3 Ways to Protect Your New Home’s Drywall
Homeownership is a big deal, and if you’re a new homeowner, you know just how weighty the investment is both financially and in terms of posterity. Buying a home is one of the most important and difficult financial decisions to make. Naturally, you’ll want to protect such an important investment and ensure the integrity and value of your new home for a long time to come.
You might think at the outset that there are only a few issues, such as pests and water damage, that can undermine the quality of your house’s essential components, like drywall. Yet, unfortunately, there are quite a few ways that your new home’s drywall can be compromised. From unsecured nails popping through the walls to furniture scuffs and cracking from improper renovations, there’s a lot to consider.
Fortunately, there are some very effective strategies you can utilize to ensure your new home’s drywall is fortified. Here are three of the most successful ways to protect your new home’s drywall.
1. Repair with Joint Compound A.K.A. Drywall Mud
Joint compound, which is made up of a mixture of mostly gypsum dust and water, can be found at your local hardware store. The compound is also called drywall mud because of the thick consistency of the mixture. It does wonders for boosting the durability of your drywall layers. If your drywall has any holes or cracks, you can use the mud to repair and seal these imperfections.
Drywall mud is also easy to sand and paint over, so this solution can give you a head-start on decorating and designing your new home.
2. Use Green Board Drywall in Water-Prone Areas
There are some habits you’ll develop as a new homeowner to keep the environment of your home healthy. Regular deep cleaning, monitoring the state of dampness and cold in areas of your house that will be prone to it (e.g. your basement), and cleaning your roof and gutters will become part of your routine.
Right from the start of your homeownership, you should inspect all areas prone to moisture, such as your bathroom(s), your kitchen, and around your laundry machine to see if there’s proper waterproofing.
Most homes will have at least a backsplash or plastic sheet panels over the walls that will often come in contact with moisture. Some homes might not have the right drywall installed in moisture-prone areas, however, and here you should invest in having green board drywall installed.
Green boards are water-resistant drywall designed for moisture-prone areas. Green boards can prevent rotting and mold that can be harmful to your respiratory health.
3. Buy Metal Corner Guards
This last strategy for protecting the drywall in your new home might seem more suited to industrial spaces, but this consideration couldn’t be further from the truth. Metal corner guards come in a variety of different styles, sizes, and thicknesses of metal, allowing you to custom-fit your home’s interior edges. Installing metal corner guards will prevent some of the most common mishaps (like furniture scuffing during the move or holes from swinging doors) from ruining the quality of your drywall.
Metal corner guards keep your drywall’s edges from being worn down through daily activity. Think about any accidents that may have resulted in your drywall getting chipped, scratched, or (heaven forbid) gouged. Metal corner guards will reduce this type of damage significantly, as well as cut back on the possibility of having to regularly repair damage.
If you live in a lively neighbourhood and know your home will be a busy one, we highly recommend checking out premium metal corner guards. You can choose among aluminum checker plate, stainless steel, and industrial-grade corner guards that can fit your home’s unique wants and needs for drywall protection.
Utilize these three strategies and rest easy as a new homeowner knowing that your home’s walls will be well-protected.