Drywall Repair: Easier Than You Might Think
September 11, 2011, By Andy Hinds 0 comments
If your house was built after WWII, chances are good the interior surfaces of your walls and ceilings are drywall. Drywall, a wallboard made of gypsum plaster sandwiched between paper, was one of the great innovations in modern building technology. Hanging and finishing drywall takes about a third as much labor as old-school plastering, and drywall is much easier and cleaner to work with.
One of the greatest features of drywall is how easy it makes remodeling or repairing your home.
To grasp the process of repairing drywall, it helps to understand how it’s installed. In the simplest terms, the sheets of drywall, usually 4”x8” or 4”x10”, are nailed or screwed to the wooden framing of the house (or metal studs in some apartments and commercial spaces). Then the joints where the sheets come together are concealed with paper or mesh tape, the outside corners are reinforced with “corner bead,” and all the joints, corners and screws are covered with joint compound, a lightweight plaster sometimes referred to as “mud.” Depending on the desired texture of the finished wall, the seams will receive several layers of compound: more layers for smooth finishes, and fewer for textured ones. It usually takes at least three applications to achieve a perfectly smooth finish.
Small Repairs
Typical drywall damage includes little holes and dents caused by things like broom handles and door knobs, nail holes from wall hangings, or, in the case of my college flophouse, bb gun target practice. These little holes and other drywall crack repair usually can be repaired easily with joint compound or any kind of lightweight spackle.
If the hole is bigger than ½” in diameter, you will also need to use joint tape. For most repairs, I prefer fiberglass mesh joint tape, which has an adhesive side to it. The mesh gives your joint compound something to hang onto while it dries and ultimately adds structural integrity to the joint or repair. Just cut a piece slightly bigger than the hole you are patching, stick it over the hole, and proceed as follows.
1. For a small repair like this one, you can use a plastic 3” or 4” joint knife. Load a dollop of compound close to the leading edge of the knife, making sure your dollop doesn’t extend all the way to the side of the knife. Then skim the knife along the wall, over the hole or dent, almost as if it were a paintbrush, except with enough pressure to spread the compound smoothly. Ultimately, you want to do the first layer in one stroke. But if you can’t get it all covered, make sure you scrape the remaining compound off of the knife and start again. An ill-formed dollop, or one that isn’t situated properly on the knife, will cause a rough coating.
2. As with any drywall finishing, the key is to use the joint compound sparingly, and do the repair in succeeding, very thin layers. It may be tempting to slather on a ton of mud and tell yourself you’ll come back and sand it smooth as glass, but trust me, as a guy who has made that mistake a number of times, you will kick yourself as you stand there coated in a gumbo of sweat and drywall dust, trying to smooth out a one-inch diameter patch. Also, if you use too much compound at once (more than ¼” thick or so), it will take several days to dry and will have cracks in it. It’s best to be patient. Do one thin coat, let it dry overnight, do another coat, and then repeat that process until it’s so close to perfect that you just need to sand it lightly.
NEXT: Medium Repairs
