How to Patch a Small Drywall Hole Before You Call a Pro

Small holes: mesh patch and compound

For anything up to about the size of a fist, a self-adhesive fibreglass mesh patch stuck directly over the hole is the fastest route and needs no backing board.

1. Clean any loose paper or gypsum crumbs away from the edges of the hole.
2. Press the mesh patch flat over the hole so it overlaps the sound wall by a couple of centimetres on every side, smoothing out any wrinkles.
3. Load a wide taping knife with joint compound and spread it over the patch, working from the centre outward and well past the edges of the mesh itself.
4. Scrape the knife nearly flat against the wall on the final pass to leave as thin a layer as the mesh allows.

Bigger holes need something to screw into

Past about 10 to 15 centimetres, a mesh patch alone will crack, because there is nothing rigid behind it to stop the new material flexing.

1. Cut the damaged area back to a clean rectangle with a drywall saw, squaring the edges rather than following the ragged original hole.
2. Cut a piece of new drywall about a centimetre smaller than the opening on each side.
3. Cut a scrap of wood or drywall a few centimetres longer than the opening, slide it in behind the hole, and screw through the existing wall on both sides to hold it in place as a backer.
4. Screw the new patch piece into that backer so it sits flush with the surrounding wall.
5. Tape the seams with paper or mesh tape before the first coat of compound goes over them.

Feathering the compound

The mistake that gives a patch away under raking light is stopping the compound at a hard edge instead of blending it into the wall.

1. Apply the first coat slightly narrower than the final width, covering the tape and the patch itself.
2. Let it dry fully, then sand lightly and apply a second coat spread noticeably wider than the first.
3. Apply a third coat wider again, feathered out to nothing with the edge of the knife rather than left with a ridge.
4. Sand the final coat with a fine sanding sponge, checking with a raking light, a work lamp held sideways to the wall, for any remaining high spots.

Matching the texture

Flat walls are the easy case. Anything with texture, knockdown, orange peel or the stipple ceilings common in older Kitchener and Cambridge homes, needs the spray or stipple pattern matched before painting or the patch reads as a smooth patch on a textured wall no matter how good the compound work underneath it is. Buy a small texture spray can matched to the closest style available, and test it on a scrap of cardboard first, adjusting the spray distance and the shake time until the pattern reads the same as the wall beside it. Let the test dry fully before judging it, since most textures lighten and change slightly as they cure.