How to patch a hole in your drywall wall

Posted by Kevin Quinlan on January 11, 2009 at 4:00 am · Under Living off the Grid

A hole can appear in your interior walls any number of ways and leave you with annoying problem you need to resolve. Hiring a contractor to come fix a hole in your drywall walls is not needed. This is a very simple problem and something anyone should be able to do no matter how handy they consider themselves. When you are done repairing the hole in your wall it will look like new and no need to hide it with the painting you hung in front of it last week.

To get started take down the following items, run over to your local hardware store and pick them up. These are common items so if you don’t know where to find them show someone this list. Drywall, drywall screws, spackle, putty knife, drywall tape, and sandpaper. That is all you need to do the patchwork, you might also want to pick up a little touch up paint if you need it.

Once you have the items, time to get started. Use a knife and turn your hole in the wall into a square hole in the wall. The closer to a perfect square the easier it is for you. You will need a stud exposed in order to install the drywall. If the hole is so small that no stud was exposed, they make small hole patch kits which might be better the solution for you. Be sure to install the screw within an inch of the wall itself as it will be later covered by the tape.

With the hole a square, use a knife to cut your drywall so that the piece you cut out matches the size of the opening in the wall. Place your new drywall into the hole and secure it using the drywall screws by screwing them into the studs behind your patch piece. Once you have the patch in place the hole should be covered.

Now it is time to make it look pretty again. Take the sandpaper and sand down the edges where the drywall patch and original wall meet. Take your putty knife and apply the putty around the edges you just sanded to fill in any cracks that may exist between the two. Cut your drywall tape to the right length to be applied to the area you just filled in and soak it in water for a few seconds. Remove it from the water and lay it along the four lines of the square hole where a little of the tape sits on the wall, a little sits on patch. You should also cover the screws used to install the patch. Be sure the tape is applied and flush so that it does not bubble up later on.

Apply more spackle on top of the drywall tape and leave it to dry overnight. In the morning use the sandpaper to blend and smooth out the edges and just like that, no more hole in the wall you have patched it!