Drywall Contractor in Austin, TX

Austin: old houses and a lot of renovation

Austin is a city of renovations. Neighborhoods such as Hyde Park, which dates to 1891, Travis Heights, Bouldin Creek and Tarrytown are full of bungalows and cottages built long before modern drywall, and owners there tend to renovate rather than rebuild. Newer areas like Mueller, which was redeveloped on the site of the former Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, sit beside them with a very different housing stock.

That mix changes the work. Houses built before the 1950s often have plaster over wood lath, and mixing new drywall into those walls takes care so the old and new surfaces read as one. Layouts are small, rooms are often added onto, and framing is rarely square. A remodel in an older Austin house is as much a matter of working with what is there as of installing anything new.

Our base in Kyle is about twenty miles south on I-35, so we focus on projects where the scope makes the trip worthwhile: whole-room remodels, kitchens, finishing work on additions and flooring across several rooms.

What is specific to working in Austin

• Plaster and lath.Homes built before the 1950s commonly have plaster over wood lath. Repairs and additions have to be tied into those walls carefully to avoid visible seams.
• Pier-and-beam and slab homes.Older Austin neighborhoods have both. Pier-and-beam floors flex and need different flooring prep than a slab.
• City of Austin permits.Structural, electrical and plumbing work in Austin generally requires permits through the city development services process, which can add time to a schedule.
• Historic and neighborhood rules.Some older districts have design guidelines that affect exterior changes. Interior drywall and finishing work is generally less affected.
• Distance from Kyle.We are about twenty miles south, so Austin work is best grouped into larger projects or scheduled together with nearby jobs.