Drywall

When people say they don't like drywall, they usually mean they don't like the problems that come from a bad finishing job -- bubbles, cracks and obvious seam lines.Drywall finishing requires a bit of a "touch." Too light a hand with the joint compound will leave the tape too thinly covered; too heavy a hand will mean hours and hours of sanding. Anyone with a little manual dexterity can learn to do it well; it just takes practice. The inside of a closet is a good place to start.Here are the tools you need.

Harry Reese Gamber, a high school dropout who became a successful businessman specializing in drywall and painting, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The Owings Mills resident, who had lived in Catonsville for many years, was 85. The son of an auto mechanic and a homemaker, Harry Reese Gamber was born in a home in Westminster that is now Maggie's Restaurant. His great-grandfather, William Snyder Gamber, who was a Civil War veteran, served as postmaster from 1881 to 1903 of the Carroll County village that was named for him. In 1930, Mr. Gamber, who was known as Reese, was struck by an automobile that left him with serious nerve damage and a permanently injured right arm. Numerous hospitalizations left him behind in school, and when he was 13, he dropped out. Unable to enlist for the service because of his arm, Mr. Gamber worked for the Red Cross during World War II. From 1945 to 1948, he worked a variety of construction jobs, including driving a cement mixer for the Harry T. Campbell Co., and later rose to become a foreman.

Vernon Vincent Campbell Jr., a drywall technician for Summit Interior Construction in Frederick, died of renal failure Tuesday at North Arundel Hospital. The Glen Burnie resident was 49. He was born in Baltimore, and raised in Glen Burnie, where he graduated from high school in 1971. He was a carpenter for several local firms and later loaded packages onto planes for FedEx Corp. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Then he became a drywall technician and worked for Hyland Contracting and then Summit Interior Construction.

Thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall should be completely gutted, according to new guidelines released Friday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The guidelines say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall need to be removed. About 3,000 homeowners have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall. The agency continues to investigate possible health effects, but preliminary studies have found a possible link between throat, nose and lung irritation and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, commonly found in new houses.

When you spend a couple of weeks hanging and finishing dozens and dozens of sheets of drywall by yourself, you begin to recognize it for what it is: an art form. Tedious, but an art form. At least that's Randy's conclusion.It seems simple: nail a few big rectangles to a lot of big sticks. But the truth is, there are a lot of ways to do it wrong. If it's installed wrong, the finishing will be wrong. And if the finishing is wrong, the wall or ceiling will never look right.Drywall, which is also called wallboard or known by the brand name Sheetrock, comes in two sizes: 4 feet by 8 feet or 4 feet by 12 feet.

If you've ever watched a pro finish drywall, you probably thought to yourself, "I can do that." And probably the first time you tried it -- and the tape didn't stick, and the joint compound had lumps and the ridges wouldn't ever go away -- you thought, "I can't do that."Actually, you probably can do it. Once you know what pitfalls to avoid and have gotten in a little practice, you should be able to finish a lot of drywall with only a little sanding.Sanding is the key. It's labor-intensive, time-consuming, messy and bor-rrring.

Harry Reese Gamber, a high school dropout who became a successful businessman specializing in drywall and painting, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The Owings Mills resident, who had lived in Catonsville for many years, was 85. The son of an auto mechanic and a homemaker, Harry Reese Gamber was born in a home in Westminster that is now Maggie's Restaurant. His great-grandfather, William Snyder Gamber, who was a Civil War veteran, served as postmaster from 1881 to 1903 of the Carroll County village that was named for him. In 1930, Mr. Gamber, who was known as Reese, was struck by an automobile that left him with serious nerve damage and a permanently injured right arm. Numerous hospitalizations left him behind in school, and when he was 13, he dropped out. Unable to enlist for the service because of his arm, Mr. Gamber worked for the Red Cross during World War II. From 1945 to 1948, he worked a variety of construction jobs, including driving a cement mixer for the Harry T. Campbell Co., and later rose to become a foreman.

A New York state man who is alleged to have threatened to "whack" two Baltimore County builders and their families after a dispute over money has been arrested and was awaiting extradition to Maryland yesterday, the FBI said.The FBI charged Gene Rose, 31, of Saugerties, N.Y., on Thursday with threatening the builders and demanding $25,000 in exchange for not hurting their families.Rose was arrested in Woodstock, N.Y., after being stopped by police for traffic warrants.He worked for Brian Neal Horton, 31, a Tennessee drywall subcontractor arrested last month on suspicion of making the threatening calls, according to an FBI affidavit.

POLICE LOG Kings Contrivance: 10400 block of Shaker Drive: A window that had been broken earlier was entered again between Saturday and 7 a.m. Monday. Once inside, intruders knocked holes in the drywall and vandalized the place.

You say you've stopped napping on the sofa because of that ominous-looking crack in the ceiling? You can't take down that 20-year-old paint-by-number sunset in the dining room because of the gaping hole behind it? You've learned to close doors quietly while listening for the sound of parting plaster?Relax, you can fix it. The truth is, plaster repair is fairly simple, especially if you have some experience in finishing drywall, as most rehabbers do.Recently Randy has been rehabbing an older house not too far from where the Orioles used to play baseball.

Bad enough that Philly has been trying to claim Edgar Allan Poe. Now The City of Brotherly Love seems to be making a play for The Wire. David Simon, producer of the celebrated HBO series, appears at Princeton University Thursday to discuss "Policy and Politics in America's Urban Crisis." At his side will be Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia. Hmmph! Why not Sheila Dixon? She knows policy, politics, urban crises. And she happens to be mayor of the city where the series was actually set. How come Dixon won't be there?

I need to learn how to drywall in a hurry. A good friend needs me to show her how to hang and finish drywall. The trouble is, I have just seen it done on some home-improvement TV shows. Is it really that hard to install drywall? What are some of the secret tips you can share so that I will look like a pro? I sure hope you did not tell this woman that you know how to drywall like a pro. It takes years of practice to finish drywall like a pro, and months of practice to learn how to hang drywall.

My son was practicing some self-defense punches, and now I am left with a pesky drywall repair. Should I go look at drywall repair kits, or is there a better way? I can't afford to hire any of the drywall repair services. Can you teach me how to repair drywall? Drywall patching and repair is not a difficult job. The steps required to repair drywall are few and not too challenging. If I had a dollar for every drywall repair kit I have seen at the various conventions I attend, I would be a very rich man. Many of these drywall repair kits are wonderful, and a few border on genius.

At the end of Sunset Lane, a large spray-painted sign points the way to "Johnny's House." More than two dozen vans, pickup trucks and cars turned down that northern Baltimore County lane yesterday, heading to a slate-blue house tucked among the trees. There, about 50 men in work boots measured, sawed and hammered, moving through clouds of dust. Women directed the action from an office, handling a seemingly endless stream of calls. Miles away, in a hospital bed, a little boy lay dying.

You've watched dozens of remodeling shows on television and clipped photographs from countless magazines. You've set aside spare cash for months so you'd have a decent project budget. You've scoured the aisles at home centers and decorating outlets, and now you're ready. It's time for new floor coverings for your home, so you head out the door and return an hour later - with a 5-gallon bucket of white paint. Say what? How about the distressed reclaimed wood-plank flooring for the family room?

Buford Spicer, a retired Hampden carpenter, died of cancer April 7 at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 78. Born and raised in Quicksand, Ky., Mr. Spicer enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school and served as a shipboard cook during World War II. Mr. Spicer moved to Baltimore in 1946, and worked for many years as a carpenter and drywall installer. He also was a drywall installer in Richmond, Va., and Florida before returning to his Beech Avenue home in the 1970s. He retired in 1993.

Like many working parents, when I get an unexpected phone call from home I grit my teeth. I have learned to dread the telephone calls that begin, "Dad, how has your day been, so far?" This greeting usually is followed by a report of crisis on the home front.Not long ago, for instance, that question was followed by a report that one of the kids had, well, accidentally knocked a hole in the kitchen wall.How big a hole? I asked. About as big as your 10-year-old son, came the reply.It seems as though the kid was either leaning on the kitchen wall or wrestling near the wall when his body "accidentally" landed on it. The kid was not hurt.

Probably by now you know the worst . . . all the places where the gutter gave up, the flashing froze and cracked, the ice backed up under the shingles, the water got inside and ran down the walls or made a blotch on the ceiling.This terrible winter certainly took a toll on our houses. We got a letter from some folks who had water dripping out of a doorknob, and Randy's seen a house where water blew through the center of a second-floor double French-style door, staining the carpet there, and then ran down the inside surface, damaging drywall around a door on the floor below.

Vernon Vincent Campbell Jr., a drywall technician for Summit Interior Construction in Frederick, died of renal failure Tuesday at North Arundel Hospital. The Glen Burnie resident was 49. He was born in Baltimore, and raised in Glen Burnie, where he graduated from high school in 1971. He was a carpenter for several local firms and later loaded packages onto planes for FedEx Corp. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Then he became a drywall technician and worked for Hyland Contracting and then Summit Interior Construction.

Murry `Joe' Plant, 74, owned drywall company Murry "Joe" Plant, a former railroad worker who owned a painting and drywall installation company, died of heart failure yesterday at Chapel Hill Nursing Center in Randallstown. He was 74. A former longtime resident of Milford Mill, he had lived in Rockdale since the late 1990s. Mr. Plant was born and reared in El Campo, Texas, and after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1948. He served as an instructor with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C. After being discharged as a sergeant in 1952, he moved to Baltimore and went to work as a brakeman for the Western Maryland Railway.