New Haven Drywall: Drywall Contractor in New Haven, CT
New Haven Drywall delivers drywall installation, drywall repair, plaster repair, water-damage restoration, popcorn ceiling removal, skim coating, basement finishing, and commercial drywall services for residential and commercial properties across Greater New Haven. Our licensed crews handle standard sheetrock, moisture-resistant board, fire-rated Type X panels, and original plaster over wood lath, using the right board type and finish level for every application, from single-room repairs to full commercial build-outs.
With 15+ years of drywall and plaster experience serving New Haven and the surrounding shoreline, we have finished walls and ceilings across residential, rental, remodel, and commercial job sites. New Haven's coastal humidity and its many pre-1940 plaster-over-lath homes both put real stress on walls and ceilings. We apply Level 4 and Level 5 finishing standards, match existing knockdown and skim-coat textures, stabilize or convert failing plaster, and use moisture-resistant board wherever humidity or water exposure is a factor.
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Our Services
Residential and commercial drywall services across New Haven and the surrounding area.
Drywall Repair & Patching
Holes, nail pops, dinged corners, anchor damage from a removed TV: the small stuff that makes a wall look tired. We match the patch method to the damage, feather the seams, match the surrounding texture, and prime it paint-ready so the repair disappears. The lumpy spot that shows through every repaint is exactly what you are hiring a pro to avoid.
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Water Damage Drywall Repair
A ceiling stain after a storm, a soft wall after a pipe burst, a bubbling patch you just found: water damage is not a paint problem. We remove the board that absorbed moisture, check the framing and cavity for mold, and reinstall new, moisture-resistant board finished to match. Painting over a stain masks the failure; six months later it is back, on the wall or on an inspector's report.
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Drywall Crack Repair
The crack radiating from a doorway, or the one that keeps returning after every repaint, is telling you something. We fix the cause, not just the gap: cutting out and re-taping failed joints, re-securing corner bead, and using flexible or setting-type materials at movement-prone seams, then matching texture and priming. Fill it without treating why it cracked and you will be repainting the same line next year.
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Ceiling Repair
A stained, cracked, or sagging ceiling is the repair everyone notices, because ceilings catch the light that reveals every flaw. We diagnose what is actually going on, cosmetic, water, or a sag that is a safety issue, then seal, patch, or replace and texture-match so it reads as one uniform surface. Painting over a water stain just buys you the same brown ring back in a week.
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Mold-Related Drywall Removal & Replacement
Mold behind drywall is a moisture problem you have to fix at the source, not paint over. We remove the affected board, coordinate licensed remediation and clearance where the contamination warrants it, and rebuild with mold-resistant board finished to match, with documentation for your file. In Connecticut mold is a disclosure issue, so a properly executed, documented repair is what actually satisfies a buyer or inspector.
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Drywall Installation & Hanging
A new room, an addition, a gutted space, or a garage conversion framed and waiting on walls: this is the hang-and-finish stage. We select the right board for each spot, standard, moisture-resistant, fire-rated, or mold-resistant, hang it with proper seam layout and backing, and finish it paint-ready. Good hanging is half of a good finish, so the walls you end up with are only as clean as the board that went up.
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Drywall Taping & Finishing
Hung, raw drywall is only half done: the seams, screws, and corners still have to disappear. We embed tape, cover fasteners and corners, build up joint compound in thin coats, and sand to the finish level the project needs, commonly Level 4, or Level 5 for demanding light and paint. It is the step that decides whether painted walls read flat and seamless or show every joint underneath.
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Drywall Removal & Demolition
Before a renovation or a rebuild, the old drywall has to come out cleanly, not create a bigger mess. We contain the area, protect floors and what stays, remove the board and fasteners, and haul the debris away. The part that matters most is what we do not tear into blind: old joint compound and pre-1978 paint can hide asbestos and lead, so we test and route rather than rip.
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Skim Coat & Level 5 Finish
Old texture, patch marks, wallpaper scars, or walls that flash under your new lighting: paint alone will not hide them. We skim the whole surface to a smooth, uniform finish, and for the most demanding lighting and high-sheen paint we take it to a full Level 5, the highest finish level there is. It is the difference between a wall that looks painted and one that looks finished.
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Plaster Repair & Plaster-to-Drywall Conversion
Plaster over wood lath cracks, bulges, and lets go of the lath as it ages, and it does not respond to a drywall patch. We stabilize sound plaster with washers and skim it back to a flat finish, or convert what has genuinely failed to drywall and match it to the original. The real value is an honest read on which your walls actually need.
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Popcorn Ceiling Removal
Popcorn ceilings date a room faster than almost anything, and a smooth ceiling instantly modernizes and brightens it. We take the texture off and refinish flat, but the part that matters is what you cannot see in the after photo: on pre-1979 homes we test for asbestos first, contain the mess, and fix whatever the texture was hiding before the finish goes on.
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Drywall Texture Matching
A sound repair with the wrong texture still stands out like a flag. We read exactly what your existing texture is, orange peel, knockdown, splatter, or a hand-troweled finish, test the match on a sample, then blend the repair so it disappears. It is the quiet last step that turns a good patch into an invisible one, and it is also a standalone fix for a previous patch that never matched.
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Basement Drywall Finishing
An unfinished basement is wasted square footage sitting under your house. We take a framed, insulated lower level to finished living space: moisture-resistant board where it belongs, ductwork and beams boxed into clean soffits, and a flat, paint-ready finish. We talk through the ceiling honestly, a seamless drywall ceiling versus an accessible suspended grid, because below grade that one choice has consequences most crews skip.
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Soundproof Drywall
Noise through a wall is an assembly problem, not a thick-board problem. We combine sound-damping board, decoupling clips or channel, added mass, cavity insulation, and acoustic sealing into a system tuned to a real STC target, for a work-from-home office, a media room, or a landlord's worst party wall. Anyone promising total silence from one product is overselling; we tell you what it will actually do.
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Garage Drywall & Fire Separation
The wall and ceiling between an attached garage and your house are a code fire barrier, and an inspector will flag them if they are missing or wrong. We install the correct 5/8" Type X board, cover the required surfaces continuously, and fire-tape the seams so the separation actually does its job. We can stop at code-compliant, finish it paint-ready, or take it through a full garage conversion.
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Fire-Rated Drywall Assemblies
A fire rating is a tested assembly, not a product, and it only passes if it is built to its listing. We construct rated demising walls, corridors, shafts, and occupancy separations to the UL detail, Type X or Type C board, the specified layers and fastening, then firestop every penetration so the rating stays continuous. The firestopping is the step that most often fails inspection, because it is invisible once the wall is closed.
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Metal Stud Framing & Commercial Drywall
Metal stud framing and commercial drywall is the base scope of any office, retail, or mixed-use fit-out, and most of the linear footage in it. We self-perform cold-formed steel partitions, demising walls, soffits, bulkheads, and drywall ceilings from the drawings, set backing for casework and equipment, and finish to the specified level. Rated, abuse-resistant, and clinical assemblies build on this same framing run.
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Lead-Lined Drywall (Radiation Shielding)
An imaging or dental room needs continuous radiation shielding, and a survey will find any gap. We install lead-lined gypsum to the physicist's report: continuous across seams, fastener heads, outlet boxes, and door frames, with no shielding break anywhere. Finished, it looks like any other room; the shielding lives inside the wall. What the practice buys is a room that passes its survey the first time.
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Suspended / Drop Ceiling Installation
A sagging, stained, or dated drop ceiling makes a commercial space look neglected. We install and replace suspended ceilings: grid hung level and square, light fixtures, diffusers, and sprinkler heads integrated, tile set clean, and the plenum above left accessible for service. It bundles with the rest of a fit-out, framing, partitions, and drywall, so the whole interior comes from one crew on one schedule.
Learn moreWhy New Haven homeowners and GCs choose us
We diagnose the cause, not just the symptom
A ceiling stain, a crack that keeps coming back, a soft wall: the fix depends on why it happened. We check whether it is water, mold, movement, or old plaster letting go of the lath before we close anything up, so you are not paying for the same repair twice.
We actually know old plaster
New Haven is full of pre-1940 homes with plaster over wood lath. We know when to stabilize it with plaster washers and skim it versus when a plaster-to-drywall conversion makes more sense, and we keep the dust controlled in an occupied house. A crew that only hangs new board treats every old wall the same way, and it shows.
One crew from patch to full commercial fit-out
The same outfit handles a single water-stained ceiling and a fire-rated, inspected commercial buildout. Residential repairs, whole-home finishing, and commercial metal-stud and rated assemblies come from one crew, so a landlord or a facility does not have to re-explain the job to a new sub each time.
Commercial Drywall Contractor in New Haven, CT
We work across Greater New Haven's commercial building stock: the medical district and outpatient suites, the College Street and Science Park life-science corridor, and the multi-family stock that turns over on the city's lease calendar. The settings below cover what we are built to prove out, from clinical containment to repeatable apartment turnovers.
How it works
- 1
Call and describe it
You call or text a few photos and tell us what you are seeing: the stain, the crack, the soft spot, or the room you need finished. We tell you honestly whether it is a quick patch, a larger repair, or a problem with a cause that has to be handled first, and whether it is a same-week priority.
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On-site look and cause diagnosis
We assess the real scope in person and confirm why it happened before we quote. For a water-stained ceiling we trace the source and check the gypsum's paper face; on a pre-1940 home we check whether the plaster has lost its keys to the wood lath; in an occupied clinical space we plan the containment. Diagnosing the cause is what keeps a small job from becoming a repeat visit.
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Written quote, no mystery pricing
You get the scope in writing: the repair or install, the finish level the room's light actually calls for, the timeline, and any coordination with an insurance adjuster or a remediation contractor. The number you approve is the number you pay, barring a change you sign off on.
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Scheduling and site protection
We schedule around you, then protect floors and furniture and set up dust containment before the first cut. Dust control matters in an occupied old home, and sealed containment with taped-off HVAC returns is required in occupied clinical spaces.
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Removal and substrate check
For repairs we cut back to sound material and inspect the framing, insulation, and lath behind the surface. If we find wet framing or mold we stop and document it rather than closing it up, because a wall sealed over a live problem stains or fails again.
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Repair or install to the right method
We match the method to the wall. Sound old plaster gets stabilized with plaster washers and skim-coated; failing plaster gets a plaster-to-drywall conversion built flush. New board goes up with the correct product for the conditions, including moisture-resistant board in baths and coastal exposures and Type X on rated commercial assemblies.
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Tape, mud, and multiple coats
We tape the seams and build them up over multiple compound coats to ASTM C840 and GA-216, with full dry time between coats. Rushing the dry time is what telegraphs a seam months later, so we do not.
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Sand and finish to a named level
We sand to the finish level the room needs: Level 4 for standard painted rooms, a full Level 5 skim coat where raking light or high-sheen paint shows every flaw. We match the surrounding texture and, on old plaster, hold the flat, hard plaster look rather than leaving a soft drywall patch.
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Prime, clean up, and walk it
We seal any water stains with stain-blocking primer so they do not ghost back, prime the repair paint-ready, and clean the space. Then we walk the job with you under raking light so the finished wall reads as one uniform surface, not a map of everything that happened to it.
Who we help with drywall and plaster in Greater New Haven
Old homes & plaster
Many New Haven homes were built before 1940, and their walls are plaster over wood lath. Over time that plaster loses its grip on the lath, so it cracks, bulges, and sags. We see it in the Victorians and Colonial Revivals of East Rock (06511), in brownstones near Wooster Square, and in homes on Prospect Hill and in Westville (06515). When the plaster is still sound, we stabilize it with plaster washers and skim-coat it; when it is too far gone, we convert it to drywall. Either way we match the flat, hard plaster look, so the repair does not stand out under raking light. And we keep the dust contained, which matters in a home you are still living in.
Water damage & leaks
Water damage shows up fast: a brown ring on the ceiling, a bubbling ceiling after a storm, or a soft wall after a pipe bursts. The calls come from all over, from shoreline homes in Branford and Guilford to triple-deckers in New Haven. Usually the leak is already fixed and you just need the ceiling back. Before we do that, we check whether the drywall's paper face is still sound or needs replacing, and whether there is mold behind the board. We seal the stains with stain-blocking primer so they do not bleed back through the paint, and when there is an insurance claim, we document the damage for the adjuster.
Renovations & resale
Sellers and renovators want their walls and ceilings right before the photos or the inspection. Most of this work lands on a spring or fall listing timeline, in New Haven, Hamden, Branford, Guilford, and Woodbridge. We repair cracked plaster, take down popcorn ceilings, and skim-coat walls to a smooth Level 5 finish that photographs clean. We also handle the wall side of a renovation: hanging and taping new board, finishing a basement, and matching texture so an addition blends into the original house. Cracked plaster and stained ceilings make buyers and inspectors nervous, and clean walls help you avoid a lower offer.
Landlords & rentals
Landlords call us for turnovers. When a multi-family or triple-decker in East Rock, Fair Haven, the Hill, or Newhallville has to be patched and repainted between a June 1 or September 1 lease, they want a sub who can do it cleanly and fast, over and over. We handle the everyday damage without drama: holes, water stains, corner dings, and ceiling cracks. We also work around your lease calendar. There is a safety side too. Multi-unit buildings have fire-rated walls, including the garage-to-dwelling separation, and a quick patch can quietly break that rating. We keep those rated assemblies intact.
Commercial & healthcare
Our commercial work comes through GCs, facilities coordinators, and practice managers. It ranges from exam-room and imaging renovations in the Yale New Haven Health, Temple Medical, and 300 George Street medical district to tenant fit-outs downtown, along College Street, and in the Science Park life-science corridor, plus office and retail buildouts in Hamden and North Haven. We self-perform metal-stud framing with ClarkDietrich and MarinoWARE, and we build UL-listed fire-rated assemblies with Type X board to IBC 707, 708, 709, and 713, firestopped to the listing. For occupied healthcare we set up ICRA containment, and we install abuse-resistant and lead-lined board per the wall-type schedule. Inspections are sequenced with the New Haven Building Department. For the full picture, see our commercial page.
Areas we serve
We cover New Haven and the surrounding towns, from the old-plaster neighborhoods of East Rock and Westville out to the shoreline in Branford and Guilford and the inner-ring suburbs of Hamden, North Haven, Woodbridge, Orange, East Haven, and West Haven. Residential and commercial both.
Frequently asked questions
Do you do both small repairs and big jobs, or only one? +
Both. The same crew handles a single water-stained ceiling, a whole-home renovation, and a fire-rated commercial buildout. There is no job too small to call about and no job too big to be the right fit.
Are you licensed and insured in Connecticut? +
Yes. We carry Connecticut Home Improvement Contractor registration through the Department of Consumer Protection and general liability insurance, and we provide a certificate of insurance on request. For commercial work we bond where the project requires it and satisfy GC roster and facility credentialing.
Do you work on older homes with plaster, not just drywall? +
Yes, and it is a lot of what we do here. New Haven's older neighborhoods are full of plaster over wood lath. We know when to stabilize and skim existing plaster and when a plaster-to-drywall conversion is the better call, and we match the finish so a repair does not stand out.
How fast can you come out? +
For urgent problems like a sagging or water-damaged ceiling we prioritize the visit, since overhead failure is a safety issue. For planned work we schedule around your timeline, including pre-listing and lease-turnover deadlines. Tell us the deadline when you call.
Will my repair be noticeable when you're done? +
That is the whole job. We texture-match, feather the finish, and prime paint-ready so the repair reads as one uniform surface. Ceilings especially get raking light that reveals a bad patch, so we finish them to disappear, not just to fill.
Do you clean up, or do I have to move everything out? +
We protect floors and furniture, contain the dust (this matters in an occupied home and is required in occupied clinical spaces), and clean up after. For typical repairs you can stay in the home.
Do you handle the drywall part of an insurance claim? +
Yes. When a water-damage repair is tied to an insurance claim we document the damage and scope for the adjuster and coordinate the drywall portion so it lines up with the rest of the restoration.
Which towns do you serve? +
New Haven and the surrounding towns: Hamden, Branford, Guilford, Woodbridge, Orange, North Haven, East Haven, and West Haven. If you are just outside that ring, call and ask.
Get a fast, no-pressure quote
Call or send a few details — we serve New Haven and the surrounding area.
Call (203) 987-4891