How To Patch A Hole In Your Wall
My husband had to cut a hole in our wall when he was hanging the flat screen TV to pull some wires through. Last night, we patched the hole.
As far as I know, there are two ways to patch a hole in your drywall: cut another piece of drywall out and put it in the hole, or use a wall repair patch–a wire grid that sticks over the hole. In this case, we used a wall repair patch.
Patches aren’t always a good option. They can look like humps in smooth walls and they don’t work well for big holes. However, in our case, it worked great. Here’s how we did it:
You will need:
- One wall repair patch
Putty knife
Joint compound
Directions:
1. Match the size of the patch to your hole, making sure the patch is bigger. Peel off the back of the patch. You’ll discover it is sticky on the back. Stick the patch over the hole.
2. Open your joint compound and stir it with the putty knife. You want to do this thoroughly to reduce your chances of getting air bubbles in your putty.
3. Load the putty knife and begin applying the joint compound to the hole.
You want to keep doing this until you can no longer see the metal grid of the patch. You want to keep doing this until the putty is smooth and flush with the wall.
4. In our case, the wall is textured, so my husband also had to do a bit of texturing to match the patch to the rest of the wall. Turn the putty knife perpendicular to the patch and lightly skip it across to create the texture. This is a learned skill that can take a little practice to get right.
5. Let the joint compound dry. When it’s dry, there should be no lumps, and no sign of the grid underneath. In other words, it should blend perfectly into the wall.
(The Savvy Housekeeper’s camera did not like taking a picture of a white wall.)
Problems:
If there are cracks: You’ve put too much joint compound on. Gently sand it down and reapply as needed.
If there are air bubbles: You didn’t stir the joint compound enough. Add some more.
If you can see the metal grid of the patch: You didn’t apply enough joint compound. Add a little more.
6. Voila! You have a nice pretty wall again. Now all you have to do is paint the patch to match your wall color.
