drywallwalls
The walls in my garage look terrible, they are ripped at the bottom all around the entire garage. I have no idea what caused this. What's the best way to fix something like this? I've also got foam insulation oozing out all over the place beneath the tears.
I would clean out the area around the holes to give myself room to work without being showered with cellulose. Open the holes a little: make them square, and big enough to be able to get your hands through. Next, get myself a roll of R-13 fiberglass batting (currently less than $10 at Lowe's or HD), and cut patches to fill the void in the cellulose insulation: you'd probably need two or three layers, depending on what size your ceiling joists are. Stuff them through the holes and spread them out. Finally, use a couple of 1x2's to cross each of the holes, and patch them as described in this answer to this question.
I've used a shop-vac for cleaning up blown cellulose, but for disposal, not for later re-installation. It seems to me that it has a very different texture before and after: clumpy and with some structure, versus powdery, no texture.
The reason why this is happening is the structural members are expanding and contracting with the temperature/humidity changes.
There is no good solution to fix the issues, but you can cover it up.
The quick and dirty solution would be to put up quarter round over the seams, and attach it to the studs only- That is not to the ceiling. This would allow for the expansion/contraction to remain covered.
Other options would be to install Cove moulding.
or Crown Moulding
Note that the Crown shown here is clip on, and the clip attaches to the wall only. Again, this allows for expansion.
These can all be DIY projects if you're comfortable with finicky work. It's a bit tricky to get the corner mitres looking nice and tight, and you'll need a compound mitre saw.
Best Answer
Steven and I were typing at the same time, I've explained and elaborated a bit more FWIW. Neither of us really needs the points :)
It appears the wallboard was cut a bit too long during installation and it was forced into place, causing some pieces to spall off. In removing the spalled pieces, the paper was further torn. Ideally, you want a small gap here so any water on the concrete does not wick up into the wallboard. As long as this area does not get wet, it's nothing to worry about.
It's difficult to completely remove polyurethane foam from concrete. Scrape off as much as you can, then hit it with a wire brush mounted on a drill or angle grinder. You can level off the spalled areas with joint compound, then paint for a clean neat appearance.
Other than being unsightly, it's not really hurting anything. Remediation would be pretty low on my to do list.