Last week I spent a lot of time with folks looking to fix their water-damaged walls after the recent heavy rains. But what struck me most was how many OTHER places in their walls and ceilings had been damaged earlier that they had never thought to call us about — yellowish stains on ceilings, damaged walls, straight-line ceiling cracks along taped seams of drywall, angled cracks radiating from the top edges of doors.
Some of these houses felt like art galleries designed to commemorate past leaks, house-settling issues, accidents, and mischievous behavior of kids and dogs, lest they be forgotten.
Sure, there are some things that happen to walls and ceilings that might give you pause before doing something about them, like when that fellow painted God and Adam on a ceiling doing a finger bump, or someone else splashed a church wall with 12 men and the Big Guy sitting down for dinner, seated like a wedding party at a reception. But only someone seriously into modern art would not want to do something about the stuff that I see every day on walls and ceilings.
I get it. I understand why people put off fixing those stains and cracks on their walls and ceilings. There’s this all-to-human trait called “denial” where after awhile you avoid looking at these blemishes, unlike visitors who may very well notice them. There’s also this thing called “procrastination,” convincing yourself that, sure, one day you’ll get around to it, after your kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms have all been remodeled, the house is paid for, the kids are educated and married, and your retirement has been fully funded.
Look, your humble correspondent is just a handyman, not a psychologist, but I think I might have a better answer on why you may be letting these ugly imperfections live rent-free in your home, if not in your head. You don’t know who to call to fix these things who wouldn’t charge you way more than you think it’s worth — am I right?
You believe any painter would be disappointed doing this piddly amount of work instead of painting your entire house. And anyway, painters don’t fix walls, and their eyes would glaze over if you shared your concerns about mold and leaks. But you also think handymen and contractors would not be happy with this piddly amount of work, when they would rather spend their time gutting and remodeling your kitchen and bathrooms. So to get even, you’re afraid painters, handymen, and contractors would either ignore your phone calls, charge you too much, or not show-up at all.
Hey, what a coincidence! I guess that just leaves us, Fix St Louis. We PREFER “piddly” jobs like this to the big jobs all other contractors would run over their grandma to get to. And we can do the WHOLE thing — check and fix leaks, handle the mold, replace damaged insulation, replace damaged drywall, match the wall or ceiling texture, and paint the smallest possible area that would hide the fact that the wall or ceiling was ever damaged.
So, why spend your mental energy trying not to see or think about the damage you KNOW is on your walls and ceilings? Best of all, it’s affordable, you don’t need to wait until your last kid is off the dole, or when you put your house on the market and you pay for the repairs for the benefit of the next person. Call us at Fix St Louis, but be prepared to kick yourself, and not a wall, for not doing it sooner!
Dr Steve
Fix St Louis