Medium Grit

Medium Grit

How to Repair Small and Medium Sized Holes in a Drywall

The beauty of modern walls such as drywalls (also known as wallboard, gypsum board, or Sheetrock) is that even if you get holes in them, fixing or patching these walls is easy. Believe me, it's no rocket science and you just need some hardware materials and a great deal of patience to pull the job off.

Whether you're repairing a small or medium sized hole, the techniques used are similar. Small and medium sized holes can be ½-inch to 6 inches in diameter. The smaller the hole, the easier it can be fixed, and the less time it takes.

For Small Holes

Small holes up to ½ inch across can be patched easily using a drywall compound. Other than cleaning the surrounding wall area, you don't need a lot of preparation to fix holes this small.

1.    Use a hammer or to tap the wall around the hole to create a slight depression. Alternately, you can also use the rounded edge of the screw to tap it more accurately.

2.    Fill in the hole with the drywall compound. For really small holes, a single coating is needed.

3.    Once it dries off, lightly sand off the area.

For Medium Sized Holes

Repairing holes up to 6 inches in diameter will take more steps, although the process is still relatively easy. The trick here really is to get the gap covered and make the repair as "invisible" as possible.

1.     Buy the needed materials from a home improvement store. For this job, you will need a peel-and-stick drywall patch, some drywall compound, utility knife, sanding paper, and a taping or putty knife. The patch that you can buy is usually made of a stiff metal backer covered with an adhesive mesh.

2.    Prepare the hole area by cutting off any loose paper or loose pieces of gypsum with a utility knife.

3.    Peel off the backing paper covering the adhesive, and position the patch over the hole. Use a taping knife to stick the patch firmly over the hole.

4.    Apply a generous amount of drywall compound into the patch, making sure that the compound presses the patch into place.

5.    Give the first coat about 24 hours to dry off, then apply another coating of the compound.

6.    When the second coating has dried off as well, sand the area carefully. Using a fine-grit paper, sand the patch smooth, "feathering" out the rough edges so that the compound blends into the existing drywall.

Dry sanding can get really dusty so you may have to use vacuum cleaners that have special sanding screen attachments to clean of all the dust. Alternately, you can also opt to use wet sanding but you have to avoid rubbing off the compound too much, else you'd need to do the job all over again.

7.    Lastly, you need to prime and paint the patch to keep moisture away and make the repair job even more invisible.

Drywall fixing is also an art more than simply repair -- get the task done as smoothly as possible so that you deceive the eye into thinking that no repair has been done at all. So what are you waiting for? Get on with the job and do your magic!

If you are looking for a handyman in Eagan, MN be sure to visit the Eagan handyman directory for a list of contractors that can help you with your home repair needs.

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