Patching a Large Hole in Drywall

So you somehow got a large hole in the centre of your drywall, there are no studs near by and the hole is too large for traditional patchwork to cover. Well here is a instructable on how i fix larger holes and it works very well.

Step 1: prep the hole
Step 2: Brace the backing
Step 3: apply patch
Step 4: Mud and tape!

Step 1: Prepping the Hole

1: cut your hole square, in the picture this is where for some unknown reason the cold air intake in my newly purchased house was routed.... making the entire downstairs freeze in the Canadian weather.

you may notice that this is on a unfinished wall, if this were a finished wall i would lightly sand the paint work around the cut as well to make it ready for the mudding and taping that is to come.

Comments

[bobcat1947]

Great instructable. I discovered this method by trail and error some years back, when a hot headed son kicked a hole in the wall of his bedroom. but never thought of putting screws through the drywall into the wood support piece . Goofy me was hokding it in place until Elmer's glue dried !

[brunholdi]

I guess you did not work in this industry?
Idea is good but there is better way and faster way to do it.
But at least thanks for your effort.
B

[nitemaresindrome]

Great, would you be willing to make an instructable outlining the better and faster way to do it?

[brunholdi]

yes,

First you have to decide if this patch is going to be a part of wall where you don't want to hang or structurally attach anything, or this part of wall is going to be used for something else.
Second when you prepare the patch..cut an inch bigger size patch that you need.
If you do this way you can do a better patch. Than.....draw on the back side of the drywall the exact size of the hole. (make sure your drawing is in the middle of the patch.
Third you have to cut on your drawn line (back of patch)..just the surface...paper.
then you have to slowly skinning the Sheetrock of...by leaving the front of patch paper uncut.
After this..size it to the hole and under and above give a lot of compound.
Hope I did help.
maybe I put some picture up tomorrow.
B

[vlcowley]

or you could cut the patch to size and use paper tape on the joint. Much quicker than trying skinn the sheetrock. Taping and putting mud on to make the patch match is the tricky part.

[sk8ter20art]

I just did a lot renovation on my house that i just bought and i tried both methods for doing patches. the house was built in 1973 and most of the patches were in the original drywall ( that was nailed).

the traditional way of making a flap with the front paper. And also putting a block inside the wall just like this instructable.

most of my patches were no bigger that 12 x 12 inch. mostly done for re-wiring the outlets, so they would not be any kind of load bearing.

I did not like the method using the flap, getting enough mud behind the flap to stick well enough, was very difficult and the paper starts to buckle where there is a bit too much mud. then after sanding it smooth, the patch is good but now there is a large bubble in the area where the patch is, and to me is very distracting. also due to many layers of paint on the walls, the patch also stood out due to being too perfect compared to the rest of the wall.

the blocking method, did a better job of there not being a bubble where the patch is when done. I did not use joint tape on this method, due to using original pieces that were cut out. and the extra thickness of mud to cover the tape would cause a "bubble" again.

then there is a third way that i created after doing so many patches. Possible instructable coming. Got a few more patches to do.

this new method involves a oscillating saw. cut your hole in the wall, or have a hole to patch.

cut your patch larger than the hole your patching, the cleaner the cut the better. then place your patch over the hole and trace the outline. Use the oscillating saw to plunge cut out the shape of your patch, or if your very handy you can double cut the patch and the wall at the same time. then i placed blocks inside the wall. I used some lightweight luan plywood scraps that i had laying around (1/2 thick). the patch should fit perfectly in the hole. That is where the clean cut comes into play. you should have no more than 1/8th inch gap between the patch and the wall. screw in it and you only need a little bit of mud. if you use a drywall saw the edges end up bieng fuzzy and jagged when it comes to mudding and the gap is bigger.

the first one i did with this method came out flawless, with very little sanding at all. cant even tell with a flashlight.

i also modified this method to use existing studs in larger patches.