Patching Plaster/Sheetrock

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Curious about good/fast ideas for patching holes in sheetrock/plaster.

A few years ago when we completely rewired the ols house upstairs we cut a horizontal 1 foot tall "slot" in the old lath/wire/plaster on every wall in the house (at wall-outlet level) to make it easy to run new wire, and then it was relatively quick'n'easy to patch the big slots with large sheetrock panels after the deed was finished.

We have a little downstairs apartment that was added to the old house sometime in the 1950's. It has sheetrock walls with plaster applied over the sheetrock. Dunno why the owner/builder of the house decided to do it thataway unless he was real fond of plaster or maybe real paranoid about fire proofing. Mom lived in the downstairs apartment and then daughter, but daughter finally moved out and we've been remodeling it. The downstairs apt had old ungrounded circuits and figgered now is as good a time as any to make a big mess and rewire that apt with new grounded wire before fixing the place up. Maybe rent it out sometime if we need the money, but for now use it as a spare bedroom/guest accomodations and move my office into the living room of the little apt.

Found a real good electrician who did a great job installing a new breaker box and new grounded wire everywhere. Wish had known him when we were rewiring the upstairs. I told him knock as many holes in the wall as he wants to git er done, so now there are quite a few holes in the wall because it was quite a job fishing wire into that old place with no access either from above or below. No elegant way to skin that cat and I'm just glad he was willing to take on such an annoying gig, which would suck compared to new construction wiring I'm sure.

So found a nice fella to patch up all the holes in the walls and ceiling, install new flooring etc. He hasn't started in on it yet. I decided to play around patching the easy holes because it will save money and is kinda fun in moderation. And to get an idea the time involved per hole. Gonna let him take care of "critical holes" surrounding the new boxes, and most of the ceiling holes. Many of the holes are 3" to 5" round or squarish. The contractor said he likes to patch holes by screwing backer wood behind the hole then screwing sheetrock patches on the backer wood then spackling etc. Which sounds like a solid patch, but wanted to experiment with other methods.

One cousin is a genius with wood and metal and told me of his favorite technique he calls a "hot patch". You cut the sheetrock patch a couple inches too big in all directions, then cut out the center piece of sheetrock to exactly fit the hole, and strip off the gypsum and inside paper of the periphery. So you end up with a piece of sheetrock that will fit right in the hole, with paper "lips" extending out all directions on the front. So then you mud the inside paper lips and all the edges of the hole and patch and glom the patch into place. Then mash flat the patch paper "ears" by squeezing all the excess mud out with a wide joint knife, then mud and feather over the entire patch.

I tried the "hot patch" on a couple of sample holes and it worked good and seems to make a decent patch that will hide well. But unless I can get faster or more skilled it is kinda messy ripping all the excess gypsum off the paper "ears" of the patch, and isn't exactly fast to apply a patch.

So was trying to think up other strategies to try. One idea I tried on a few holes today that went pretty easy but isn't real fast. Maybe faster than the hot patch. Those soft-iron rebar wire ties, used to tie-together rebar for concrete work. They are reasonably strong but real easy to work. Cut a piece of sheetrock the shape of the hole but a little smaller. Then criss-cross two iron rebar wire ties over the back of the patch and tape em down with the thin aluminum flashing tape. Bend the four extending wires up into extending "ears" about 1/4" lower than the front surface of the patch. Mark the extending wires on the wall with the patch in place and gently chisel out quarter-inch-deep slots in the plaster for the wires to sit in, below wall level. Then mud the wire-slots and all the edges of the hole and the patch and stick it in position and bend on the wires till it is sitting flush with the wall. Then cover the entire area including over the wire slots with fiberglass mesh tape and mud/feather over the entire patch.

That seems a little faster and less messy than the hot patch and seems to make something that will sand out pretty smooth. I think it will be pretty strong after the mud sets up.

But am open to quicker/easier ways to patch so many holes. A lot of "repair kits" at the hardware store involve metal or fiberglass mesh patches and various little holding clips. You basically just affix the patch mesh then plaster over the entire hole, rather than using a piece of sheetrock for the patch. I have a roll of fine steel wire mesh and might try that method. Maybe it would be pretty quick, but somehow don't like the idea of the entire patch just being mesh-reinforced plaster. Years in the future if somebody drills an anchor to hang a picture or whatever, it might not work very elegant if they happen to drill into a plaster patch area. Dunno.

Maybe the idea of screwing in backer wood slats to hold a sheetrock patch in place is about as fast and good as it gets. Will try that method on a couple of holes just to see.

Any other bright ideas to try?

[Dolomite_supafly]

I normally use a 1x2 or similar sized board. It needs to be longer than the hole. I slide it into the hole then screw through the existing sheetrock into the wood. One screw at the top of the board and one at the bottom. Then I place the patch onto the board and screw the patch onto the board. Then I mud the sides and let is dry. It works really well for me.

On smaller holes, like 4x4 or smaller I have used paint stirring sticks using the above method.

As far as the fingers of paper I cut the edges of the sheetrock at a 45 degree angle with a knife.

Dolomite

[gjohnsoniv]

Take some mesh and put it up then cover that with the spackle.

[analog_kidd]

IF the holes are golf ball sized, I would use the mesh. The mesh makes quick work and it doesn't get any easier. If the holes are baseball sized or bigger, I've had good luck with the 1x2 method described by Dolomite. The only step I would add would be to put a screw in the middle of the 1x2 that you can use as a handle while you are screwing it to the existing drywall. Once it is fastened securely, remove the screw handle and screw in the patch. If the hole is big enough for you to get your fingers around the 1x2 then you won't need the handle.

[peejman]

I normally use a 1x2 or similar sized board. It needs to be longer than the hole. I slide it into the hole then screw through the existing sheetrock into the wood. One screw at the top of the board and one at the bottom. Then I place the patch onto the board and screw the patch onto the board. Then I mud the sides and let is dry. It works really well for me.

This is how I've done it in the past, though it's generally been big holes not lots of small ones.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks all. I've used fiberglass mesh tape and vinyl or lightweight spackle on small holes upstairs and on lots of old plaster settling cracks. Seems to work real good for that, been several years since patching and no cracks reappeared.

Might work fine with maybe steel mesh and also a layer of fiberglass mesh for a bigger hole but don't like that idea and it doesn't sound very quick after fooling with cutting the mesh to the shape each hole and such.

Was just looking for the quickest lazy man's method of making a bigger patch but the backer wood slat might be as good as it gets. Got plenty of scrap wood and the table saw will turn it into 1X2 or whatever makes sense. Also got a bunch of 3/4" plywood scrap that would probably cut into sticks suitable for backer slats.

The advantage of some kind of "surface referenced" patch as I described above has to do with the plaster-on-sheetrock nature of the basement apt walls. Haven't measured but it is at least a half inch of plaster on the sheetrock. Maybe the original owner who I never met but apparently self-built the house (and did a good job). Maybe he was precise and his plaster is the same thickness everywhere, but wouldn't be surprised if the depth is slightly variable from one hole to the next.

So anyway if it was just all-3/4" sheetrock or all-1/2" sheetrock, a backer slat would put the patch exactly flush with the rest of the wall but a backer slat in these walls will either result in a recessed plug that needs lots of fill plaster, or possibly custom-fiddling cutting a spacer "just right thickness" to get the plug near-level with the wall. But if the plaster is pretty consistent depth maybe no big deal, just determine the depth of shim and rip a bunch of sticks that deep to tack onto the backer slats.