How To Repair Enlared Screw Hole In Fiberglass

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Holes happen, particularly in drywall. Sometimes they happen on purpose and sometimes by blow. You hang a painting or a photo on the wall and then make up one's mind to relocate it. You've now got a drywall hole to fill. Somebody swings a door open with a little besides much vigor, and its knob does a number on the adjacent wall. You've got a hole to make full. There are many other hole makers besides: people trying to move furniture and put a tabular array leg through the wall, hollow wall anchors that wiggle loose, toggle bolts that tear gratuitous, and rambunctious kids with a little too much free energy for the indoors on a rainy day.

This is why we tested drywall repair kits and materials. Everyone volition take a hole to patch at some point.

Best for Holes Up to three Inches: 3M Small Pigsty Repair Kit
Best for Small Holes in Textured Surfaces: Erase-A-Hole
Best for Large Holes: 3M Large Hole Repair Kit
All-time for Extremely Large Holes: Humbest Repair Screens
Best for Small Holes in Smooth Drywall: 3M All-In-One Repair Tube
Best for Quick Drywall Repairs in Low Calorie-free: DAP Eclipse Repair Patch

Selecting a Drywall Repair Kit

We found that for small drywall holes upwardly to 3⁄4-inch, simpler materials are best. An all-in-i hole-filling applicator or a production like Erase-A-Hole works well for these; the only thing y'all need to back-trail that product is a putty knife or fifty-fifty a soft cloth to wipe off the backlog.

For larger holes measuring from one to three inches at their widest point, kits that come up with patching screens work pretty well. For holes in the range of iii inches to five inches, yous demand to either use a kit specifically designed to cope with large holes or y'all take to utilise a screen and learn how to use a drywall pocketknife.

How We Tested

We bought a stack of 3 by iii-human foot drywall repair panels and put holes in them. Depending on the size hole nosotros wanted, we used a hole saw in a cordless drill, a hammer, a centre punch, or a drywall saw. In some cases, we deliberately made the holes ugly and ragged. Accidental holes are rarely corking and clean.

Next, clamping the panels upright, nosotros applied the repair materials every bit the directions called for, using the drywall pocketknife if the kit came with ane. We permit the get-go coat of repair compound dry and evaluated the results. As odd as information technology may sound, nosotros also inspected the back of each drywall test panel. It gave usa a adept thought of how much filler was required to begin the repair procedure. For one repair product, we learned that the condition of the back of the drywall is as important equally the front.

Read on to find the all-time drywall repair cloth or kit for you.

—All-time FOR HOLES Up TO 3 INCHES—

3M High Strength Small Pigsty Repair Kit

Includes: 5.25 in. ten v.25 in. pare-and-stick fiberglass-reinforced aluminum screen, annoying sponge, viii-oz primer-enhanced compound, 3-in. bevel-border plastic knife

This is an constructive footling kit for repairing holes upwardly to the size of one produced past a door knob. Since you lot're only working on the surface of the wall, the condition of the back side of the wall doesn't affair. Per the kit'southward instructions, we lightly sanded effectually the border of the hole with a sponge kickoff, so practical the screen over the hole and vertically spread the first layer of repair compound over the pigsty. The compound spreads easily, and the knife works reasonably well, despite its pocket-size size. To make a smoother repair, nosotros fabricated a second pass using a little more compound and moving the knife at approximately a 45-degree angle to the first pass. At this signal, we let the first coat dry out.

The first laissez passer with the chemical compound provided and the small plastic pocketknife included will produce enough of a layer that you tin sand the patched area smooth. However, to alloy it in with the surrounding area you'll need a minimum of a 6-inch or an 8-inch knife. You'll besides demand more repair compound than comes with the kit.

—BEST FOR Pocket-size HOLES ON TEXTURED SURFACES—

Erase-A-Hole

Includes: 4.five-oz container of screw-feed drywall repair compound

Erase-A-Hole is drywall repair in the form of a stick. And though it's all-time for textured surfaces, it also works well on shine ones. We filled hole diameters with it from tiny (about the size left by a finishing nail, less than 1⁄16 inch) all the way upwards to 3⁄4 inches in diameter. But it applies most smoothly and fills more than consistently in holes from nail diameter to about 3⁄16 inch.

To utilise it, remove the cap and turn the dial at the bottom of the tube. Out of the summit of the tube feeds a stick (to call information technology that) of 1.5-inch-bore drywall repair compound. The textile is surprisingly moist for something then cohesive, and information technology readily fills the hole to which y'all apply information technology. With small holes, we establish that you can simply wipe the repair compound over the pigsty and use a putty knife or a soft cloth to wipe abroad remaining remainder. From any holes from 3⁄xvi to 3⁄4 inches across, move the Erase-A-Hole tube in a circular motility, first slightly outside the hole'south circumference and working toward the inside. This will leave the almost backlog cloth. One pass with a drywall knife (either metal or plastic) is all it takes to leave a smoothly filled surface.

You lot take to experiment with the cloth to make full a textured hole in a ceiling or wall. Dabbing at the material with a cloth or even your finger may yield the desired texture. If you have to do a number of such holes, buy a drywall repair panel, punch some experimental holes in it, and try your paw at adding texture to the repair.

—BEST FOR Big HOLES—

3M High Strength Large Hole Repair Kit

Included: Sanding sponge, 2 in. x 5 in. fiberglass record, adhesive-backed plastic repair plate, 12-oz fiber-reinforced repair compound, vi-in. bevel-edge plastic knife, 12-step educational activity canvass

By far, this is the near thorough and ambitious repair kit for big holes in drywall. 3M defines "big" in this case as holes upward 5 inches across. This typically means a circular hole 5 inches in diameter. However, we did test the screen on a square hole that was about 5 inches on each side. In that case, there's not a lot of surface for the adhesive edges on the backing plate to take hold of, simply it volition stick. There's another grab, too. In order for this kit to work properly and every bit intended, the back surface of the wall has to exist clean and reasonably smoothen. Otherwise, the adhesive strips on the repair plate will non grip properly to the wall's dorsum surface. This can cause the backing plate to work loose or result in a gap through which some of the repair compound will ooze out. We tried the patch on two different large holes, one with a smooth dorsum and 1 in which nosotros left some ragged drywall on the back. Although it worked in both instances, information technology worked better on the first.

—BEST FOR EXTREMELY LARGE HOLES—

Humbest Drywall Repair Screens

Included: vi pieces of 8 in. 10 8 in. fiberglass-reinforced aluminum drywall repair screen | 6-in. plastic drywall knife

This is nothing more than than a article drywall repair production. Y'all can buy the same matter (minus the dispensable drywall repair knife included with information technology) in whatsoever lumber yard, most hardware stores, home centers, and through any number of sources on the internet. Within this pack you lot discover six viii-by-eight-inch repair screens, with the same plastic compound spreader thrown in for good measure. Peel off the plastic backing sail, line up the repair panel with the hole, press it downwards and wipe your hands over it to be sure it's made full contact. With that, y'all're prepare to apply ready-mixed all-purpose drywall compound. The knife included is fine for the offset coat. Only after you lot sand the starting time coat of compound smooth, you'll need a adept quality (minimum) 6-inch-wide knife to cease the task. But an 8-inch pocketknife would be even better and result in less sanding and a more-smoothly finished surface.

—Best FOR Minor HOLES IN SMOOTH DRYWALL—

3M High Forcefulness Small Pigsty Repair

Included: three-oz tube of repair chemical compound, i.75-in.-broad bevel-edge knife (congenital into tube), 1.5-in.-diameter annoying cap on the cease of the tube

Yous can't go wrong with this little tube of repair chemical compound. Although information technology's intended to fill smash and screw holes, with a little finesse it will work on a hole up to 3⁄four-inch diameter—pretty remarkable.

For holes up to 1⁄2 inch across, squeeze the tube and force some of the primer-enhanced compound into the hole. In the same motion, slide the tube sideways to sheer off excess compound. This will exit a niggling excess compound outside the hole which you can strike off using the bevel-edge pocketknife built into the tube. Let the compound dry and use the abrasive disc on the end of the cap to sand the expanse smooth. To fill a larger hole (from 1⁄2 inch upwards to 3⁄4 inch), move the tube in a circular motion around the hole, and permit the cloth to build up on the hole perimeter. If this is reasonably smooth, you can let the chemical compound harden and then sand it smooth. If it'southward a little too rough, you can advisedly strike away the excess using the pocketknife on the tube.

—Best FOR QUICK REPAIRS IN Depression LIGHT—

DAP Eclipse Rapid Wall Repair Patch

Included: Single piece of iv-in. DAP Eclipse Wall Repair Patch

DAP's Eclipse may exist the fastest solution we've seen to repairing a hole in drywall. You apply it and paint it. It doesn't leave the highest-quality and least-visible repair, but it is fast. Information technology's platonic for drywall hole repair where the priority is speed. This occurs when making repairs in low-visibility areas inside closets and painted cabinets and when you demand to ameliorate badly cutting openings around plumbing and gas lines, such every bit in laundry and utility rooms.

We establish that the repaired surface area was all the same visible, owing to the difference in how the paint is absorbed by the painted drywall nearby and on the patch, which is a plastic film. Probably the all-time fashion to improve your results would be to roll on a generous coat of primer not only on the patch, but on the surrounding area as a means to achieve nearly equal pigment assimilation of the two surfaces. DAP recommends this in the "For Best Results" section of its instructions. However, the context in which it recommends applying primer is to improve paint adhesion and to reduce the dry time of the pigment, not to improve the appearance of the repaired area. We applied wall pigment—no primer—and weren't satisfied with how it looked.

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