How To Repair Damaged Sheet Rock From Backsplash Removal

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I am so excited to finally share this series on our Kitchen Remodel. For the most part I did all of it myself, start to finish it took about a calendar month. Below is a recent motion-picture show of the finished projection. I merely adore how bright and airy the room feels at present!

When we walked through our dwelling for the first time I cruel in love with the basic of the Kitchen. There is an abundance of chiffonier infinite as well every bit room for our whole family. It is nestled perfectly betwixt the formal and Casual sides of our home. Still it was drowning in yellowed maple cabinets with ornate grape vine detail AND the infamous 3D grapevine tile. Taking Center stage was this large medallion to a higher place the stove. I lovingly named him George, and fantasized about the day I would rip him out. It was beautiful space, but it simply wasn't our style.

I knew rather quickly what I wanted to practise with the space. I procrastinated for awhile, because I knew how much work it was going to exist. I was also a little intimidated by tiling equally I had never done it before. I take found with any big projects, the best matter I can exercise is just START!

To kick the series of I must start with the least glamorous part removing the backsplash and patching the drywall. I learned a lot along the way so I have compiled some of my tips here and in the "Removing Tile & Patching Drywall" highlight on my Instagram.

Office i Removing Backsplash

Supplies:

Hammer
Precipitous pry bar
Multi-tool
Fleck plywood
Safety Goggles
Thick work gloves

In preparation I spent more time researching tiling than removing old tile. I learned the difficult mode how easy information technology is to damage the drywall behind.

Our Tiles were pretty thick and attached to a thin cardboard sheet. The KEY is Not using the wall for leverage. Once you lot have, it amercement the drywall behind. I found one time I damaged the dry wall it was really difficult to get more tile off without damaging more dry wall.

I found it best to become the abrupt edge of the pry bar nestled between that cardboard (or wall) and the tile. Then give it a hard tap on the back side of the pry bar. It is of import to keep the pry bar perpendicular to the wall, and making sure the force is towards to tile. If done correctly the tiles will pop off without damaging the wall. This step took some patience and A LOT of muscle.

Side notation: I actually vigorously hammered then much that I created a "mass" which resulted in my offset mammogram and a few ultrasounds. Clearly I don't work out my upper body very ofttimes. I was grateful nosotros had already met our deductible for the year. 🤦‍♀️

Tip: I did use my dremel tool a couple times sharpen the edge of my pry bar. It really took a beating.

It may go out some remnants behind, simply those are easy to scrape off using a multi-tool. You lot can encounter where I damaged the dry wall in some of the areas.

It is really important to use safety goggles and good piece of work gloves. The tiles actually wing if you are doing it right, and they get really sharp. I also had a piece of bit ply woods where I was working. It helped protect the counters and appliances. I had a spare garbage handy so I could easily slide a lot of the rubble correct from the ply wood into the garbage.

Part two Repairing Drywall

Supplies

two′ x two′ Drywall sheets (1/2″ , 5/viii″ )
Utility Pocketknife
Metal Ruler
Drill
Dry Wall Screws
Measuring Tape
Multi-tool
Dry Wall Knife
Mud
12 " Hawk (Long flat dry wall tool)
Sanding Square
Dry wall tape
Firing strips
Affiche Board (Optional)
Pen
Tape drape
Joint Pocketknife
Mask

Patching Dry wall

Once the backsplash was removed, I had several areas of dry wall to repair. At one point I questioned whether I should accept simply removed the dry wall with the tile.

I was pretty intimidated past dry wall repairs. Fortunately, I found Ralph at Dwelling house Depot to guide me. They keep all of the supplies in one section and so it made it like shooting fish in a barrel to gather everything I needed.

I started in one corner and just worked my way out. I used ii'x2′ drywall sections for a couple of reasons. They are lighter and easier for me to handle by myself. They besides made it piece of cake to chunk the sections out. I take a ton of outlets in the kitchen and then I didn't accept to do as much measuring this way. Make sure you measure the thickness of your existing dry wall and so you become the correct size.

Taking one section at a fourth dimension I would identify whatsoever areas that had obvious holes or were weak. It is of import to take a solid surface for the tile, otherwise it can scissure! I used my metal ruler and a sharpie to mark those areas. If there was no stud behind I used the drywall knife to cut out damaged sections.

If cuts were on a stud I used the utility knife to score the acme paper of the dry out wall. Then I used the hammer and multi-tool to chiseled downwards to the stud. I followed that with the utility knife again to brand a dainty make clean edge.

If in that location was a smaller hole with no stud behind information technology I used a piece of firing strip to provide support. I wiggled it into the pigsty, then only put a screw through a good section above and below the hole. Then I could just put my patch correct over that.

I really had some left over poster board on hand from another project, but I found it especially handy. The kitchen is full of outlets. I fabricated a template that measured exactly from the counter top up to the outlet and around.

One time I cut my section of dry wall to size I measured the distance from i side to the border of the outlet. I used that measurement and my template to trace where the outlet hole needed to be.

I used the metallic ruler and Utility pocketknife to score around the unabridged hole. Then I used a drywall pocketknife to cutting three sides. In one case the 3 sides were cutting I would punch the dry wall and information technology would flop out. I took some screen shots from my IG stories, but in that location are a lot of these tips in action on there.

A niggling tip, one time you cut one side of the paper you can but hit the drywall and it will split. Then you tin bend up that piece and utilise a utility knife to dissever the pieces like the epitome below.

I repeated this process around the entire room until I had all the sections patched. I used my multi-tool to scrape of all of the excess mortar, cardboard from the previous tile, and devious dry wall newspaper pieces. I wanted it to be as clean and polish every bit possible, earlier I skim coated. Boy was it ugly at this footstep.

Function iii Mudding Joints and Skim Coat

Once it was all cleaned up I put my drape record all effectually to protect the counters. You lot tin can see it was a little chip of absolute chaos.

I cleaned upward daily so we could yet utilise our kitchen. Removing the tile and patching the backsplash was past far the messiest role of the kitchen renovation. That dry wall creates a lot of grit!

Information technology is really important to tape all of the seams. If you skip this step your tile may crack!

In one case taped seems cover them with a thin coat of mud. I was very careful to keep the record in place. I tried to continue the mud as smooth as I could. It doesn't take to be perfect though, because you will sand later.

One time that layer of mud was dry out, I used my sanding cake to smooth any bumps or ledges. Then I did an entire skim coat over everything. This office was really really fun, and reminded me of frosting a cake.

Then I used my sanding cake to smooth. I did at least 2 coats, and in some places 3 to ensure I would have a dainty smooth surface to utilize the backsplash. I waited a mean solar day between each coat of mud to ensure it was completely dry, then sanded smooth. I waited a few days earlier actually applying backsplash to ensure information technology was dry out.

Like I said this wasn't the most glamorous part of the project. Like most projects I made more than of a mess before it started looking pretty once more.

Upwardly next in the series I will walk through how I tiled the backsplash. I learned a ton of great tips during this procedure!