How to Patch Holes in Drywall

Whether you like drywall or not, it is a part of many of our lives. In the world of prefab houses and mass production, it is a necessary evil that many of us must endure. While it is simple and convenient, drywall, or sheetrock, is a very fragile building material. The benefits of this manufactured shortcut usually outweigh the faults though. Drywall is easy to paint, decorate, wallpaper over, and adds a little extra insulation. Even if you have solid walls, a quarter to half inch layer of sheet rock may make life much easier. The problem comes with the damage. The major drawback of drywall is that it is not built for durability. One good thing is that it can be easily patched, if you know what you are doing.

When it comes to drywall and sheet rock, there are three types of damage. The first type is pinholes. These are easily patched and require almost nothing to fix. The second is a hole. These require some spackle and drywall tape. It is a little more of a pain, but still rather easy. The third is water or severe damage. For these repairs, it is easier to replace the section of damaged wall. Now that you know the three types of damage, let's get to fixing them.

For the first category, you have two options. If you are moving out of a place and just want your deposit back, or if you are selling and want to make it look good, you will need to fill in all the holes from your kid's posters or your pictures that had to be displayed. The best way to fix these little nail or pin holes is to use some spackle. It is fairly cheap and looks like toothpaste. You can use your fingers to squish it in the hole and then smooth it out. If you wet your finger a little after squishing it in, you can easily smooth it over and no one will ever notice, unless your walls are not white. If you have paint on the wall just use a tiny bit to brush over the spackle. You can even use food coloring or mix the paint in the spackle if it is small. There is a cheaper "cheater's" method to fix these holes. If you are just wanting your deposit back or a quick cover up, you can use white toothpaste to fill in the holes. As long as they are just small holes, this will work. In some cases, it is even better than the spackle. Just squish it in the hole and smooth it over. This only works with the old generic toothpaste though. It is thick and white and looks just like spackle. If you try to use the newer gel type, it won't work. Baking soda or flour paste will also work if you have that laying around.

Larger holes are a little more complex. If it is bigger than a nickel, it is a larger hole. If it is bigger than both your fists, it may be a very large hole and you might want to consider replacing the entire section. For these, you will need some drywall tape and spackle. There is no toothpaste fix for this much damage. You will also want some sandpaper and a trowel. You can put the spackle in by hand, but it will look horrible and make a mess. You may also forget and end up eating some on accident. Trust me, it does not taste good. It is the quickest way to ruin a patty melt. First, you will need to put some tape on. This is a plastic tape that looks like a grid. It is full of square holes and does not stick to anything very well. You will want to put the tape on both the front and back of the drywall if you can. If you can not get to the back, it is okay. You will need to put your finger inside the hole and create a little "lip" on the inside of the wall. This is where it will attach. You can put it on the outside, but it may show when you are done. You can use an Allen wrench or anything that is hook shaped to attach the tape on the front side. Once the tape is in place, you can start to lightly put a coat of spackle over the tape. As mentioned before, this tape is not very sticky and can come off easily. It is only there to give the wet spackle something to hold onto. After it dries, it will not need this support any more. Once you have the first coat on, let it dry for about an hour. After that, you can come back and fill the rest of the hole in. Use the trowel to try and get it flush with the rest of the wall. Once you have a liberal amount of spackle applied, let this coat dry overnight. Once it is dry, you can now sand it down lightly so that it is smooth and even with the rest of the wall. Even if your walls are white, the spackle may not blend in completely. You will probably want to repaint the entire section. If you have wall paper, you will want to use a full sheet of paper. Most of us have seen how tacky the small little square of wallpaper as a patch looks. If you can get it to match up perfectly, then a small square is fine, but it is probably easier to put a full sheet on the wall.

If you have a hole larger than two fists or water damage you will need to replace the whole section of sheet rock. Even if you can get rid of the visible water damage, it is probably wet all over the inside of the drywall. This can cause mold and all sorts of other problems. It is a lot simpler to replace a section than it sounds. In fact, it is easier than the medium damage fix. The first thing you will need to do is take out the old drywall. Instead of trying to find all of the tacks and spending hours trying to get them out, punch through the drywall. You will want to make sure there is no stud where you are trying to punch through though. Trust me, this hurts, a lot. Tap on the wall until you hear a hollow sound and then tap harder. You can pull off large sections this way and it will be broken up to fit in your trash as you take it down. Once you get all of the old stuff off you can remove the old drywall tacks. When you put the new wall up, take note of where the studs are. You can even lay the new wall flat on the ground and mark the top where the studs are. This will make life easier for you when reattaching the new wall. Once you have the studs marked off, put the new wall in place where the old one was. Drive in a drywall tack every twelve inches along the stud and you are done. When you get the tacks almost all the way in, lightly tap them the rest of the way. It is not fun to get the new wall almost installed and then pound a hole in it and have to start over, trust me.

Once you have made all the repairs that you need to make, just paint over the blemishes and you are done. If it looks rough, use a fine grit sand paper to even it out. Be very careful when doing this though, because you can sand a hole right through the wall. Trust me. Even though drywall is easily damaged, it is almost as easy to fix. Just remember that it is very fragile and can be damaged easily. I have spent countless hours fixing my corrections. Just be gentle and it will all work out.