Homes, even beautifully designed ones, receive their fair share of abuse through the years. Unsightly holes from fix jobs gone wrong, rough and tumble children or those pesky doorknobs can detract from your beautiful home you’ve created. While seemingly daunting, many small- to medium-size holes require little time to fix, and the repair could be done by the many novice handyman (or woman) — getting the home back into become the envy of the cube.
Meg Padgett
BEFORE: This 2-inch divot out of a wayward hammer stroke was in a visible place just beneath the mounting hardware of ourMoen Glenshire Pivoting Mirrorand in desperate need of being patched. Here’s how you can fix holes in your drywall, just like we did.
Meg Padgett
AFTER: You would never know there was a gap next to the mirror’s components.
Materials:
• Self-adhesive wall patch
• Spackle or nonshrink drywall joint compound
• Wide putty knife
• Sanding block
• Metal shears
Meg Padgett
Smooth the surface, removing any chunks of shingles. Then clean and dry the area.
Remove the self-adhesive wall patch out of the package, measure the hole and cut on the patch to size or into the form of the pit. Cut the mesh along with the thin galvanized steel plate individually. The steel plate needs to be slightly bigger than the gap, and the mesh needs to be slightly bigger than the steel plate.
Place the patch over the hole and smooth the net onto the surface of the wall. Worried that the patch will create a bulge in the wallsocket? The slim patch is unnoticeable after proper feathering of this spackle or joint compound. Feathering refers to the action of tapering the fix from the top center into the wall around it with a wide putty knife.
Notice: Larger holes often need to be patched with drywall, which might require additional support behind it, like a 2-by-4. The drywall ought to be trimmed to fit snugly inside the pit. Tape and sand the seam to finish. For smaller holes you’ll be able to bypass the patch and only fill the gap with spackle.
Meg Padgett
Apply a thin, even coat of joint compound or spackle into the patched hole by holding the broad putty knife at about a 30-degree angle and pulling it toward you. Feather the spackle or combined compound out from the center to the exterior.
Permit the spackle or combined compound dry completely before proceeding.
Meg Padgett
Once the area is dry, sand it until everything is smooth and apply another coat or spackle or joint compound. Repeat until the patched area is totally covered and no longer detectable.
Meg Padgett
After the final coat of joint compound or spackle has dried, sand the surface and wash it clean. If necessary, apply texture into the wall for a seamless finish. Homax Spray Texture dries fast and makes the procedure practically error proof with customizations for the size and policy.
Eventually, prime and paint the surface.
Notice: Depending on your sheen of paint, then you might need to paint the whole wall rather than just the freshly patched region. Low-sheen paint usually rolls up better than higher-sheen paint, whereas fresh coats of shiny paint tend to be shinier than the original, making the fix much more noticeable.
Meg Padgett
Together with our gap patched, our bathroom is back to being Street of Dreams grade — or at the very least worthy of a trip from the in-laws.
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