Our new house is showing some banding on the seams of the drywall. I'm wondering if there is a good way to repair this. Can I prime it again with a better primer and them paint it? The builder is coming back to do repairs, but I want to make sure that whatever they do is a fix that is going to work. Of course they only come out during the day so the lighting isn't right to see the Banding.

 

"Banding" does not mean much to us. Is it a dip, or shadow that is detectable when you put a straightedge over it? Or is it a paint sheen issue?

 

Sorry about that. There doesn't seem to be any drywall dips or ridges. It looks like a sheen issue. From what I can tell I believe it is called joint banding or photography.

 

Never heard of "banding" or photography.
Got some pictures so we can see what your seeing?

 

Never heard those terms... but if its only visible in certain lighting conditions its probably the difference between a level 4 and level 5 finish. If the wall finish is not to blame (no dips or underfilled joints) then more paint should solve the problem.

More paint will help hide the texture difference between what was bare paper and what had been skimmed. but you will have to paint the whole wall... not spot prime or touch up.

 

I'm wondering if it's where the joints weren't finished properly, if that's the case more mud needs to be spread over a larger area then sanded, primed and painted. More paint will fix a paint issue but generally doesn't hide defects in the drywall finish.

Do the walls have texture? I assume 1 coat primer and 1 coat finish ? It's not uncommon for defects in the drywall to only show under certain lighting conditions or angles. You might try shining a bright light on the wall and viewing from an angle to see if that makes the affected areas stand out.

You'll never get a perfect drywall finish or paint job BUT the illusion of perfection is attainable!

 

I wasn't sure what it was called either so it took some digging to find what I thought it was. I do think it might be a level 4 vs 5 finish issue. I've attached a picture. It's a little hard to see but I marked them with arrow. They do run across the entire wall. Here is the link to one of the articles that made me think this was the issue (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1...urface-drywall)

That's what I was wondering too with regards to the seams. The drywall job throughout the house was less than stellar so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they messed up.

The problem is that the builder is already hedging so I know a fight is a brewing on getting them to fix it so the more knowledge I have the better.

 

That looks like a drywall finish issue. I assume you can feel the discrepancy if you run your fingers across the joint. More mud applied over a wider area is the fix.

 

It's like the on another wall too and you can feel an ever so slightly rise in the drywall. Would that be doing it?

 

It's where the drywall wasn't finished properly. Some paints and/or lighting will accentuate the issue.

 

I'll add that to the list of other areas the drywall wasn't done correctly :-(

 

Yep, pretty clearly an underfilled joint.

 

Bainbridge Matt:

If you don't get any satisfaction from your builder, this is a problem that you can fix quite easily yourself.

Look in your yellow pages under "Plaster & Drywall, Equipment & Supplies" and go to the places listed under that heading to buy something called a "curved trowel".

A curved trowel looks identical to a normal 11 inch long by 4 1/2 inch wide plastering trowel until you set it down on a flat surface or sight along it's edge. When you do that you'll notice that the trowel blade is curved such that it arches up about 1/8 of an inch in the middle.

Since you hold a curved trowel at a comfortable angle to the wall when using it, the curved blade of the trowel allows a total newbie to spread a perfectly symmetrical "mound" of joint compound on a wall that's about 5/64ths of an inch thick in the middle, and tapers down to nothing on each side of the mound.

That 5/64ths of an inch is more than enough to bury drywall joint tape in if it's sitting on the surface of the drywall paper instead of buried in a contour. But, it's not enough to cause a detectable "mound" of drywall joint compound to show on the wall even if you have wall mounted light fixtures.

When my sister's basement got flooded about 20 years ago, I cut out the damaged drywall near the floor and replaced it with Dens-Shield, but my sister did all the taping with fiberglass mesh joint tape and plastering with my curved trowel. She has wall mounted light fixtures in her basement and the walls look perfect. You would never guess there was any repairs done to those walls, and my sister had absolutely no plastering or drywalling experience prior to that.

So, if your builder pretends he can't see the problem, and treats you like you're nutz, invest $20 in a curved trowel and fix the problem yourself.

In fact, after looking at your picture again, I expect you don't even need a curved trowel here. Just spread a layer of joint compound over those lines with a straight trowel or a 4, 6 or 8 inch drywall knife, sand smooth, prime and paint. Whenever you do this kind of work, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do it with a bright light held in the other hand to cast "critical" lighting on the surface you're working on. The critical lighting will allow you to tell where you need to add joint compound and where you need to sand it off to get a smooth surface. Once your plastering looks "OK, I guess." under critical lighting, it'll look perfect under normal lighting.

 

The builder agreed with me finally. Took 2 days of mudding and sanding. And now my entire house is covered with drywall dust they didn't clean up.

 

Look at this way.... if you refinished it yourself there would still be a sanding mess.

 

I tend to look at it as if they would have done it right the first time there would be no mess :-)

 

I try not to sand in an occupied house, you can use a wet sponge [looks like a grout float] to smooth the mud out. It does require a little more skill with the mud application. Dry sanding does do a better job.

I know it's a job but you want to work at getting up all the sanding dust as soon as possible! Any dust that gets wet [unless they used setting compound] will turn back into wet mud.

 

Yeah we spent three hours yesterday cleaning and still have a ton more to do. It's insane how messy they left my house.

Makes sense on the occupied house. They should have at least done something to minimize the dust. And done a thorough cleaning afterwards. All the contractor kept saying was sorry for the mess and that she had to get going or her boss was going to be mad.