Ocala, Florida. Since 2009.
Anybody can close a hole. Matching the texture around it so nobody can tell where it was is a different trade. That is the only trade DRR does.
We are not cheap.
We are thorough.
We are good.
DRR Drywall Repair, in their own words
Why repairs are visible
DRR's own case studies name all three by hand. That is unusual. Most companies do not publish the part of the job where it can go wrong.
Most patches are found by the ring of extra texture left around them. Wiping that back is slow and it is the step almost everyone skips.
If the new material sits proud of the old one, raking afternoon light will show the patch from across the room no matter how good the texture is.
Three textures can meet in one repair. Matching means working out what the last person used and what the room was doing when they used it.
The Repair Blueprint
Three questions. The last one is a photograph of the texture that is actually on your wall, taken from DRR's own field library. You get back the real sequence your repair will follow and the closest job they have already documented.
01 What happened
02 Where it is
03 Which of these looks like your surface
Pick all three to build the sequence.
This is a scope and sequence guide, not a quote. DRR prices every job after seeing it, because the extent of a repair is almost never what it looks like from the outside. Call (352) 817-3094 or book an estimate and Daniel will tell you what it actually is.
What DRR repairs
Every panel below is a service DRR names on their own site, in their own words. Pick the one that matches and it will load straight into the Blueprint.
Fists, feet, doorknobs, golf carts
A hole is the easy part. Making the patch disappear into the texture around it is the part almost nobody gets right.
Roof leaks, plumbing leaks, staining
Wet drywall has to come out, not get painted over. Leaving it in is how mold starts.
Corners, door heads, window heads, seams
Cracks tell you something. We inspect before we fill, because a crack from settling and a crack from a rushed finish are two different jobs.
Peeling seams, failed angles
Paper tape fails in Florida heat and humidity. We strip it back to board and rebuild the seam with vinyl and fiberglass.
Sagging ceilings, strips showing
Builders give the garage the least attention in the whole house. It shows first, and it falls first.
Patch it and blend it
Popcorn is the hardest texture to blend and the easiest to get wrong. Repair costs substantially less than full removal.
Take it off, put something modern on
Popcorn is messy to remove and harder still if it has been painted. We take the hassle and give you back a modern texture.
The part that decides whether anyone can tell
Knockdown, crow foot, popcorn, hawk and trowel, orange peel. We read what is already on your wall and match it.
Documented work
Drag any slider. Two of these are shown mid-repair rather than finished, and they are labelled that way, because that is what is in the frame.
Three separate textures met in this one repair: the ceiling, the original wall texture, and the wall texture from an earlier addition. The completed patch is wiped back with a plexiglass blade and the excess texture removed from the edges to kill the halo that gives most patch attempts away.
Before
After
A section of ceiling had already fallen and the rest was sagging. A buried wire was found mid-repair and a licensed electrician was brought in. DRR carried that cost with no change order. The right-hand frame is the repair in progress, not the finished ceiling.
The right-hand frame is this repair in progress, not the finished surface.
Before
During
Manufactured homes bond drywall with expanding foam, so the sheetrock can hold tighter than in a site built home and demolition is slow. Popcorn was feathered out with a graduated removal instead of a hard edge so the overspray blends.
Before
After
A legacy property being kept era-specific through a full rehab. Very shallow electrical lines meant a nail plate went in before texture. The right-hand frame shows the patch installed and back-buttered, mid-process.
The right-hand frame is this repair in progress, not the finished surface.
Before
During
A local realtor needed a problem area in a listed home to go away. A failed paper seam turned up during prep and was stripped and rebuilt at the same time. Borate pressure treated backing went in behind the patch for structure.
Before
After
The sequence
Lifted from DRR's own published case studies, including the pro tips they give away at the end of each one.
Plastic sheeting on the floor and ZipWall poles to seal the repair area off from the rest of the house. Canvas drop cloths run the whole path from the front door to the work area. Drywall dust is extremely fine and it goes everywhere it is allowed to.
Find the air conditioning, plumbing and electrical before cutting, not after. Cut without going past the back face of the sheetrock. A saw or even a razor blade used wrong does serious damage to what is behind the wall. Slow and methodical.
Grind the surrounding texture back to the face of the board so the new material lands in the same plane as the old. Wipe the field with a microfiber cloth, then apply a problem surface sealer so fresh mud actually bonds instead of reactivating what is underneath.
Backing installed and fastened at four to six inches. The board should cup upward. Whether it is a plug patch, a blow-out patch or a full sheet depends on what the opening turned out to be once it was opened up.
Large voids get an initial coat of mud so the tape cannot bulge later. Skip this and hairline cracks come through the face of the tape months down the road.
Fiberglass tape set in adhesive, then multiple coats of mud. Tape overlap is kept to a minimum to hold the height profile of the patch down. The transition from new mud to old is worked with a sponge so there is no hard edge.
Around sixty psi with a quarter to three eighths inch nozzle. Test shots against the plastic first so trapped water in the hopper does not land on your ceiling. Then read the splatter field before it is knocked down.
Let the texture set up, then wipe it back with a plexiglass blade. The excess around the edge of the repair gets removed. That last step is time consuming and it is the one that other patch attempts skip, which is exactly why you can see them.
The field library
Knockdown, crow foot, popcorn, hawk and trowel, orange peel. These are DRR's own photographs of real Florida walls and ceilings, not stock swatches.
Knockdown
Medium Knockdown
Messy Knockdown
Crow Foot
Popcorn
Popcorn, Coarse and Round
Hawk and Trowel
Orange Peel, Regular
Orange Peel, Splatter
Orange Peel, TypicalWho turns up
A business owner, father, husband, published author, US Army veteran, college graduate and Bible study teacher. Actively involved in the community through a local church. In DRR's own words: he does not win any beauty contests, but he tells you the truth.
From DRR's own channel: DIY drywall patch tips and the products they actually use.
What Marion County says
Across 151 Google reviews.
93 of them left written feedback.
Where DRR works
Marion, Alachua, Citrus, Lake and Sumter. Type a town or a ZIP and the map will move to it.
If your project lies just outside the boundary, DRR asks that you contact them anyway, because they do occasionally travel outside the service area for the right type of drywall repair project.
Straight answers
Every answer below comes from what DRR publishes about how they work, including the things they say they will not do.
Yes. DRR matches knockdown, crow foot, popcorn, hawk and trowel, orange peel and more. The ten most common Florida textures are documented in DRR's own field library, and the match is read off the existing surface rather than guessed. Texture matching is the single skill that decides whether anyone can find the repair afterward.
The halo is the ring of extra texture left around the edge of a patch when the excess is not wiped back after the texture is knocked down. It is the reason most drywall repairs are visible from across the room. Removing it is the last step of every DRR repair and it is the step other attempts skip.
Yes. Repairing DIY attempts and previous drywall repair attempts is a named service. That usually means stripping the earlier paint, texture, tape and mud back to the board so the new material sits in the same plane as the original surface.
If your home was built before 1981 there is a chance it does, and the texture needs to be tested to be sure. If asbestos is present, a professional abatement company removes it safely and the ceiling is re-textured afterward with modern materials.
If the crack came from poor workmanship at a joint, the repair is normally permanent. If it came from a structural issue with the building, the crack is likely to return unless the structure is addressed. DRR does preliminary inspection at the estimate and refers structural work to trusted companies rather than papering over it.
No, and DRR says so plainly on their own site. The published position is that they will not be the lowest estimate but they guarantee the best quality work. Their words: not cheap, thorough, good.
Marion, Alachua, Citrus, Lake and Sumter counties in North Central Florida, out of Ocala. Named towns include Ocala, Gainesville, Leesburg, Lady Lake, Summerfield and The Villages. If a project sits just outside the boundary it is still worth calling, because DRR does travel for the right project.
Yes. Case Study 03 in Old Town is a manufactured home popcorn ceiling repair. Manufactured homes bond drywall with expanding foam so the framing to sheetrock contact can be near total, which makes demolition slower and more labor intensive than a site built home.
Plastic sheeting on the floor, ZipWall poles to tent the repair area, and canvas drop cloths running the full path from the entrance to the work area. Sanding runs with dust extraction. The site is vacuumed at the end. Their own standard is that you should not know they were there apart from the drywall.
No. DRR states plainly that they do not guarantee or offer color matches. Popcorn texture can be lightened considerably by adding a little water based primer to the texture mix, which helps adhesion and eases the color transition, but the final paint is a separate matter.
Next step
DRR comes out, looks at the actual extent of the damage, and gives you a real number and a real timeline. No hidden fees, which is the single thing their reviewers mention most.
