Paint and Repairs

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Sheetrock Repairs

Sheetrock sucks. There I said it. If you have never had the unadulterated joy of patching sheetrock you, my friend, are in for a treat. Seriously though there are some tricks to patching walls that I have learned. First is that most of the patch kits are useless and are not worth driving to the hardware store for. The purported purpose of these is to give you some backing to drive the screws in. Scrap wood works just as well. Second, some of you may not be familiar with the concept of score and snap. Sheetrock is made of compressed gypsum with paper bonded to both sides. If you lay a piece of sheetrock and cut through the paper on one side in a strait line it will break along that line. You do not need to cut all the way through the sheetrock. After you snap it along your line carefully turn it over and cut the paper on the other side. Next trick. Sheetrock should be fairly tight in the hole you cut. All sheetrock contractors carry wood rasps to smooth out the edges and trim some off to fit. You know the really cheap ones with the screen. And after you rasp your edges to make them fit perfectly use your utility knife to trim the paper you just messed up on the edge with your new rasp. Sheetrock is put together with tape and mud (joint compound). Use the mesh tape for patches and the paper tape for whole rooms. I am sure most of you have seen sheetrock with bubbles along the tape lines. This is caused by mud that was not wet enough during taping. If you use mesh tape it does not matter how wet your mud is. If using paper tape use a paint mixer to thin it with water. It should be like really thick honey. Finally remember measure twice cut once.

Say you have the standard issue doorknob hole. We have all seen them. If that is what you are trying to patch go to the hardware store and get the little rubber doorknob hole covers. They are self adhesive and just cover the hole. Let’s say one of your tenants stuck his girlfriends head through the wall. That was one excuse I got. And you have a 10” hole. You need to cut at least 2” outside and all the way around in as close to a perfect square or rectangle as you can get

HOW TO PATCH DRYWALL

Here, my friends, is the common household variety sheetrock hole. They are ugly and diminish your property value. On the positive side they are really very simple to fix. I will walk you step by step through a drywall patch. I have done hundreds of these and it is simple if you do it right. If you do it wrong it will look like hell and not last too long. The first trick is not to cut out the damaged sheetrock first, but to make the patch first. I know all of the home improvement guys will baulk at this but it is far easier for the average home repair person. Your patch should be two inches bigger than the damaged section of wall. Note I said damaged. Push on the sheetrock around the hole. If it feels flimsy make your patch big enough to fix it right. Honestly six inches or twelve inches is not that much different. So get your sheetrock and cut as close to a square as you can by scoring and snapping. Now here is a professional’s trick. Use a wood rasp to even up the sides.

Nice new rasps are hard to use on sheetrock. Go buy a new one and rasp a little concrete. Just make some dust. It will dull it up a little and you will have far more luck with this whole thing. Look at this picture. Do you see the rough edges and torn paper? This will only make things more difficult. Use your wood rasp to smooth out the edges. Then use a utility knife to trim the paper that was torn by the rasp.

Now hold your patch up over the hole. Note the arrow so you remember which way is up. Always in pencil, markers or pens will bleed through the paint.

Now draw around the patch, with pencil, then cut out the square you just marked with a utility knife with a brand new blade to insure a clean cut. You will have to cut it several times to get all the way through. Remember neatness counts in this step

You will notice that this is not square. I did not do this on purpose but it does illustrate the point. When you make the patch first it is a very forgiving way to fix holes.

This is just a test fitting. See, the arrow really does serve a purpose. Next get a sanding block and sand off the texture to around two inches out from the hole. This will make your patch blend much better. Do not sand through the paper of the sheetrock.

Now clean up the hole with your utility knife. There should be no rough edges as this will show and make floating the patch out far more difficult.

Below see that I have used a piece of scrap wood for a backing. For large holes you may need more than one or two. Your scrap must be at least 1/2 inch thick to avoid splitting. Notice also that the sheetrock around the hole has been sanded smooth. I used 3/4 inch drywall screws for this whole project. Remember too that your sheetrock screws must sit just below the surface of the sheetrock. They should just dimple the paper.

Here you see the patch screwed into place and ready to be taped and floated. On patches I always use mesh tape.

Here is where the fun begins. Really mash the joint compound into the cracks, but do not mess up the tape.

Try not to go too far outside of the tape and the area you sanded in a previous step.

There you go sand (gently) skim again (if needed) and texture.

Most common is rolled on texture. This is basically really thin joint compound put on with a roller. If what you see looks like sand dunes this is what you have. Mix your joint compound with water until it is the consistency of honey. Apply this with a roller just like paint.

Next most common is called splatter. If what you are looking at looks like the surface of the moon this is what you have. Go to the paint store. They sell aerosol cans of texture. It comes with three little straws depending on how thick the globs are. Spray this over your patch and wait 15 minutes or so. Then lightly smooth the whole mess over with a very large putty knife if needed

The worst to try to match is what looks like big sand particles under the paint. Again they sell this stuff at any paint store. Mix it with your paint and here is the trick. Keep stirring the paint all through this procedure. Paint it on your wall.

The trick with all textures is practice. What I mean is just a little practice. You can do this on spare sheetrock or even cardboard if you have to. Just try to match what you are trying to do a little. Then paint.

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