re: Tips and best practices for removing drywall, mold remediation

What do y'all recommend for window and door casing that was submerged? Remove the whole joint?

T square is good to have. It costs about 10 dollars and covers the 4 ft section of the sheetrock for a straight line.

Not sure the actual name, but a sink bit allows you to sink in the sheetrock screws to mud over them. Cost about a dollar.

If the water got to the ceilings, get a sheetrock lift. Makes life much easier.



Do not buy cheap sheetrock tape or you will be taping again in a few years.

Make sure studs are dry before placing the rock down. It also doesn't hurt to spray a sporicide prior to sheetrocking.

Cut the sheet rock with a razor knife, if you use a power saw it will get extremely dusty and you will spend hours upon hours cleaning sheetrock dust. A sharp razor will save you lots of clean up time.

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Let a professional drywaller who is going to reinstall the drywall make the last cut.

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good point. the goal right now is to get everything wet out asap and let stuff start drying out. Which is unfortunately is going to tough as the weather show a good chance of rain for the next 7 days. Rain or not, the overcast high humidity is exactly what people don't need.

Buy a box of utility knife blades because the gypsum will dull them quickly. Using dywall screws, fasten a 1x4 with the top edge 48.5 inches from the floor surface. Score the wall with the knife along the top edge, then remove the 1x4. Use a pry bar to punch holes 2-3 feet apart a few inches below the score line and pull out the drywall in large sheets below the punch holes. Go back to the score line and where there are studs, cut to the drywall all the way to the stud. Push the remaining drywall above the punch holes in to get the drywall to snap on the score line. Use gloves and a mask.

All the tools I listed above can be purchased at a Dollar General, or a Fred's type store for under 20 bucks. Not the best quality tools but in a crunch will work just fine.

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if it gets above your baseboards, you might as well ripped the whole 4' piece out. It's actually harder on the person floating the Sheetrock later on if you try to just cut out the wet piece. Sheetrock is not that expensive, making them spend extra time measuring and cutting is.

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you can also purchase a 4'6" X 12' board of Sheetrock too. There's a local distributor in BR called Interior / Exterior that carries both 4' wide and 4'6" wide Sheetrock. We bought from them from the last flood and that 6" made a difference at our camp. Only had to replace the bottom sheet and a little bit of the one above it.

Does everything that gets submerged by the flood water have to be removed? I am mainly asking about cabinets on the ground level. My sisters home took on water and I am driving into BR mid week to help her cut out the sheetrock and carpet. I wasn't sure if you have to rip out the cabinets and replace. Does the flood insurance adjuster make that decision, or do they just want you to remove everything as quickly as possible to keep mold from spreading?

One thing people are leaving out.

First, remove a molding. Past a knife at the top if there is silicone. Use a flat bar prybar. DO NOT PULL THE NAILS. Use something to pull the nails out from the BACK SIDE. Once removed, hose them off and PUT THEM IN THE SHADE to dry. They can be reused.

Once you remove the old rock and insulation on the outer walls, get a bunch of fans, run a genset and let them blow thru out the house. That will help speed up drying studs.

Another thing. Turn off all power. Remove all wall socket cover plates. Put screws in a ziplok bag. Remove all plugs if water covered them and trash them. They need to be replaced.

Carpet and padding, floating wood floors, just rip them up, they are trash now.

Cabinets, remove everything from them. Remove doors, but before doing so, take a piece of masking tape and number them from were they come from. A piece of tape on the cabinet too. Ziplock for screws. You will have to remove them. There should be screws that are screwed into wall studs. If you need to remove the counter top, at each end, there will be screws at the corners. If and when you do remove the bases, you will have to unhook the plumbing. Just turn off the water if there is a water valve. Once everything is removed, take a rag and plug up were the drain is at the wall. arse gas will come in the house if you don't.

There is some much more for recovery. I will be more then happy to help or point y'all in the right direction for the people that plan on doing it themselves.

BTT to help anybody that needs the info.

In your OP you have if it's more than 4' to rip off the whole sheet. That's not absolutely true. If you have 48" you would be better cutting it at 6' that way you don't have to mess with the top the wall where you would have to redo a whole seam possibly crown moulding.