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Straighten a drywall wall?
I am in the process of installing a new bathroom in our basement. The walls have been framed, drywalled, painted, etc., and we are now installing the vanity. When we mounted the 5-foot wide vanity top to the vanity, we discovered that the wall behind the vanity isn't very straight--there are a couple bows in it, which result in gaps behind the vanity of up to around 1/4".
The back side of this wall is open and unfinished (furnace/utility room). And the wall was assembled with screws, not nails, which were all toe-nailed in place--so we have access to all the framing screw heads. My thought is to back them out and simply push the offending studs toward the vanity, thus closing the gaps. But the concern is that this will cause the mud, or even the drywall itself, to crack or undergo other damage. (This is especially concerning because one of the studs is immediately alongside a recessed medicine cabinet which doesn't get any trim around it, so getting the drywall to finish cleanly next to the cabinet was not fun.)
My wife is "certain" that trying to move that stud will cause damage, and therefore is opposed to doing this. I think it could work, and the gap is visually obtrusive enough to risk it, and to re-fix the wall if necessary. How much can drywall like this shift without damage? Any other recommendations? If it matters, the studs are 2x6 (but NOT load-bearing), and are spaced 12" OC. (The reasons for not using 16" OC could fill a whole other article--but suffice it to say it was correct for the application.)
Thanks Jim. Unfortunately, although drywall is cheap, the time and/or labor to re-finish it isn't practical in this situation. If we can't get the existing wall to shift somehow, we're likely to simply leave it as-is. Also, the vanity top is of a style where a trim piece is not going to look right.
If we can't shift the wall to close the gap, we're likely to either just leave it and live with the gap, or maybe to try to fill it with paintable caulk (maybe with a shim or something under it to keep it from falling) and then paint it to match the wall. We were just hoping there might be another, better solution available to us.
Jeff, interesting idea, hadn't thought of that. I'm not sure it's something I want to try doing to our new and relatively expensive countertop (not granite, but still not a material I'm comfortable with doing that kind of work on), but I may be able to scribe the drywall wall a bit to set it into the wall and thus mask the problem. Thanks...
3 Answers
- Jeff DLv 710 years agoFavorite Answer
Another option would be to just scribe the back of the vanity top/backsplash and sand/plane it down to match the wall. As long as you don't have a granite counter top it should be fairly straightforward.
Source(s): None of the walls are straight in my 100 year old house. - 10 years ago
I think, since you have access to the back of the wall, have your wife in the bathroom with a straight edge held horizontally either above the medicine cabinet--or below, so she can clearly see the voids and while she is holding that, you carefully 'adjust' those screws on the studs that are out of whack. For example, if you need a stud to move in more, back the screw off so you have some 'room' to accelerate back into the wood farther than it was. If you just put the cordless driver into the screw from 'set' and try to drive it farther, you could just strip the screw head...unless you have those torx head screws--but even so, I would still back out a little, then drive it in just past where it was and see what she says-if that closed part or all of the gap. If the stud needs to come back, back off the screw some and use a small pry lever and gently give the stud a pull back-again asking her if she sees the gap narrow.
You can do this gently without f'n up the finish. Gentle is the keyword.
- Jim WLv 710 years ago
Dry wall or sheet rock is not too expensive. The only solution to get a straight wall is to start with a straight frame. Remove the finished wall material, fix the frame to a straight surface and then re do the wall. Shims between the sheet rock and the studs may be a solution. Other than that a trim around the vanity to cover the gap is possible.