How to Patch Holes in Drywall Like a Professional

Brief 

Sooner or later, everyone needs to patch a hole in drywall! Whether you had a fail when trying to hang pictures or the door handle gouged the wall, you can make it right again with a little effort.Here’s everything else you need to know about how to patch small holes and gouges in drywall.

Insight

Sooner or later, everyone needs to patch a hole in drywall! Whether you had a fail when trying to hang pictures or the door handle gouged the wall, you can make it right again with a little effort.

Nail and screw holes can be filled with spackling compound smeared on with a putty knife, but holes up to about 6-inches wide require more steps. “Repairing small holes yourself takes several days, and it’s not difficult if you’re somewhat handy,” says Michael Nungesser, owner of Five Star Painting in Georgia.

“But for very large holes that require a new piece of drywall to be cut, you may need to hire an expert.”

Get the right tools.

Drywall patch kits contain a type of mesh, available in various sizes, as a first step to covering the hole. Remove any jagged or dangling pieces of drywall, then place a piece of mesh to overlap the hole on all sides by about 1 ½ inches, says Nungesser. The patches have a pre-applied adhesive, so you place it on the wall like a sticker.

You’ll also need a container of pre-mixed joint compound, also called mud, and 6-inch and 12-inch metal putty knives (plastic isn’t flexible and may have tiny defects that leave lines behind when applying the joint compound).

“Mud” the wall.

“The number one reason drywall repairs look unprofessional is that people don’t carefully spread the joint compound out from the patched area,” says Nungesser. For your first pass, load the 6-inch putty knife so that there’s about ½-cup of mud on it, then pull the blade down against the wall to apply the mud.