I ran some new wiring this week to replace the old knob and tube in my walls. (Why the former owners didn’t rip it out when they replaced the plaster and lath with drywall I’ll never know.)
I had to cut a good number of 4 inch holes in the drywall. I marked the cutouts for alignment and numbered them. What’s a good way to put them back?
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Replies
1x3 or 2x3 blocking, cut about 6" longer than the hole. Place in hole, screw through existing drywall while holding block. Install patch.
Jon Blakemore
ditto
I like 1x because it's easier to fit in the holes and hold onto.
Put a 3" screw into the center of the board before sliding it in, makes it easy to hold it in place while putting the screws through the existing drywall into the block and also helps align the block in the hole.
Redwood 1 by strips are the easiest , second is 3/4 plywood scraps .
Are you finishing it ?
Tim Mooney
throw them away and go to lowes and buy a drywall patch for $2. and stick it on and mud! they come with about a 6" pc of metal with fiberglass tape already attached, takes about 3 mins per patch for 1st coat. larry
I'll offer another way ... just to be difficult.
for a 4" by 4" hole ...
cut a 6" by 6" patch ...
not ... on the backside ... lay out a 4x4 ... centered.
you'll now have a grid ... that has a 4x4 center ... and a 1 inch perimeter ...
score that inside line ... snap ... and peel the core from the face ...
flip it over ... you have a 4x4 piece of drywall ... with the "tape" already attached.
skim coat the hole with mud ... about 1.5" from the edges ... set in the patch ...
trowel it down tight ... and skim coat the "tape" ....
let it dry ... 2'nd and 3'rd coat as needed.
Bam!
Done!
No need for scrap wood ... no need for a trip to the hardware store.
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Yeah, Jeff's approach is what I generally use. It takes a bit more time but produces a nice, flat patch. A few times I've gone further, making the "tape" on the patch wider, then carefull tearing it in half to a feather edge. Only works with some types of paper, but when it does you get a very smooth transition.
I thought of using blow out patches. They seem like a good idea.
However I caught a show on TV where the electrcian was rewiring a room and was using a four inch hole saw. He'd cut the holes needed in a jiffy without creating too much dust, and then once done had a bunch of perfectly fitted disks he could simply throw back in. I was trying to duplicate that idea.
You played it smart-especially with the alignment marks. What is the texture?
Putting back the existing plugs with a strip of wood is probably going to be the easiest way to match it all up with minimum labor.Kevin Halliburton
"The Greek comic poets, also, divided their plays into parts by introducing a choral song, ... they relived the actor's speeches by such intermissions." Vitruvious, (Book V)
Hey Jeff,
I've done that a few hundred times and it works real good. We usually used it in remodels. Works fantastic for filling in old unused openings cut in walls for electrical and cable.
In Dallas Tx. commercial work this technique is known as making a "hotpatch".
Cork in Chicago
Whenever I gotta cut and patch DW, I cut the hole with edges that are NOT straight or square, keeping the blade angled so the kerf on the inside makes a smaller pattern than outside. The patch is chamfered in 30* to 45*.
Take a knife and trim the fuzzies off the wall and the patch like Wayne said.
Blow the dust off the edges, butter the edges with mud, push the patch into the butter with a DW knife to set it flush or slightly below flush, knock down the mud that squeezes out. Let it dry and and sand and mud again. No tape. No bump. No screws. No problem.
I use backers on ceilings(|:>)
SamT
Do what Jeff-Free said
I've been doing that for decades.
I call it a "blow out patch". Its the only way to go.
Be Blown Out
andy
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Hey , you and Buck been in me head...........where'd you get that idea??
I affectionately refer to it as a 'flapper' patch'!
Patch it up!
EricEvery once in a while, something goes right!
actually, my electrician turned me onto it about 27 years agoThe secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I stole it from someone along the way ...
been doing it that way for about 25 or so years too ...
maybe I worked around Andy's electrician once?
Jeff
makes me laugh to myself when I read "25 years ago" ... people kinda look at me funny when I say I learned something "over 25 yrs ago" ... as I'm 37 years old ...
but my Dad had me sweeping up his job sites for pay as opposed to getting an allowance starting when I was 8 yrs old ..... by the time I was 12 .. me and my older brother were the drywall crew.
end of this year ... when I turn 38 ... I can officially say I been "in the biz" for 30 years!
JeffBuck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Ya stole it from me!!!!!!! That's where it went!
>>maybe I worked around Andy's electrician once?
Kinda scary.........maybe we were all there and didn't know it!!!!
Eric
Every once in a while, something goes right!
Edited 6/30/2004 4:42 pm ET by firebird
Yeah, my xBIL taught me that trick about 20 years ago.
OR........... I have just used a couple of pieces of sheetrock tape cut about 8" on a 4" hole glued with SR mud to the back of the patch, with the resulting flaps coming out front through the cuts then mudding the flaps back to the face of the wall. Let it set up, then tape and float. works ok.
Another trick, if you are going to put a drywall patch back in using a backer, is to take a utility knife and chamfer the piece and the hole in the wall with about a 1/16" to 1/8" chamfer on the front faces. The point is to not have a fuzzy raw paper edge. The fuzz will stick up through the drywall mud and be visible as a change in texture which paint won't cover.
So here's what we got - One big square cut out of the wall (so to make room for the drill to drill hole through the frame base to feed up a long ethernet cable) We also cut another hole out of the piece we cut out, that is now holding the Ethernet box bracket. So i basically have a square donut i gotta put back into this hole it came out of. Because of the small hole for the ethernet box, i can't do a full patch over it an dmake it nice and flush. I'm thinking of still putting a piece of wood in there to screw it into place but i'm concerned it wont be flush and i can't patch the entire thing. What to do, i'm so frustrated with whole situation. It might just look like garbage for the rest of the walls life.
https://www.google.com/search?q=drywall+repair+clip
Clips or wood backing are your friend to match the level of the removed part to the rest of the wall.
Careful patch and sanding will make it smooth enough you will be the only one to see any imperfections.