Short answer
Cracks, raised seams and old stains in painted drywall are prep work, not a wall replacement. A finisher cuts out loose tape, fills the cracks, sands the ridges flat and seals the stains with a stain-blocking primer before any colour goes on. Press every stained and cracked spot first. If the surface stays firm, the whole job is patch, prime and paint. A soft or spongy spot means water got in, and that board comes out.
Tell prep work from real repair in ten minutes
- Light the wall from the side. Hold a work light or a phone torch flat against the surface and look along it. Ridges, nail pops and old sanding marks you cannot see head-on jump out.
- Press every crack and every stain with your thumb. Firm means the board is sound. Soft, spongy or flexing means water or a failed screw line.
- Run your hand over each taped seam. Mark anything you can feel, because paint makes a ridge more obvious, not less.
- Measure the worst ridge. A few inches of raised tape is a patch. A raised line running the length of a wall or ceiling is a skim coat.
- Look at what sits above each stain. Find the bathroom, roof plane or pipe run overhead and ask whether anything ever leaked there.
- Tap the stained area with a knuckle. A dull, dead sound across a wide patch means the board has lost its grip on the framing.
If every spot is firm and the ridges are short, you are looking at patch, sand, prime and paint. If anything is soft, flexing or dull-sounding, or a stain is still growing, find the water and replace that board before you paint.
Repair or replace
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Hairline cracks and nail pops, surface firm | Repair. Fill, sand and spot-prime, then paint the whole wall plane so the patch disappears. |
| Raised tape ridges a few inches long | Repair. A finisher feathers the ridge out wide and sands it flat. |
| Ridges or waves across most of a wall or ceiling | Skim coat the whole plane. Chasing a bad finish in pieces leaves a map of shadows under fresh paint. |
| Old stains, surface firm, no known leak | Repair. Seal each stain with a stain-blocking primer. Latex paint alone lets a stain bleed back through. |
| Stain still growing, damp or brown at the edges | Find the leak and fix it first. Paint over live water fails within months. |
| Surface soft, spongy or flexing when pressed | Replace that section of board. Compound over soft drywall cracks again. |
| Cracks that keep returning along the same seam | Repair with mesh tape and expect it to move. A recurring crack follows a framing joint that shifts with the seasons. |
What it costs
Runhome contractor estimates for repairing cracks and bad patches and repainting a 684 square foot basement room, ceiling and trim ran from $563 to $1,185 as of October 2026, including the trip and assessment.
| Option | Range |
|---|---|
| Drywall repairs plus repaint of a 684 square foot room, ceiling and trim | $563 to $1,185 |
Can I do it myself?
Yes for small holes, nail pops and short cracks, if you can accept a wall that is close rather than perfect. Fill the spot, let it dry, sand it, prime the patch and paint the full wall so the repair does not read as a square. Hire for ceilings, for ridges that run the length of a plane, and for any skim coat, because wide feathering is a skill that takes years and shows from the doorway when it is missing. Hire as well if the house was built before 1978 and you would be sanding old paint, because that dust can carry lead.
What a contractor will ask you
Have these ready and you skip the back-and-forth.
- A wide photo of each wall or ceiling that needs work, shot from a corner so the whole plane is in frame.
- The room size and the ceiling height. A 684 square foot room at 8 feet moves the quote more than the damage does.
- When the room was last painted, as near as you know.
- Whether the surface is paper-faced drywall with taped joints or older textured plaster.
- Whether each stained and cracked spot feels firm or soft when you press it.
- Any leak above the area, past or present, even one that was repaired years ago.
- How long the worst ridge or crack is, and how many spots there are.
- Whether trim, baseboards and doors are in the job or only walls and ceiling.
- Whether you are changing colour or staying close to what is there now.
- Whether the room is furnished, and how a painter gets in from the driveway.
Common questions
- Does drywall have to be repaired before painting?
Yes, for anything you can feel with your hand. Paint sits on top of a ridge or a crack, and light across the wall makes it more obvious, not less. Filler and sanding are what make the paint read as a finish.
- Can I just paint over cracks and old patches?
Only if the crack is hairline and the old patch is already flat. Paint has no strength, so a crack that moves reopens through it within a season. Fill first, then paint.
- Will the painter do the drywall repairs too?
Usually yes, and most repaint quotes include patching and caulk. Say up front that there are cracks and bad patches, because a quote priced as plain repainting will not cover a day of filling and sanding.
- How do I know if a stain means a leak?
Press it, then watch it for a week. A firm stain that has not changed in years is old damage and seals with a stain-blocking primer. A stain that is damp, growing or brown at the edges is live water, and the leak gets fixed before anyone paints.
- Do bumps and ridges in the seams need a full skim coat?
Only when they run across most of a wall or ceiling. A few short ridges get feathered out wide and sanded flat. A plane that is wavy end to end is faster to skim than to chase patch by patch.