Whole-Home Interior Remodel — Gretna, LA

Project Background

Our Cajun Home Services team was called into a single-family home in Gretna, Louisiana to address popcorn ceiling removal, water-damaged drywall, and deteriorating sheetrock throughout the kitchen and living areas. Once we began stripping the old ceiling texture, additional issues became visible — but nothing our crew couldn't handle.

What started as a ceiling and drywall project grew into a full whole-home interior remodel — including new LVP flooring, custom built-in shelving, wainscoting and batten trim, fresh paint throughout, and a modern brushed-nickel stair railing with refinished glossy wood treads.

Gretna sits in Jefferson Parish on the West Bank, where slab-on-grade homes and elevated humidity make moisture intrusion and drywall failure common. Catching the water-damaged sheetrock and re-detailing the affected areas before paint and trim was the difference between a finish that lasts and one that fails inside a year.

Scope of Work

• Full popcorn ceiling removal in kitchen and living room — careful scraping, prep, and daily cleanup
• Removal and replacement of water-damaged drywall and sheetrock in living room and kitchen
• Skim, mud, sand, and float of all repaired ceilings for a smooth, paint-ready finish
• Wrapping and cladding of all structural columns with custom mouldings for a clean architectural finish
• Full interior paint — walls, ceilings, columns, and textured ceiling refresh
• Sheetrock repair around window where water intrusion had compromised the wall
• Removal of old carpet glue, tile adhesive, damaged baseboards, and prep of subfloor
• Moisture-barrier underlayment + new LVP plank flooring throughout
• Custom built-in wall shelving framed and finished on a previously open wall
• Wainscoting and decorative batten trim on shelving back wall, behind kitchen base cabinets, and on overhead cabinets
• New baseboards installed and caulked throughout the remodeled spaces
• Replaced wooden stair balustrade with a modern brushed-nickel system
• Stained and refinished stair treads to a glossy wood finish

Build Sequence

Managed through our standard JobTread workflow — daily photo updates, scheduled inspections, and a single point of contact for the homeowner throughout the build.

Materials & Systems Used

Why Drywall & Moisture Prep Matter on the West Bank

In Gretna and the rest of Jefferson Parish, slab-on-grade homes are routinely exposed to high humidity, occasional flooding, and water intrusion around windows and exterior doors. Painting over a damaged ceiling or installing new flooring on contaminated adhesive doesn't fix the problem — it hides it for a few months.

On this remodel, we treated drywall demo, water-damaged sheetrock removal, and subfloor prep as the foundation of the finish. New LVP went over a clean, leveled slab with a moisture-barrier underlayment. New paint went over patched, sanded, and skimmed surfaces — not over old popcorn texture. That's why the final product still looks new years after the crew has packed up.

Lessons for Homeowners

If you're planning an interior remodel in Gretna, Jefferson Parish, or anywhere on the West Bank, ask three questions of every contractor you interview:

1. How do you handle popcorn ceiling removal and dust? Daily cleanup and protected surfaces should not be optional.
2. What happens when you find water-damaged drywall mid-project? "We'll paint over it" is a red flag.
3. Will I get daily photo updates? Interior remodels move fast — you need eyes on the work behind every wall and under every floor.