Bay-front walls that wick and stain, plaster cottages on the islands, condo ceilings two floors under a leak, rusted corners and the knob hole before the summer tenants arrive. Priced in writing on the call.
BBBAccredited BusinessNewport Beach keeps its walls three ways and Kaminskiy Care and Repair fixes all three: the 1920s and 1930s plaster of the Balboa Island, Lido Isle and Peninsula cottages, the 1950s and 1960s drywall of Newport Heights, Cliff Haven and Dover Shores, and the smooth skim of a Newport Coast or Crystal Cove house. The call is usually one of these: a bay-facing wall on the Peninsula that stays damp and stained from the sill down, an outside corner in Corona del Mar blistering in a rust-colored line, an Eastbluff condo ceiling ringed by a shower two floors up, a cottage wall cracked along its lath, a summer rental with a knob hole and a season of anchor holes. Plaster is repaired in plaster and drywall in drywall, the finish matched, the surface primed. Nothing wet is patched until the source is sealed and the wall is dry. The price is in writing on the call and most patches are finished in one visit. Since 2023 our technicians have completed 125 repair visits on 86 Newport Beach homes.
Eight repairs, one crew, priced in writing before we start.
Water surrounds this city and it gets into the walls from the outside: salt in the air rusts the steel corner bead under the compound until the paint lifts in a stripe, the harbor damp climbs a bay-front wall from the sill of a window, and in a stacked building one shower pan upstairs ruins two ceilings below. The old cottages add a wrinkle, because their walls are plaster on lath and a drywall patch screwed into plaster is the repair that fails. Our technicians carry both trades, dry the wall before they touch it, and match smooth, skip trowel or orange peel on a scrap board before the repair is sprayed.
AFTERBEFORE
Hole & Crack Repair
Water Damage Repair
Ceiling Repair
Texture Matching
Big Patches & Full Sheets
Nail & Anchor Holes
Corner Bead & Cracks
Primed & Ready for PaintCottage, bluff ranch or Coast house, our technicians have repaired that wall before. When you call, say whether the wall is plaster or drywall if you know, and how big the damage is against your hand; the price comes back in writing, and on the islands the technician plans the walk from the truck before the day.
Priced and on the calendar during the first call.
A written quote you approve before anyone drives out.
One crew, truck stocked, warranty in writing.
A one-year workmanship warranty, in writing, on every Newport Beach drywall repair.
A wall that faces the bay or the ocean lives in salt and damp, and two things happen to it. The steel bead that squares its outside corners rusts under the compound and pushes the paint off in a stripe, which is cured with new vinyl or galvanized bead, refinished and textured. And the drywall under a window frame or along the floor line drinks the damp until it goes soft and stains through any paint. That wall is not patched on the first visit: the window, the flashing or the stucco outside is sealed, the wall dries until the meter says so, and only then does the stained board come out and new board go in. Done wet, it is stained again by the next foggy May.
Walk into a 1920s or 1930s cottage on Balboa Island, Lido Isle, the Peninsula or old Corona del Mar and the walls are usually plaster on wood lath: cracks run straight along the lath, a section loses its keys and sounds hollow, a corner crumbles when the door hits it. That is repaired as plaster, with a bonding agent and a setting-type compound worked into the lath and finished to the skim or sand texture around it. The bluff neighborhoods, Newport Heights, Cliff Haven, Dover Shores and Eastbluff, came later with the first drywall and with sprayed ceilings from before 1980, which a licensed lab samples before anyone disturbs them. The first look tells us which house you have.
The Peninsula, Eastbluff, the Newport Coast and the Back Bay stack their condos, and a shower pan or a supply line on the top floor becomes a ring on the ceiling below it, then the one below that. The association and the CC&Rs work out who pays. Our part is the ceiling on your side, repaired once the source upstairs is fixed and your board is dry, with a scope written on its own line. If the ceiling has begun to sag, or the ring has turned dark and furry over an area wider than a dinner plate, a licensed mold remediation company sees it before we do, and we tell you that on the call.
Newport Coast, Crystal Cove, Harbor View Hills and the remodeled homes along the harbor are mostly finished smooth or in a light skip trowel, and the low afternoon sun off the water finds every edge of a careless patch. Our smooth-wall repairs get a feather twice as wide, one coat more than the textured walls, and a check under a raking light before the primer goes on. A tall view room, anything over eight feet, is sized on the call and priced after a look. The result is a wall you cannot find the repair on, which is the whole point.
Pre-war cottages with plaster on lath, post-war houses whose corner bead has rusted and whose bay-facing walls stay damp, remodels finished smooth, and summer rentals that change tenants every few weeks and show it in knob holes and anchor holes. The window or the stucco is sealed before anything else, the wall dries, plaster is repaired in plaster and drywall in drywall, and the finish goes back to match. On the islands the technician plans the walk from the truck.
Ranch houses and two-stories from the 1950s to the 1970s, the city's first drywall: fine orange peel and sand finishes, sprayed ceilings from before 1980 that a licensed lab samples before anyone works on them, nail heads popping down the hallways, roof-flashing stains after a winter storm, and the Eastbluff condos where the water comes from the unit above. Sixty years of other people's patches to match, and corners rebuilt with new bead.
Newer stucco homes and condos on slope lots in the ocean wind, finished smooth or in skip trowel, with view rooms well over eight feet that are priced after a look, diagonal cracks off the window corners on the fill side of the lot, and stacked units with the leak from upstairs. The association's standard is the one the repair meets, and the wall leaves primed for the approved color.
The same technicians cover the rest of the county from the office on Michelson Drive in Irvine; the Orange County drywall repair page has the county-wide picture, the permit rule city by city and the water-damage paperwork in plain words.
Hold your hand over the damage and tell us: smaller than your hand, bigger than your hand, poster-sized, or a whole sheet. We price it on the call, in writing, in under ten minutes.
Water damage is repaired after the source is fixed. If the stain is still wet we tell you who fixes the leak, and we schedule the drywall for when it is dry.
Backing where it needs it, new board cut to fit, every seam taped, three coats of compound sanded smooth, your texture matched, then primer.
Dust contained and the room left clean. Most patches are finished in one visit; a full sheet may need a short second visit for the final coat, scheduled before we leave.
Newport Beach builds to the California Residential Code, which lists painting, papering and similar finish work as needing no permit and asks for no application for ordinary repairs; a plaster or drywall patch, a replaced sheet in an existing wall or a ceiling repair is that. A new opening, a removed wall or any framing change is a permit job, and in a city where most lots sit in the coastal zone a bigger exterior change can be more than that, so we say so before anyone opens a wall. The city publishes no exempt-work handout we could find, so the state rule is the one we quote.
The state insurance guide lists sudden and accidental water damage as typically covered, and water damage from seepage or leaks, wear and tear and neglect as generally not; the damp that has been wicking into a bay-front wall for years reads as the second kind to an adjuster, and a burst supply line as the first. Photograph the stain and the source the day you find it, keep the plumber's or window contractor's invoice, and we write the drywall scope as its own line. The source is sealed, the wall dries and meters dry, then we replace the board; never the other way round.
Two more rules travel with Newport Beach housing. The cottages predate 1978, so their paint may carry lead, and the bluff houses carry sprayed ceilings from before 1980 that may carry asbestos; a licensed lab samples the ceiling before anyone scrapes it, a licensed abatement contractor removes what has to go, and only then do we patch, working lead-safe on the painted surfaces of a pre-1978 home. In the stacked condos the shower upstairs and the ceiling it stained have different owners, and California Civil Code 4775 plus the CC&Rs decide between them who pays; the ceiling on your side is our repair, and its scope is written apart from everything else.
Can't find your answer? Call 714-844-1582 and ask us anything.
Call 714-844-1582The office is ten minutes up Jamboree, so a patch is usually on the calendar within days of the call, with the price already in writing. Most drywall patches are finished in one visit. Plaster, a smooth-wall finish and any wall that has to dry out first are booked as two visits from the start, so nobody is surprised.
Knock on it. Plaster on lath sounds dense and dead and feels cold and hard; drywall sounds hollow between the studs. A house built before about 1950 on the islands or the Peninsula is plaster more often than not. It matters because plaster is rebuilt with a bonding agent and a setting-type compound worked into the lath, and a drywall patch screwed into plaster lets go within a year. We do both, and we say which you have on the first look.
Nine times in ten it is the steel corner bead under the compound rusting in the salt air and pushing the paint off in a stripe. New vinyl or galvanized bead, refinished, textured and primed, ends it. If the blister is wet rather than rusty, the window above is letting the harbor in, and that is sealed before the corner is touched.
The ceiling on your side is ours to fix, once the unit above is repaired and your board is dry. Who pays for it belongs to the CC&Rs and the two policies, with California Civil Code 4775 as the fallback, so write to the association the day the ring appears; the scope we give you is written on its own line so both adjusters can use it.
On the Coast and in the harbor remodels, that is the job. The feather runs twice as wide as on a textured wall, there is one coat more, and the finish is checked under a raking light before any primer, because the four o'clock sun off the water will find anything we miss.
Five things, and you can tell us all of them on the call: how big the damage is against your hand; whether it is dry or damp; whether the wall is drywall or plaster; whether the finish is smooth, skip trowel or orange peel; and whether the ceiling is eight feet or a tall view room. On the islands the walk from the truck is the sixth. With those the price is written down in under ten minutes.
That is a Newport Beach specialty. A room of nail and anchor holes, up to fifteen, is one menu item; the knob hole, the dented corner and the crack above the slider are priced by size on the same call, and most rooms are patched, textured and primed in a single visit between one tenant and the next.
All of Newport Beach, the Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island, Lido Isle, Corona del Mar, West Newport, Newport Heights, Cliff Haven, Eastbluff, Dover Shores, Newport Coast and Crystal Cove, plus Costa Mesa, Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach. Call 714-844-1582 to confirm your address.
Describe the wall or ceiling, or text a photo, and we call back with a written price and a time. Calling is still faster: 714-844-1582.
Priced in writing before we start, matched to the wall, warranted in writing.
We answer in under three rings, 24/7.No price games. You get a clear written quote before any work begins, backed by our workmanship warranty.
