Repairing hole in plasterboard

Lex Luthor

To cut a long story short, I was playing Dodgeball in my hall with my 5yr old and put a hole roughly 3" high and 2.5" wide in the plasterboard wall.

Wifey wasn't too happy, but you take the rough with the smooth. Anyway, I've repaired smaller holes before by just putting some newspaper in the hole and filling it with polyfilla, but this one is just a bit big for that and the concrete wall is about 2" behind it so little to support any newspaper.

So any tips on how to patch it up?

gibo_ie

shouldnt be too hard to fix this one. First break off the big piece that is pushed to the back. Then you need to get a blade or jagged knife and cut a large square shape the size of the hole, but heep going each side until you get to the stud wall woodwork. Cut the plaster so half of the upright stud can be seen on both sides.

cut two pieces of 2x1 wood the width of the space between the two studs. Put these in the top and bottom of the holes so half is above the current plaster board and half below. now cut a piece of plasterboard the size of the hole and tack on with plasterboard nails or screws. now use polyfiller in the small gap around the square and across the whole square so you dont need to plaster. Now sand down and paint.

Hope these are not too complicated as i get carried away sometimes ....

Edit: Just found this , it has pics
www.technosolution.co.uk/diy/painting/fillplaster/holepbd.htm

Steve

or this...

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/PLAST_REPAIRING_HOLES_IN_PLASTERBOARD.htm

squire1

JEEESS Lex!. Good job you didn't hit the kid with whatever you were throwing.:D

Lex Luthor

squire1 wrote:

JEEESS Lex!. Good job you didn't hit the kid with whatever you were throwing.:D

It was the heel of my foot that hit the wall....I was avoiding the flying object

Judean Reg

Use a bit of expanding foam. Clean around the hole, spray the foam in, leave it to set, cut it back a bit and polyfilla over, sand and paint to finish. Simple.

Failing that, hang a picture over it!

Breezzzzze

Polyfilla is ok but you can get a small tub of ready-mixed skimcoat plaster for less than a tenner. Last year, I knocked a bit of our plasterboard in (about 6" x 4"). I used some polyfilla to fix it and did the last few millimeters in skim. After I sanded it and re-painted, there's absolutely no trace of the hole, or any mark to suggest that the hole was once there. The skim plaster shrinks a lot, so it can't really be used for more than a few millimeters depth.

Lex Luthor

I just got told to get something called polyplast or something called that...comes premixed and is ideal for this...sounds like what you're talkin about

Sleipnir

gibo's idea is the way to do it.

Alternatively, you can get a few pieces of wood just wider than the hole (give an 3 or 4 cm on each side)
Put glue (No More Nails or something) on each end of the wood, insert into hole and pull the wood so that the glue stick to the inside of the plasterboard.

If you can't pull the last piece against the wall because there's no where to hold it and pull, drill a small hole in the wood and thread a piece of string through it with a knot behind it so it won't detach, put the glue on and insert it into the hole. Then pull the string so that the glue attaches to the inside, then cut the string off.

Then polyfillla away.

Worked for me and meant I didn't have to make the hole even bigger!

Lex Luthor

Sleipnir wrote:

Alternatively, you can get a few pieces of wood just wider than the hole (give an 3 or 4 cm on each side)
Put glue (No More Nails or something) on each end of the wood, insert into hole and pull the wood so that the glue stick to the inside of the plasterboard.

If you can't pull the last piece against the wall because there's no where to hold it and pull, drill a small hole in the wood and thread a piece of string through it with a knot behind it so it won't detach, put the glue on and insert it into the hole. Then pull the string so that the glue attaches to the inside, then cut the string off.

Then polyfillla away.

Worked for me and meant I didn't have to make the hole even bigger!

this is how I think I'll do it...thanks

kagni

Square off the hole.
Screw in a couple of light battens like below...

Cut your replacement piece of plasterboard to size.
Screw to the battens and fill.

Lex Luthor

kagni wrote:

Square off the hole.
Screw in a couple of light battens like below...

Cut your replacement piece of plasterboard to size.
Screw to the battens and fill.

whats the mesh in the pic?

kagni

It's a type of plasterboard tape, you don't really need to use it - I've repaired a hole without it.

Lex Luthor

forgot to ask, is it possible to by small sections of plasterboard?

Wertz

Christ, I have to do this almost everyday at work and if I did it some of the ways people are suggesting I'd never get any decorating done!

First clean any chipped or torn drywall out of the hole.
Get a piece of corrugated cardboard just slightly larger than the diameter of the hole. Punch a hole in the middle. Get a piece of cord or string and tie a knot in one end, then thread it through the hole...bend the piece of card in half, folding away from the side with the knot in the string and slide it into the hole....then pull on the piece of string.
You then get fillers; premixed or powder, whatever you like (powder is cheaper and better quality IMO)...and use a filling knife to fill round the edge of the hole toward the centre keeping tension on the string the whole time.
Do not overfill.
Allow the fillers to dry fully and then cut the string and smooth second fill the remaining dip....sand smooth and touch up.

Added tip; if the wall in question is finished in softsheen or simlilar vinyl paint, then it's a good idea to touch the filler spot up with matt first, and then the top coator the finish will "flash". The colour of the matt emulsion doesn't matter.

Lex Luthor

Wertz wrote:

a piece of corrugated cardboard

???

Wertz

Lex Luthor wrote:

???

You don't know what corrugated cardboard is?
Brown packing boxes for white goods, TVs, sh*t like that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrugated_cardboard

Wiki never ceases to amaze me

Lex Luthor

Wertz wrote:

You don't know what corrugated cardboard is?
Brown packing boxes for white goods, TVs, sh*t like that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrugated_cardboard

Wiki never ceases to amaze me

gotcha, thanks to you I do now.
Found some and cardboard in place with No More nails...will start to patch up tomorrow.
Thanks

Wertz

Yeah I usually just use the adhesion of the wet fillers; by the time the stuff drys it doesn't matter if the c'board sticks or not...