hi there i'm nils with learn to diy and
sometimes bad stuff happens to your
drywall
so today we're going to cover all of
these types of damage and we're going to
show you how to fix each one of them now
just about every hole that you'll find
in drywall falls into one of four types
basically you've got something that's
really small like an inch inch and a
half or smaller maybe that's two and a
half three centimeters and that's
something that we can patch a certain
way
up from there you got anything between
that size and maybe fist size four or
five inches or so and then from there
you've got something that's big enough
that it's in between your studs or maybe
it's even over a stud but it needs some
support so we're talking stuff that's
about this big or smaller maybe uh seven
eight inches nine inches in that range
and then lastly we've got some major
damage like what we showed over here and
this is just going to need to have a
whole section replaced so those are the
four types we're going to cover and with
those four types we're going to show you
the best and quickest way to handle each
of those and then i've put chapters
below so you can actually skip ahead to
the section that matches your situation
best and then with that
we'll show you how to do the patches for
each one and then at the end of the
video i'll show you how to match that
texture and make it look smooth and just
like the wall was before whether you've
got orange peel or a santa fe or knock
down or a completely smooth wall
now to start off with we had this really
small hole right over here that was
about an inch and then we had another
one in this lower left corner and with
something like that anything that is
about an inch or so maybe two and a half
centimeters or so and smaller you can
actually just patch that just with mud
you don't really need tape you don't
need a patch kit necessarily and you can
use those things but they're not going
to help a whole lot because it's such a
small hole it should be easy enough to
work with with that what you're going to
do is take some mud that you get at the
store and you can buy this in this
larger bucket like this for about six
dollars they're actually really
inexpensive you can also buy powder that
you mix up yourself or you can buy a
really small container if you just have
a small hole like that now with that
you're going to use a putty knife i
would recommend using one that's at
least three or four inches in width and
with the knife like that a mud knife
you're just going to take it and we're
going to fill in that hole as best we
can you want to be pretty generous in
pushing that mud back into that hole to
make sure that it's really backfilled
and there's plenty in there so that it's
nice and strong when it dries
now on the first coat you're going to
have some bubbling it's going to bulge
out a little bit it's not going to want
to stay in place really well and that's
okay we're gonna just put that in there
as well as we can cover it up and then
we'll let that sit
now with this fist size hole that we've
got over here there's a few ways that
you can tackle this i'll show you all
three and two of them are very similar
with the first one you can buy a large
patch that's a mesh adhesive patch like
this one here we can actually just apply
this eight by eight patch over the whole
thing and the goal here is really simple
we're gonna clean up our edges make sure
it looks good and then we're gonna
smooth that patch out as best we can to
make sure there's no creases or wrinkles
or any issues with that patch and it's
nice and smooth and then we're going to
take our mud and we're going to fill
that in and push a lot of that mud into
the area that has the hole in it and you
can see from the back here when you push
mud in through these patches like this
it's kind of a play-doh fun factory
effect and that's what we want we want
to get a lot of that back there to
rebuild that drywall that's back behind
there and once we've got that filled in
really nicely through the area behind
the patch then we're going to cover up
the whole patch itself using that same
knife and our goal here is just to get
it nice and clean doesn't have to be
perfect we just want it to look really
good and cover up everything that's
there so that's option number one for
your first coat option number two is
what's called the presto patch the
presto patch is a really simple idea
basically it's a four inch circle of
half inch drywall and then it's got a
larger section of paper that we'll use
to blend that in with the surrounding
wall so the idea with this one is you
take the styrofoam that came with it
it's a template you trace out your
template with pencil and then we're
going to cut that out with a knife and
get that circle just the right size to
match that presto patch now once we've
got that circle cut out we're going to
liberally apply mud all around the
inside of the circle as best you can
also apply it around the outside of the
circle where the paper goes and then
don't forget to apply it also to the
plug itself so you'll want to apply that
mud liberally to the patch itself
especially on the top of it of that
circle where some of the gravity will
have pulled it down from the hole in the
wall and then we're going to push that
in
and from there we're going to use our
knife to pull across we're going to pull
from the center outward and we're going
to smooth all of that mud out from
underneath the paper and try to get that
nice and smooth and matching up with the
contour of the wall again now just like
before we want to cover it
enough that it's covering everything
there and we're not going to have
anything peeking through but not so much
that it's going to take two years to dry
where we're going to have to sand for
eternity now the third technique that we
can use for a hole like this is we can
use what's called a california patch now
with that we're doing the same thing
that we saw with the presto patch but
this time we're actually cutting our own
essentially out of drywall the first
step in doing something like this is
cutting out a square
as big as it needs to be to get good
strong drywall all around it so anything
that's been roughed up or broken
especially on that back side we want to
cut that out and make that square as big
as it needs to be to where we've got
good solid drywall there so i'm using a
square about this big here i'm going to
clean up my edges and make sure it looks
decent then i'm going to use a piece of
drywall i'm going to cut a piece that's
about an inch and a half bigger on all
sides than that square so let's say this
was a five by five then we want to cut a
piece of drywall that's about eight by
eight that leaves us with that inch and
a half all the way around now once
you've got that piece you can hold the
piece right up to the wall
use your knife to score a line all the
way down one side and all the way down
the inside that's just a little bit
smaller than the hole now we're going to
flip it to the other side for the height
and do the same thing we're going to
have that square in the middle that's
going to keep there and end up being our
plug
from there you're going to snap off and
then you're going to peel everything but
that front paper off so you're going to
get all the gypsum and that back paper
removed on all four sides so that you
end up with a plug like this just like
the presto patch but one that we made
ourselves and then from there the
technique is exactly like what we showed
with the presto patch we're gonna line
the outside of this and the inside of
the hole with mud we're gonna line mud
all over the inside of the patch itself
i'm gonna push that in after we've got
the right fit and we've dry fitted it to
make sure it works okay we're gonna
smooth out all the mud from all of the
paper and then we're gonna cover the
whole thing in its first coat
now the only difference between the
second type of hole and the third type
of hole in your drywall is backing if
it's a little bit bigger if it's
anything bigger than about fist size i
would recommend that you put some backer
boards on it and this technique is
really simple you just need a couple of
scraps of wood could be anything plywood
works really well because it doesn't
split very easily but you can use some
leftover mdf some trim
just some one by pine that you have
lying around anything will work pretty
well and what you want to do is cut it
so that it extends out a couple of
inches past the width of the hole on
both sides or the height whichever way
you want to go it doesn't matter if you
put these horizontally or vertically
really but our goal is to provide four
corners for the patch to screw into and
then those four corners are supported by
screws into the drywall around it so
we're going to drive some screws with
these boards here we're going to drive
them right into the board and
have that pucker the board right up
tight against the drywall and then once
i've got those two boards in i end up
with a nice area and support for my
patch to go into now a fix like this you
can actually go fairly large on this if
you've got a 10 inch hole for example
then it can cover something like that
pretty easily as long as you've got that
support and you've cleaned up your
square and you've got made sure that
you've got good drywall to work with
what you don't want to do is kind of go
skimpy on the size of the hole that you
cut for this and then have weak drywall
to work with around it because this
depends on the strength of the drywall
surrounding the hole that you've cut out
now our fourth type of hole is the
largest thing that's where there's a lot
of damage somebody body checked the
whole wall or something like that or got
thrown into it and you've got a large
amount of damage here and it's pretty
beat up with that what i would recommend
doing every time is just cutting it out
from stud to stud you're going to need a
stud finder that you can rely on to find
exactly where the studs are
and then you're going to mark those on
your wall once you have those studs
marked you can use a jab saw or drywall
saw you can also use a knife for this
like a box cutter like we've been using
but a jab saw makes quick work of this
and we're going to cut from stud to stud
we're also going to cut right down along
the inside of the two studs where we're
working so now that we know exactly
where the inside of the studs are we
want to come over about three quarters
of an inch or about half the thickness
of the stud and we're going to use a
knife and we're going to open that
section up the goal here is to have a
lip or a secure area for the new piece
of drywall that we're going to put in to
sit on we're going to actually have it
span from stud to stud and it will then
be able to use those studs to fasten in
and hold in place really well now just
like with the california patch we could
create a large california patch here to
fit in this area but i'm going to show
you how to do this with mesh tape
instead which is a very common method
for a larger area like this so basically
we're going to fasten this new piece in
we're going to use our drywall screws
and drive it in we're going to apply
some of our yellow adhesive mesh tape
we're going to apply one piece on each
side try not to overlap them because
that just adds to the thickness of the
of the covering that we have to do
and then use your knife to tear it it
makes a nice straight line it's really
easy to work with and once we've got all
four sides covered up there then we're
just going to apply mud just like before
into those seams we're going to push
that in and from the back you can see
what this looks like we're really just
pushing that mud really thick into that
area to try to cover as much of that
half inch section or 5 8 inch section as
we can so we're going gonna just cover
this all up so that you can't see the
tape anymore again it doesn't have to be
perfect on the first coat and we're
gonna do our best to get it nice and
covered we'll come back the next day and
the next day we can go through and sand
this and you can do this with a hand
sanded sponge like this guy here or you
can do this with a orbital sander for
example or a palm sander if you have one
but make sure to wear proper respiration
this is going to kick a lot of dust up
so make sure that your lungs are
protected i would recommend some goggles
or safety glasses as well so our second
coat we are going to use a larger knife
and i'm going to try to cover that up
and smooth everything over after it's
been sanded so we'll put that second
coat on we call it a skim coat and what
i also recommend doing there is mixing
up some water into your pan so if you
have a mud pan if you don't you can use
something similar to it but mud pans are
awesome because they have a blade on
either side to scrape that extra mud off
of and it gives you a nice clean blade
every time you use it or a nice clean
knife
so we're going to use that and we're
going to skim across here and we're
going to get this nice and covered and
hopefully it ends up with a pretty
smooth finish now depending on if you're
working with kind of a knock down style
or santa fe style texture on your wall
versus an orange peel you might end up
with some you know high spots and low
spots and things like that but again the
goal is just to get it as smooth as we
can i'm gonna
feather on that outside
feather on this outside
and same with the top and the bottom
creating a nice
smooth transition
and then one down the middle
there we go
okay that makes all the difference
having a good blade it really does help
so if you can get one these things are
pretty cheap too i think they're usually
around 10 bucks for a metal blade like
this i've been using this one for years
and it works well now depending on how
that comes out with that second coat you
might need to come back and sand it into
a third coat or maybe it's looking good
at that second coat and you're ready to
place texture now no matter what size
the patch was that we had to take care
of on the wall you want to make sure to
use something that matches the texture
afterward so if you've got an orange
peel sort of texture on your wall and
you finish it smooth it's going to look
like it was patched same with if you do
the opposite now they do sell different
textures that you can purchase you can
buy these online and i'll put links in
the description below they come in
different size cans and there's
different ways to do it but i'll put
some of my favorites and then you can
also stop at the local hardware store
and pick up this wall texture in a can
they've got orange peel like you see
here and then they also have a knock
down variety now with both of these
you've got different settings you can
move this tab from side to side to
adjust the pressure that it sprays and
then you can twist
this knob here to adjust the coarseness
or fineness of the spray so you might
want to experiment on a piece of
cardboard or an unseen area just to make
sure that you're not trying this out for
the first time on your actual wall and
then you can just spray it in circular
motion like this and this actual spray
is in bad shape for whatever reason it's
not spraying out very well typically it
will spray a little bit better than this
but you get the idea so we're going to
cover that up and then you'll end up
with a hopefully a decent matching
orange peel texture now if you don't
have orange peel but you have something
more like the santa fe or knock down
texture and you can recognize that by
how it has some areas that are raised
and some that are lowered it looks kind
of like this kind of euro texture going
on to it it's very traditional it's been
around for a long time so if you have
that texture you can also buy some knock
down texture in a can and the just here
is very similar you're going to spray it
in kind of a random pattern around the
area that needs to be treated and then
you're going to use a 10 or 12 inch
knife and pull across it really evenly
and your goal is to leave this as smooth
as possible you don't want any little
streaks or cuts or scrape marks in there
or anything like that because this is
kind of the final coat that you're going
to be doing
now if you don't want to use the can you
can also just use this by hand with some
mud and just dab some mud on here in
different areas kind of randomly you
want to make sure to
not make it look like it's in rows or
lines or anything like that so keep that
as random as possible and then just like
before you're going to take your 10 or
12 inch knife and pull it across
go in various directions if you need to
to try to get that nice smooth finish to
it and if you have a good blade a metal
blade makes it so much easier i've tried
this with the plastic ones and they
don't really do very well but with that
metal blade you can pull that across and
get a really good texture and your goal
is to leave some of the areas a little
lower some a little higher so you have
that knock down or santa fe look to it
now the last thing to do is just paint
so make sure that you get all of the
dust off there this stuff can be really
porous it can really soak up a lot of
that paint but you don't want to end up
with a lot of dust on your roller while
you're doing this and as you can see
here this wall that was full of holes
just a couple of days ago is now patched
up and looks good now one tool that was
really helpful on these larger patches
especially like this one up here is a
good stud finder knowing exactly where
that stud is having an accurate
representation of that i did a video a
little while ago on several different
stud finders compared we did the stud
finder showdown so if you want to check
that out and see which one works best
for you you can click on that link right
up there thanks for watching i'm nils
and we'll see you on the next one