Rental Unit Repair & Turnover · Waterloo
Rental Unit Drywall Repair and Turnover in Waterloo
A turnover is a deadline with drywall in it. The trick is knowing how much can be properly dried and sanded between the day the keys come back and the day the new tenants arrive.
The streets north and west of the two universities — Northdale, the blocks off Columbia, Lester, Albert and Hazel — turn over every spring and late summer, and the condition the units come back in is predictable: door-knob holes, anchor holes from shelves and TV mounts, a bathroom ceiling that has been damp for a term, scuffed and gouged hallway corners, and at least one wall that has been painted over so many times the patches have started to show through. A landlord with a Sept 1 move-in needs it presentable, not perfect, and needs it done in the window.
What a turnover actually involves
- Triage on the first visit. Every hole and crack is noted, the bathroom and kitchen ceilings are checked for softness with a meter, and the walls that need skimming rather than patching are identified. The quote lists them so you can see what you are paying for.
- Patching. Small holes get backed patches; larger ones a new piece of board on blocking. Outside corners that have been hit repeatedly get new bead, because filling a crushed corner is temporary.
- Skim coats. A wall that has had twenty patches over fifteen years is often better skimmed as a whole to Level 5 than patched for the twenty-first time. It presents like a new wall and takes paint evenly.
- Water damage. A bathroom ceiling under a shower that has been leaking at the tub surround is cut out, the cavity dried and checked, and re-boarded in moisture-resistant board — after the leak is fixed, which is a plumber's job and comes first.
- Priming. Patches and skim coats are primed so the paint does not flash. Painting itself is a separate trade; a primed, dust-free unit is the hand-off.
Drying time is not negotiable
Joint compound has to dry between coats. Setting-type compound shortens the first coats to hours, but the finish coat and sanding still want a following visit, and a skimmed wall wants more. A typical five-bedroom turnover with a dozen patches and one skimmed wall is two or three visits over three to five days. If the window is 24 hours, we will say what can honestly be done in it and what should wait, rather than seal wet compound under paint and hand you a unit that cracks in October.
Licences and the walls you cannot just add
Units in low-rise buildings under three storeys rented on a lease need a City of Waterloo long-term rental licence, and the application includes a floor plan with the bedroom count matching the licence class — Class A up to five bedrooms, Class C for five or more or shared kitchens and baths. A landlord who wants to partition a living room into a sixth bedroom is adding a wall, which the City lists as permit work, and changing the licence class. That is not a weekend drywall job. We will build and finish the partition when the permit and the licence are sorted, and we will say so up front rather than hang board that the City has not seen.
Basement units that were never quite legal
A lot of basement apartments in the university district were created long before anyone drew a plan. When one of those comes up for a refresh, the honest question is whether the ceiling is a rated assembly — the right board, continuous, with boxed penetrations — or just a ceiling. We will tell you what is there, and if the answer is that it needs a permit and the City's drawings to be made right, that is a bigger conversation than a patch, but it is the one worth having before a tenant moves in.
Frequently asked questions
Can you do a turnover in one day?
Patching can start and finish-coat in one day with setting compound only if the patches are small and few, and sanding and priming still want a second visit. A realistic turnover is two or three visits. We would rather tell you that than deliver soft compound under paint.
Can you add a bedroom partition for me?
Once the City has issued a permit for the wall and the rental licence class has been dealt with, yes. Adding or removing a wall is permit work in Waterloo and the bedroom count is part of the licence, so the drywall is the last step, not the first.
The bathroom ceiling has a soft spot — can you just paint over it?
No. Soft board has been wet through and is a mould risk under paint. It is cut out, the leak is fixed, the cavity dried, and new moisture-resistant board goes in. It is a small job done properly or a recurring one done badly.
Serving Waterloo and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.