 50 years of deposits.

When I worked at a National Park Lodge, I would skim with bondo and follow up with 1/16 of spackle or less. I would have it painted and be out in less than 1 hour. Thick spackle takes a long time to dry, and shrinks much more than drywall mud. Thin coats take much less time to dry, and sand better than plaster, Durabond or Bondo. Durabond is quick setting drywall compound that is mixed with water like plaster, but designed for drywall. It does not sand well, although there are easy sand types.

I mention this because as a car guy, you might have bondo kicking around, and with a good seal on the can, it never goes bad. There are also quick setting plaster type products for this that come in small containers. Something for everyone.