Residential Drywall Installation in Casselton, ND | Built Right
Casselton, the hometown of five North Dakota governors, has been building homes since the Northern Pacific set up a station here in 1876, and its houses show every chapter since. Some date to the town's early boom years, many have been added onto over the decades, and a newer wave has gone up since 2000. Fargo Elite Drywall installs and finishes drywall throughout town and on the farms and acreages around it, from a single remodeled room to a whole house taken down to the studs.
Building it right means paying attention to the parts nobody sees once the walls are closed. In an older house, that can mean fire blocking in open stud cavities, framing that has to be trued before board goes on, and joints planned where an addition meets the original structure. In a newer one, it means fastening and finishing that hold up through decades of hard winters and hot summers. We handle both with the same patience, and we plan every job so the work is done once and done properly.
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One Plan, One Crew, No Shortcuts
Fargo Elite Drywall is based in Fargo, a straight run west on I-94 to Casselton. The job site is farther from our shop than most metro towns, so we plan more carefully up front: a full material list, every shim and fire block accounted for, and a schedule that doesn't depend on mid-job supply runs. The same crew lead stays with your project from the first measurement to the final walkthrough, so you're never explaining the house to someone new. If we find something behind your walls that changes the plan, you'll hear about it before we go any further.
A Town That Started as a Tree Nursery
Casselton began in 1873, when the Northern Pacific Railway sent Mike Smith to plant cottonwood and willow trees as windbreaks along its right-of-way. The plan was to harvest them for railroad ties, but the experiment failed, and the little settlement went by names like the Nursery, Goose Creek, and Swan Creek. In 1876 the railroad opened a station, and when the post office opened that August, the town was named Casselton after railroad president George Washington Cass. Cass and Peter Cheney soon turned 10,000 nearby acres into a single large bonanza farm, run by Oliver Dalrymple.
The town grew fast at first, from 360 residents in 1880 to 1,553 by 1910. Great Northern Railway branches helped, along with a roundhouse that operated from 1906 to 1920. When railroad jobs moved elsewhere in the 1920s, the population dropped and then held fairly steady for half a century. Growth returned after 2000, rising from 1,855 to 2,479 residents by 2020, while housing units climbed from 738 to 1,011. That pattern leaves a mix of early homes, decades of additions and remodels, and a newer layer of construction, each with its own drywall needs.
Old Framing Under New Walls
Houses built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were often balloon framed, with wall studs running in one piece from the foundation to the roof. That leaves open channels inside the walls that can carry fire quickly from the basement to the attic. The town more than quadrupled in size between 1880 and 1910, so some of its oldest homes may be built this way. When those walls are opened for new drywall, it's the right moment to add fire blocking at each floor line. That step is easy now and nearly impossible once the walls are finished.
Older framing brings other quirks. Lumber from that era is often a true two by four inches and rough-sawn, so it's thicker and less uniform than modern studs. Spacing can wander from the 16-inch standard, which means drywall edges won't always land on a stud without planning. We map the framing before ordering and add nailers where sheet edges need support. Where old and new studs meet, we shim or plane so the finished wall reads as one flat surface.
Where Additions Meet the Original House
Many houses in a town this old have grown in stages: a kitchen bump-out, a second-story addition, a porch enclosed and turned into a living room. Old and new framing move differently as the seasons change, and the swings here are wide. The Casselton Agronomy Farm weather station has recorded lows of minus 39 degrees and highs of 107. Where an addition meets the original house, a rigid taped joint is likely to crack within a few years. A control joint, a flexible strip set into the drywall, lets the two structures move independently while still leaving a clean, paintable line.
Our work doesn't stop at the city limits. The Central Cass school district covers nearly 400 square miles, a reminder of how many households live on the farms and acreages around town, in an area shaped by the bonanza farm era. Farmhouses often follow the same pattern as in-town homes, expanded across generations, with rooms from different decades side by side. Each addition gets the same treatment: framing checked, transitions planned, and control joints placed where the structure changes.
Our Casselton Drywall Process
Doing a job right starts well before the first sheet goes up. The steps below show how we plan, prepare, hang, and finish, with the local details that matter at each stage. Each one is built around finding problems early, while they're still easy to fix.
Step 1: Reading the House Before We Quote
Every project starts with a close look at how the house was built. We check whether the walls are balloon or platform framed, measure stud size and spacing, and look for signs of past additions: a change in floor height, a seam in the siding, or a beam where an old exterior wall used to be. In homes that date back to the town's railroad roundhouse years, we may remove an outlet cover or a small section of damaged wall to see what's inside before committing to a plan.
We also measure the rooms, note windows, doors, and fixtures, and talk with you about how the space will be used. If the house has been remodeled before, we look for places where earlier work cut corners, like board fastened to old furring without support or missing blocking above a doorway. By the end of the visit, you'll know what we found, what we recommend fixing before drywall, and what can stay as it is.
Step 2: A Complete Material Plan and Quote
From that visit we build a full takeoff: sheets by size and type, fire blocking, nailers, shims, adhesive, control joints, corner bead, and compound. The written quote shows each of those items along with labor, so you can see exactly what goes into doing the job properly. If your project needs a permit or inspection through the City of Casselton, we'll confirm it and fit the inspection into the schedule before any walls are closed.
Because Casselton sits farther west along I-94 than most of the metro towns we serve, we schedule a single complete delivery instead of piecemeal drops. Everything needed for the job is on site before work starts, which keeps the crew working instead of driving for supplies. You'll get a start date, an expected finish, and a clear picture of which days will be loud or dusty.
Step 3: Fire Blocking, Backing and Framing Prep
Before any drywall goes up, the framing gets prepared. In balloon-framed walls, fire blocking goes in at each floor and ceiling line to close off the open stud channels. Missing backing is added where sheet edges would otherwise float, along with blocking for future cabinets, shelves, or railings. Any electrical or plumbing rough-in that needs attention is flagged so you can bring in the right trade while the walls are open.
Next comes the difference in lumber. Where an addition's modern studs meet the original rough-sawn framing, the depths rarely match, so we build out the thinner side until both surfaces sit in the same plane. Individual studs that bow in or out get shimmed or planed. In a house that's been standing since the early 1900s, this step does more for the final result than any amount of extra compound. Flat framing is what makes a flat wall possible.
Step 4: Hanging Board Around Old and New Framing
Board goes on overhead before the walls, using long sheets where the room allows so fewer joints fall in open areas. Layout follows the actual framing, not a 16-inch assumption, so every edge lands on solid support. Screws are set to the right depth, and adhesive on the framing gives a stronger bond on older, uneven lumber than fasteners alone.
Where an addition meets the original house, we plan the board so a joint falls right at the junction instead of spanning across it. That's where the control joint will go in the next stage. Older two-story homes in town often have tall stairwells and high ceilings, and there we stagger sheets so seams don't stack up in one line. Openings for outlets, switches, and fixtures are cut tight to keep trim and cover plates flat.
Step 5: Control Joints, Taping and Finishing
Control joints go in first: at additions, along long ceiling runs, and anywhere the structure changes. Their flanges are covered with compound like any other bead, leaving a narrow flexible line that can open and close without cracking the surrounding wall. Then seams are taped, outside corners get bead, and joints are built up and feathered in thin coats until they disappear.
Compound needs steady conditions to cure. January lows at the local agronomy station average just below zero, so winter jobs need dependable heat in the work area from the first coat to the last. Older houses with drafty spots may need temporary heat near exterior walls. In summer, we watch humidity and keep air moving. Each coat dries completely before the next goes on, because rushing it is how shrinkage cracks end up in a brand-new wall.
Step 6: Final Inspection, Cleanup and a Record of the Work
After the final sanding, we check every wall and ceiling under bright, angled light and fix anything that isn't right. The work area is cleaned, debris is removed, floors are vacuumed, and plastic barriers come down only after the dust has settled. Then we walk the finished rooms with you and make any touch-ups before calling the job complete.
You'll also get a simple record of what's behind the new walls: where fire blocking was added, where control joints sit, and where backing was installed for cabinets or shelves. It's useful for future projects and for anyone who owns the house after you. This town has a habit of keeping things worth saving. Local volunteers rescued the 45-foot Can Pile from possible demolition in 2008, and plenty of older homes are still standing. A well-documented drywall job helps a house last.
Get Your Drywall Project on the Calendar
Tell us about the rooms you want finished, repaired, or rebuilt, and we'll set up a time to see the space in person. You'll get a clear written quote covering materials, finish level, and cleanup, along with a schedule you can plan your week around. Fargo Elite Drywall serves homeowners in Fargo and the surrounding communities on both sides of the Red River.