Drywall and ceiling repair in Palo Alto

Plaster and drywall in Palo Alto's older houses

Professorville was settled by Stanford faculty in the 1890s, and its National Register district counts 105 contributing homes built between the 1890s and 1929. Walls from that period were usually plaster over wood lath, which cracks along the lath lines as the framing moves. Most of the city is younger. The median year built is 1963, squarely in the drywall era, where nail pops, seam cracks and doorknob holes are the usual damage.

Send a close photo of the damage and one from across the room, so we can see the texture around it. A hairline crack in plaster can be patched where it is; a loose or bulging section gets cut back to solid material and filled. If the house was built before 1978, mention it, since federal lead rules cover paid work that disturbs old paint.

Worth knowing about Palo Alto

• The City's Eichler guidelines describe post-and-beam framing on a concrete slab, radiant heat embedded in the slab, redwood siding, flat roofs and interior walls often paneled in mahogany.
• Eichler residents told the City about flat roofs prone to leaks, single-pane glass, a lack of insulation and foundations without crawl spaces.
• Joseph Eichler built some 2,700 homes in Palo Alto, mostly in the central and southern parts of the city that grew quickly after World War II.