It’s a typical scenario you’re sitting down stairs watching the TV or reading a book, and then you hear a loud bag from upstairs. Startled, you run upstairs to see what is going on, and you see your kid’s leg, arm or head sticking from the wall. After all the dust clears, you make sure that everyone is alright, and the proper punishments are divvied out, it’s time to fix the gaping hole that is left in your wall.
Now depending on the size of the hole that is in the drywall. depends on how it is going to be fixed. If you have a small door handle size hole it’s going to be easier to do it one way (which ill explain later). But if you have a larger hole it might be easier to install a large new piece of drywall that runs from one stud to another. I’ll explain that also.
Now with a smaller hole First we need to cut out the fragments that are hanging all over the place. We will do this with a drywall saw and a utility knife. Then once we have a nice clean area to work with, we want to take off about 1/2inch to 1 inch strip of paper off the drywall so that it looks like torn cardboard. Then we want to cut a piece of drywall that is slightly larger than the hole that is going to be fixed. Then start to carve away at the back side of the piece until the piece fits the opening and the paper is left. This piece is called a “patch hat”.
Now put drywall mud on the edges of the patch hat and place it in the hole. Then once in place apply a coat of mud over the patch, let dry. Once dry, chip off any chunks and sand smooth, and then mud once again. Let that dry, and do the same thing. Do this until the patch is nice and smooth and ready to be painted.
That’s how to repair a small hole in drywall. Now to fix a larger hole it’s basically the same thing except that we are going to want to cut out the hole entirely. Take the drywall saw and cut till you hit a stud, now measure to the mark and minus ¾ of an inch so that you will be half on the stud. Make two marks and snap a line, or with a flat edge draw a line through the two marks, that’s the line you want to cut. Now that you have that done we want to use the saw to cut to the stud on the other side of the hole. Take a measurement from the same place that you did for the other mark and add ¾ of an inch to it. That will get you half on the other stud. Make two marks a draw a line through it. With a framing square, use the line to make a square line at the top and at the bottom of the hole. You should have a square hole now. Now you want to cut out the piece that you have marked. Measure the hole that you have and cut a piece to fit in it. Once cut place the piece in the hole and nail to two edges where the studs are with some drywall nail. Then mud it like in the other example and you are all set. These are some examples of how to repair a hole in your wall.