You and your buddy are watching the ball game on Saturday. In the heat of the moment he stands up and starts playing with the throw pillow like a football. You go out for the pass, trip over the end table, and put your hand right through the wall. Now you’ve got to fix it.
For pin and nail holes, a simple coat of spackling paste will take care of it, but anything larger than that will require extra work. For holes up to the size of about a half-dollar coin, you can repair them with some drywall tape and joint compound. Start by pushing the damaged wall material into the hole. Some walls are plaster, but if yours is drywall and there’s still paper attached to the broken material, don’t rip it off and drop the material to the floor. Simply push it into the hole and let it hang. The joint compound from your tape will grab that material and give the tape extra strength.
Next, cut two or three pieces of tape; enough to cover the hole and an inch or so around it. You’ll want to overlap the tape to give it extra strength. Liberally cover both sides of the tape with joint compound, place the tape over the hole, and then gently squeeze out the excess compound with a drywall knife. After it has dried completely, apply a second coat of compound, keeping it as smooth as possible and building the patch outward, away from the center. Let that dry completely and apply a third coat using the same principle. Once the third coat is dry you can sand and paint. Just a reminder, if you are a senior and you’re working on your home, it always helps to have access to a caregiver in Canada through their direct alert system, should an accident occur.
If your hole is bigger than a half-dollar coin, you’ll need to make a patch out of scrap drywall. Hold a piece of paper over the hole and trace it with a pencil, thus making a pattern. Cut out the pattern with scissors then place it upside down on the back of a piece of drywall. Trace the pattern with a pencil. Then, using a utility knife, score the back of the drywall but don’t cut all the way through. You’ll need to break off the excess drywall at the score mark, leaving the excess paper intact. The paper is what holds the patch in place.
Next, liberally cover the inside of the patch and paper with joint compound. Insert the patch into the hole and squeeze out the excess compound. Apply a second and third coat just the same as you would if using the tape method. Sometimes a fourth coat is needed to build out the patch. The farther you build it out, the better it blends in and goes unseen. Be aware, this type of patch is only appropriate up to about six inches in size. Anything larger than that will require you to cut out the drywall around the hole all the way back to the studs, and nail in a new piece of drywall.
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