Project 19: Patching a Hole in the Wall

Remember 6 months ago when we got our foundation fixed and the replaced all our pipes at the same time? No? I don't blame you, its been a while. Well, when they replaced all our pipes, they had to make a small hole in the wall of our nursery:

Beautiful, isn't it? Looks like we have rats or something. 

Now that we're starting on the nursery, this was the first thing we needed to fix. 

I wish I had more photos for you, but my wonderful husband and father in law worked on this one while I wasn't home... so I made you some illustrations in Paint to capture what I missed... I know what you're thinking... Paint??? Well, I know how to use Photoshop but I don't own it, so send me a copy and I'll have prettier illustrations. 

Step one: Gather your supplies
- Drywall Saw
- Scrap Piece of Wood - slightly taller than the height of the hole. (You'll see what I mean in a minute).
- Screws & Drill
- Joint Compound
- Putty Knife
- Sanding Block
- Paint
- Small Piece of Drywall

OK, here comes the ghetto illustrations...

Step Two: Make the hole in you wall bigger.
I know, that seems counter-intuitive  but you need that jagged hole to be a perfect square (or as close to one as you can get. So using the Drywall Saw, produce a square whole in your wall. Then measure the hole and cut your spare piece of Drywall down to match. 

Seems perfect right? Well, if you just put the patch up to the whole it's just going to fall back into your wall. This is where the scrap piece of wood comes in...

Step 3: Secure the scrap wood behind the wall.
What do I mean? Let's say your now square hole in the wall is 5"x5". You get a piece of wood that is taller and narrower than the hole (let's say 3"x7") and carefully insert it into the wall. You'll need to slide one end in first and carefully push up until the scrap wood is all the way in before sliding it back down so that it is now centered (1" on top and 1" on bottom). Be careful not let go, or you'll just have some extra junk in you wall. You may have to push insulation out of the way in order to get the wood in. Lucky for me (actually very unlucky for me) we don't have insulation in our walls. Once the wood is in place you secure it with a screw or two above and below the whole. Hopefully this makes sense:

Step 4: Attach the Drywall patch.
Now that you have the scrap wood in place it's easy to attach the Drywall patch. Two more screws and voila! the hole is gone.

Now the hole is patched... but it doesn't look pretty:

So for the rest of the steps I'm going to refer you to my longer post about fixing cracks in the walls, because basically at this point the issue is the cracks around the patch.

But I wont leave you hanging, here's it turned out...
Putting on the compound:

 After the first layer of compound:

 After the second layer:

 And here is the finished product! If you look really close you can see one line where the compound probably needed one more layer, but honestly since we plan on putting a dresser against this wall it just wasn't worth the time. Unless you're looking for it, its not noticeable at all. I'm pleased with the result. No more hole! yay!

Cost: Hard to give you an accurate cost here... my father in law had some extra scrap wood and drywall laying around. But I've looked it up and drywall is about $8 a panel, so if you buy one, you'll have PLENTY of it left over for future projects.

Time: Surprisingly little time is needed. If you take out the compound drying time, then it's only about an hours worth of work.

Difficulty: Easier than you'd think. I think anyone who can cut drywall into a square can figure this out.