Residential Drywall & Stucco Services in Calgary
Residential Drywall & Stucco Services in Calgary
Drywall installation seems straightforward until it’s done wrong. Then you get nail pops six months later, cracks running along your ceiling, and seams that show through every coat of paint. We’ve walked into enough Calgary homes to fix bad drywall jobs that we know the difference between “hung” and “installed properly” — and it’s about 20 years of performance.
Whether you’re finishing a basement, building an addition, or gutting a room down to the studs, the quality of your drywall installation determines how your walls look and hold up for decades. Calgary’s climate doesn’t make it easy either. We deal with conditions that punish sloppy work faster than most cities in Canada.
We handle drywall installation for pretty much any residential project in Calgary:
Most of our work is residential drywall — single-family homes, townhouses, duplexes. That’s what we know best, and we’d rather be great at one thing than mediocre at five.
Every job follows the same steps. We don’t skip any of them, even on a small patch job. Here’s what to expect:
Assessment and measurement. We come out, measure the space, and figure out exactly how many sheets we need. A typical basement in Calgary runs about 60 to 80 sheets of 4×8. We’d rather over-order by two sheets than make a second trip to the supplier mid-job.
Material selection. Not all drywall is the same. We’ll recommend the right type and thickness for your space — half-inch for most walls, 5/8-inch for ceilings so they don’t sag, moisture-resistant board for bathrooms. More on that below.
Framing inspection. Before a single sheet goes up, we check your framing. Studs that are bowed, twisted, or spaced inconsistently will show through the finished wall. We shim or plane problem studs. This takes maybe an hour and saves you from seeing every stud through your paint.
Hanging drywall. Ceilings first, then walls. We screw — never nail. Screws hold. Nails work loose over time, especially when your house shifts through freeze-thaw cycles. We also stagger our seams and keep butt joints to a minimum. Fewer joints means fewer places for cracks to develop.
Taping and mudding. Three coats of joint compound over paper tape on every seam. We use paper tape on flat seams and mesh tape on patches. Each coat is wider than the last — about 4 inches, then 8, then 12. That feathering is what makes seams invisible.
Sanding and finishing. After the final coat dries, we sand everything smooth. Then we do a light check with a work light held flat against the wall. That raking light shows every ridge and imperfection that overhead lighting would hide. If we see something, we fix it before you ever notice.
There are four main types we install, and each one has a specific use:
Not sure which type you need? That’s fine — we’ll sort it out during the assessment. Most rooms need standard board, and we’ll flag any areas where code or common sense says to upgrade.
Calgary is harder on drywall than most people realize. Three things make the difference:
The climate. Our winters are brutally dry — indoor humidity can drop below 20% by January. Then spring comes and humidity jumps. That constant expansion and contraction stresses every joint in your walls. Poorly taped seams crack. Improperly secured sheets pop screws. Good installation accounts for this movement. We leave a small gap at floor level, use flexible compound on stress-prone areas, and make sure every screw is set to the right depth — dimpled but not breaking the paper face.
Older homes in the inner city. Neighbourhoods like Bridgeland, Inglewood, Ramsay, and Killarney are full of homes built in the 1940s through 1970s. A lot of them still have original plaster or early-generation drywall that’s crumbling. When we work on these homes, we’re often dealing with out-of-plumb walls and uneven framing that wasn’t built to modern standards. It takes patience and a lot of shims, but we make it work.
New communities on the edges. If you’ve just bought in Seton, Mahogany, Cornerstone, or Glacier Ridge, there’s a good chance your builder’s drywall crew was moving fast. We get regular calls from homeowners in newer communities who notice wavy walls, visible seams, or screw pops within the first year. Sometimes it’s worth having us come out to assess the situation — a targeted drywall repair now can save a full redo later.
It depends on the size of the project. A typical Calgary basement — say 800 square feet — usually takes us 4 to 5 days from first sheet to final sand. That’s about a day for hanging, a day per coat of mud with drying time in between, and half a day for sanding. Bigger jobs scale up from there. We don’t rush the drying time between coats because that’s how you end up with cracking and shrinkage.
Not right away. After the final sanding, you’ll need to prime first — always prime. Fresh drywall compound absorbs paint unevenly, so without a coat of PVA primer, you’ll see every seam and screw head through your topcoat. We recommend waiting 24 hours after sanding before priming, just to let any residual moisture in the compound finish off-gassing.
Drywall itself doesn’t usually require a permit. But the work that comes before it might. If you’re finishing a basement, adding a room, or converting a garage, the City of Calgary will want permits for the framing, electrical, plumbing, and insulation. The drywall doesn’t go up until those are inspected and approved. We won’t hang board over uninspected framing — it just means tearing it all off later.
Level 4 is what most rooms get — three coats of mud on seams and screws, sanded smooth. It looks great under most lighting. Level 5 adds a skim coat of compound over the entire wall surface, creating a perfectly uniform texture. We recommend Level 5 in areas with harsh lighting — like a hallway with pot lights — where even slight differences in surface texture between bare drywall and mudded joints become visible. It adds cost, but in the right spots it makes a real difference.
If you’ve got a project coming up — basement, renovation, new build, whatever it is — give us a call. We’ll come take a look, give you an honest assessment of what’s involved, and get you a quote. No pressure, no upselling on stuff you don’t need.
Call RC Stucco and Drywall at (403) 969-0155 or reach out through our contact page. We serve Calgary and surrounding areas including Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, and Okotoks.
