Hey there. Emily Farber with Lepic-Kroeger, Realtors®. Thanks for joining me. Today
we're going to tackle a simple do-it-yourself project that anybody can
handle. Come on! Welcome to my kids bathroom. So, today's project is all about
filling wall holes. I see a lot of filled holes in houses that I show to clients,
and I can tell you that it's often not done well. We just moved into this house
a few months ago. There's a lot of small projects that still need to be done, one
of which, is here in the kids bathroom. The previous owners had hooks hanging on
the wall. For whatever reason they decided to rip those hooks over the wall
when they left, and that left me with three holes in my wall. I could just
patch them but if you don't do your patches carefully they always stand out
like a sore thumb. So, I'm going to show you how to do it right. It's not hard.
There's a few extra steps and a lot of times people just don't do it right. This
is how. You don't need a lot of tools or equipment for this project, you just need
some spackling compound, a putty knife, some wall texturizing spray, a piece of
cardboard and some sandpaper or a sanding block.
The first thing I'm going to do is take my spackling compound and my putty
knife and fill in those holes in the wall.
This particular spackle starts out pink and turns to white when it's done. Once
it's done I'm going to sand down the edges and get rid of any excess. So, as
you can see, it's starting to turn from pink to white. While I wait for that
process to finish I'm going to figure out what level of texture I need to
match my walls. Now, this is where a lot of people actually go wrong. They don't
texturize or they texturize improperly. You might think your walls
are smooth, but chances are, they're not. So, take a close look at them, notice how
they feel and how they look. A lot of walls have a texture that's called
orange peel on them. So, your can of texturizing spray should be able to do a
variety of different textures-- from fine a heavy-- pro tip here: don't just go
spraying the wall or you're gonna end up wiping a lot of it off. What you want to
do is go get yourself a piece of old cardboard so you can experiment and
figure out the right level of spray to get close to matching your wall. On the
back of this spray can here there's this little tab, and in the directions it
should tell you which way you need to turn this tab for fine, medium or heavy
spray. I'm feeling like my wall is probably between a fine and medium
texture. Give it a good shake.
Obviously I was too close-- I'm gonna end up with a giant spit wad on my
wall! I'm gonna back that can up a little.
Alright, alright, that looks better. So, I need to be about 18 inches off the
cardboard. I'm satisfied. Now I know I just have to wait for this to finish drying.
I'm gonna give it a little sand and I'll show you how it works.
Alright, it's been a little while. My three spots are getting white, so now I'm
gonna sand. I happen to have a sanding block but a fine gauge sandpaper should
work the same. All you're really doing is knocking down the edges so that it's a
seamless transition from patch to wall.
Blow the dust off and you're ready to spray the texturizing stuff on the wall.
So, be sure to cover up any areas that you don't want any overspray to get on.
I'm just using an old rag. Here goes nothing! Remember, this isn't the end of
the world. If you don't like, it you can wipe it off before it dries. Eighteen inches...
Spray a little bit around where you're going so that it blends out into the
existing wall. All right, I think it looks good! I just need to wait for this to dry,
and then I can paint it to match the rest of the wall, but that's another project
for another day. Thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed my video and if you
have any hosts to patch in your walls now you know the right way to do it. It's not
hard--there's just a few extra steps. I put videos out every Friday, "Free advice
Friday" is what I like to call it. They focus on all the things real estate,
do-it-yourself projects and local interest stories to the greater Iowa
City area. I really hope you'll hit that subscribe button down below. That would
be awesome! Catch you next time. Bye!