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Do It Yourself |
Drywall Repair
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Plaster Repair & Texturing Secrets |
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Drywall Or Plaster- What's The Difference |
Fixing the hole |
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Texturing
After you have finished your smooth wall and you are satisfied with the looks of it it is time to think about texturing the area you fixed. Look at the surrounding wall area and see if it is in one sweeping direction or a random pattern, does it have a rough look or is it smooth. Can you see sand in it. If it has sand in it then you have what is called a skip troweled finish. They used to put a very fine sand so that when they dragged their trowel over the wall. It would keep it off the wall and only put mud on it every so often for a special look. You can match this by using a scrubby pad dipped flat in your mud to pick up just a little and then press it on the wall in that area until you have enough to match what is around it. Then let it sit for about 5 minutes and very lightly pull the trowel over just the tops of the pecks to flatten them out to look like the original surface. Sand when dry very, very lightly and prime & paint. Other Textures You can get a round brush that make swirls or use different brushes to tap on mud to make the texture you want. If you get really good at it you can take a little mud on your large knife and hold it almost parallel to the wall and drag off the mud very lightly. Just follow the direction of what is on the wall. If you look close and study the direction you will see one.
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Wall Textures Are Hard To Match.
There is a hole in my wall First you want to find out unless you know what kind of wall surface you have in your home. This is important because
different types require different types of product to fix your walls. If you
have drywall or sometimes called sheet rock or you might have plaster which
is made from cement products ( Mortar type and sand). Plaster is What is Drywall Drywall is also nailed or now is actually screwed to the wood studs in your walls. It is generally 1/2 of an inch thick on walls and ceiling inside your home and made from gypsum ( like chalk) covered with paper on both sides. Now anywhere you have moisture as in the bathroom you would use water board. The only difference is the gypsum is replaced with a kind of clay mixture to repel water. What Do I Do If I Have Real Plaster? Plastering small holes and cracks can be done with vinyl plaster patch. If the crack is 1/8 inch, take a church key ( can opener with the pointed end) and drag it through the length of the crack to clean it out of any loose material. It will also open up the groove to receive the material. Take a putty knife and smooth in some of the patching material. You may need two coats. For larger holes you can use mesh tape or if it is really big than you may be better off replacing that area with drywall and building the mud up to match it. Always use tape where the two meet together so that they don't crack later. Spray Texture
For a smooth hard finish After your last coat with powdered mix fast set use a hard rubber grout float. Wet it in a bucket of clean cold water. When it is almost dry use the float of the surface for a really smooth surface. Lightly sand with 220 grit sand paper and it is ready for wall primer and paint! |
Patching Materials Are Many What do I use to fix the hole in my Drywall? For most jobs you can get 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon of all purpose joint compound. You can purchase at any warehouse store. It come pre-mixed. If you think you might have more holes in the future coming, then you might want to consider a bag of dry mix powder, patching compound which you can get in one hour, 40 minutes, 20 minutes, or 10 minute set up time. This just means that after you add the water it will start the drying process in that amount of time with the right conditions in the air. Heat, moisture, cold has a lot to do with set up time with many different produces. If you are a novice, you might want the hour type to give you more time to work with it. Do I use a Putty Knife? If you have a small area that is fine or just a nail hole. If you have a larger area you will need a few different sized Broad knives. These are wide putty knives with a bigger handle. You will need 3 sizes. First put on the paper tape or fiberglass mesh tape. For the paper tape you would take your 4 inch knife and spread about an 1/8 inch of the compound on the wall just around the hole. Now put the tape on. With the mesh tape you would put that on and then cover it with the compound. Hold the knife a little off the wall at the handle just so your knuckles don't touch the Mud ( compound). smooth it down so that most of the excess comes off and put that back in the tray. Let that dry. Don't worry what it looks like to much because when it is completely dry you will sand it down to smooth it out. After you sand it lightly just to get any big bumps out with a sanding block you will use your 6 inch knife and put some more on, each time to feather it in to what is around it. Then again, let it dry completely. Sand it lightly again. The third and final coat is with the 10 or 12 inch knife. You want to press harder with this coat and go in all directions to really skim it to blend in. If it doesn't look the way you want, just sand it again and recoat it after it is dry. make sure the tape is fully covered. For corners pre-bend your tape to fit the corner. Mud each side evenly and sand between coats. There is a corner tool to really make it look nice. This is just a bent knife that does both sides at once. |
troweled on 3/4 of an inch thick and there is a wood strip around doors and
windows. This piece of wood was put there so that the plaster mason's had
something to go by as a guide for the thickness of the plaster. The bare
wall was covered with either button board or wood lath strips. The wood
strips were nailed on horizontally and then the plaster was put on in a two
coat method with the final coat being smooth and then a third coat if the
building required a texture. Button board was like sheet rock only the paper
was dark gray or black and the sheets had one inch holes in it for the
plaster to go through and when dry would be slumped behind it to hold the
surface on. It was also nailed to the studs.