Not every wall in Palo Alto is drywall
Many older Palo Alto homes — in Professorville, Old Palo Alto, Crescent Park, University South — have plaster walls on wood lath. Plaster is harder, heavier and cracks differently than drywall. A drywall patch pushed into a plaster wall shows: wrong thickness, wrong texture, and it moves differently with the seasons. Plaster gets repaired as plaster.
Eichlers and other post-and-beam homes have no attic and thin walls, and the ceiling is often the roof deck itself. Repairs there work around the beams and match whatever finish the original had.
Post-war ranch homes — Midtown, Charleston Meadows, the south side — are standard drywall. These are the easiest to repair well, as long as the texture is matched.
What we repair
- Nail pops and small holes
- Door-knob holes and larger patches
- Cracks along seams and corners
- Water damage after the leak is fixed
- Walls opened by plumbers or electricians
- Ceiling repairs
- Texture matching: smooth, orange peel, knockdown, hand-troweled plaster
How it's done
Drywall: cut back to solid material, patch, tape, three coats of compound, sand, texture to match the rest of the wall, prime.
Plaster: loose sections get re-anchored to the lath, cracks are cut out and filled with a plaster-compatible patch, and the finish is troweled to match the original — not a drywall patch in a plaster wall.
Painting the repaired area is a separate step. We can do it the same visit so the patch is gone when we leave — see house painting.
Questions people in Palo Alto ask
- How much to patch the hole a plumber left?
- Usually the $350 minimum covers it, including texture. Send a photo — that's almost always enough for an exact price.
- Is there a permit for drywall repair?
- No. Patching and finishing walls doesn't need a building permit in Palo Alto. If the wall was opened for electrical or plumbing work, the permit for that work covers it.
- Our old house has cracks that keep coming back.
- In plaster walls that's usually the lath moving behind the plaster. The fix is different from a drywall crack, and it lasts.
- Can you match the texture?
- Yes. Matching texture is most of the skill in this work. Sean will tell you before starting if a perfect match isn't possible.
Licensed and local
SHR Remodeling LLC · CSLB #1121642. Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave six years running, 2021–2026.
Get a free estimate
Send a photo of the damage — Sean will call you back with a price