Drywall repair cost: nail holes, doorknob holes, cracks and water damage

Most Portland-area drywall patch jobs cost $175-$450, about $295 typical. That figure is market data from November 2026 and covers labour only. A wet section cut out and replaced runs $400-$2,000, and ceiling repairs $300-$1,500 . The size of the damage, texture, overhead work, how many trips drying takes, and whether the leak is fixed decide where yours lands.

If you'd rather send a photo than read the whole list, our drywall repair page says what we repair and how booking works. Slava wrote this from 7 years of doing the work with his own hands, and it walks through how a drywall bill gets built, one kind of damage at a time.

How much does drywall repair cost around Portland?

The rows below are local ranges as of November 2026, sorted from the smallest damage to the biggest. Each row is labour only: board, compound, tape, primer and paint are extra, and each one prices a whole job, not a square foot.

"Market data" means a published local price survey. "Portland-area estimate" means the usual hours for that job times the going hourly rate here. Neither one is a quote from us yet .

You'll also see per-square-foot figures online. Those are national numbers and mostly describe big areas, so for a hole or two they say very little. Hanging new drywall in a whole room is installation, and that's priced on its own terms.

How much is it to fix nail holes and nail pops?

Holes from pictures, shelf anchors or an old TV mount are rarely a job by themselves. They sit at the very bottom of the $175-$450 patch range, or they ride along on a visit that's already happening for something bigger .

A nail pop is the round bump where a fastener has pushed out through the paint. Spackle over the head lasts a season at most. The fix that holds is a drywall screw driven next to it, then compound over both and a light sand, which is why a row of pops costs more than people expect for "a few dots".

Framing lumber here takes on damp all winter and dries out over summer. That movement is what pushes old nails out and opens hairline cracks .

How much does a doorknob or fist-sized hole cost to patch?

One doorknob hole, a fist hole, or the gap left after an old light fixture comes out is one patch. On the market data that usually means the middle of the $175-$450 range .

The hole isn't what makes it cost that much. Each coat of compound needs drying time, so a small patch is either two or three short trips or one longer visit using setting-type compound that hardens fast . The drive, the setup and the cleanup are the same for one hole as for four.

That's the useful part: three or four holes fixed in the same visit cost far less per hole than one hole on its own. Save the list until you have a few. And a $5 door stop or wall bumper keeps the doorknob from opening the same spot again next month.

Landlords between tenants often have a whole wall of these at once, which is the cheapest way to buy patching.

Is it cheaper to get several small repairs done in one visit?

Yes. Small drywall is ordinary handyman work, and putting the holes, a dinged outside corner and a paint touch-up on one trip is the cheapest way to pay for it. A short list for one visit, local estimates, labour only:

Bundled, the setup and drive get paid once instead of three times. Drives between places on Portland's west side are short, so travel adds little to the bill either way.

Holes an electrician or plumber leaves behind are usually patched by someone else after they finish, and they price like any other patch. For how time on site turns into a bill and what a minimum visit is, see our page on hourly handyman pricing .

What do drywall cracks cost, and why do some come back?

A thin crack along a seam or running up from the corner of a door frame is ordinary patch work, inside the same $175-$450 range.

A crack that reappears in the same spot after someone filled it is a joint that moves. More compound and fresh paint won't hold it. The repair is cutting out the old tape and re-taping the joint, sometimes after dealing with what's moving it, so the second fix costs more than the first one did .

Some cracks aren't a drywall problem at all. Wide ones, stair-step ones, cracks that keep getting longer, a door that suddenly sticks or a floor that slopes: have the structure looked at before anyone patches over it.

A lot of Cedar Mill and Cedar Hills houses went up between the 1950s and the 1970s and have been settling ever since. Old taped seams opening up there is normal wear, not a warning sign by itself.

How much does water-damaged drywall cost to repair?

Cutting out a wet section and putting in new board runs $400-$2,000 on Portland-area estimates, about $900 typical, labour only .

The order of work drives the price. The leak gets stopped and the cavity dries before new drywall goes in. Close up damp board and you pay for the same repair twice. EPA guidance says materials dried within 24 to 48 hours of a leak usually don't grow mold, which is why speed matters more than looks in the first two days.

Several things sit outside the drywall line and should each be separate on a quote: the plumber or roofer who stops the water, wet insulation, any mold, and paint. Before anything gets cut out, take photos of the damage for your records and any claim .

Under the big firs around Cedar Mill, gutters fill with needles through the rainy season, and a roof or gutter leak often shows up first as a tea-coloured ring overhead. If yours came from above, the roof half of the bill is in our guide to roof leak repair costs.

What does a ceiling repair cost compared with a wall?

Ceiling repairs run $300-$1,500 on Portland-area estimates, typically about $600, labour only. The same size hole costs more overhead: ladders or a plank, drop cloths across the whole room, slower work with everything held overhead, and sanding dust that falls straight down.

At the low end is a crack along a ceiling seam. In the middle is a water stain that needs a stain-blocking primer so it doesn't bleed through new paint. At the top is a sagging piece that gets taken down and replaced .

A stain that keeps growing means the water is still coming. The drywall is the last step, not the first.

Bathroom ceilings in houses shut tight for a rainy winter get condensation stains from a weak bath fan. Paint over them and they come back until the fan moves enough air.

We don't scrape, remove or disturb popcorn or acoustic ceilings; that's on our list of work we don't take .

What do texture matching, skim coating and painting add?

Three add-ons can move the total more than the patch does. Local estimates, labour only, per job:

A patch can be perfectly flat and still stand out if the wall around it has orange peel or knockdown and the patch doesn't. On a bigger patch, matching that texture is its own line.

When a wall has a dozen patches, torn paper from old wallpaper or strips left by adhesive hooks, skimming the whole wall can cost less than fixing each spot and looks better afterwards .

A finished patch is ready for primer and paint, not painted. Ask whether paint is in the price, and get the answer written. Touch-ups on a wall painted years ago often show, so sometimes the fair quote covers the entire wall; our interior painting page covers that work .

Does the age of the house change the drywall bill?

It can, and the cut-offs are 1978 and 2004.

Oregon's lead renovation rules apply to homes built before 1978. Work that disturbs under 6 sq ft of paint in a room counts as a minor repair. Taking out sections of wall or ceiling, or sanding painted surfaces as prep, is covered work. So a small patch and a big cut-out in a 1970s house can be different jobs, and the big one may need a firm certified to do lead-safe renovation, with containment and cleanup as extra lines. Our lead paint rules guide explains the details .

For asbestos, Oregon DEQ wants a survey done by an accredited asbestos inspector before anyone renovates a home built before 2004 (the cutoff is January 1), and repairing walls and ceilings counts as renovation. Owner-occupants doing their own work are exempt. The survey is a cost on top of the repair.

Plenty of houses in Cedar Mill, Cedar Hills and the older half of Beaverton predate 1978. Houses in Bethany, mostly from the 1990s and 2000s, usually clear 1978, but many still fall before 2004. You'll find the build year on your closing documents or the county assessor's listing.

Should you patch drywall yourself, and what belongs on a quote?

Doing it yourself makes sense for nail holes and a single small hole on a flat, untextured wall in a house built after 1978. A tub of spackle, a putty knife and some patience cover it. Hire it out for ceilings, textured walls, water damage, outside corners and anything that has to disappear under paint .

When you compare quotes, check that each one says:

• which holes or areas are included;
• whether texture gets matched;
• if primer and paint are included;
• how many visits it takes;
• who stops the leak first, if there was one;
• cleanup and debris;
• what happens if wet framing or mold is found once the board is open: a set allowance, or a stop and a phone call.

In Oregon, any home construction agreement above $2,000 must be put in writing, and a water-damage job with a ceiling and paint can cross that line. Like-for-like repairs and paint need no building permit; cutting away a wall or moving one does. These rules are statewide, so they apply the same way in Beaverton, Bethany and the Portland-side neighbourhoods in our area.