A Trick For Patching Drywall Using Hot Glue

So some angry door knob has knocked a hole in your wall.   It's time to strike back!

Here's a quick trick that uses hot glue and a Popsicle Stick to hold a minimal drywall patch and get that hole fixed in a jiffy.   This kind of repair is for small holes, and is especially good for walls that have been textured so you can minimize the size of the patched area.  In textured walls it can be very hard to mimic the wall texture over the entire area of a larger traditional square patch.

You'll need:  
   -Pencil and Paper
   -Hot Glue Gun and a Glue Stick
   -Popsicle Stick or Other Strip of Wood
   -Needle Nosed Pliers
   -A Chunk of Scrap Dry Wall
   -Razor Knife
   -Sand Paper (220 grit)
   -Joint Compound
   -A Flat Scraper or Piece of Cardboard to Apply the Joint Compound

(So all the normal stuff for patching the wall + a hot glue gun and a piece of wood)

If you're lucky you'll be able to recover the original chunk of dry wall, but I'll show you how to make a replacement chunk if you were unlucky and yours fell into the wall or was devoured by wild animals.

Step 1: Trace The Hole

First put a sheet of  paper over the hole and rub with a pencil to make a pattern for the hole.   If you still have the original chunk you don't need to do this, but it's very handy if you're crafting your own.

Comments

[RonBot]

If you have areas where you keep getting doorknob dings, there are wall protectors. I forget exactly what they're called, but they're either flat pieces of rubber or raised round nubs with double sided tape on the back. Put them where the doorknob hits. I put one in my mom's house by the entry door and it almost matches the paint.

[heavyhadron]

Yes, this is actually a trick used in the trades. If you want it to last a bit longer, use a thicker piece of wood, and then drive screws through the drywall into the wood. The way with the screws tends to hold up better around periodic vibrations (near doors). If it's not within four or five feet of a door frame (this also means walls facing doors), then the glue method holds up over time and don't worry about screws and filling screw holes with wall mud.

[kurt.schaefer]

Oh interesting. I had seen the use of a board/screws, but I came up with this for situations where you have a small hole in textured walls and you want to minimize the damage to the wall surface. I hadn't seen the hot glue trick around. I didn't realize it was a standard. Cool!

[jessyratfink]

That's genius! I have some places in my apartment that are just begging for this. The people that lived there before me opened doors with FEELING.

[kurt.schaefer]

Yes. Children also seem to open doors with ZEAL. I've since put in a lot of industrial door stops, but this wall feel victim before the retool. Kids also tend to break off those wimpy spring style door stops "because they're fun to twang."