There are a few minor problems around the rental house that I really should fix myself. (I don’t think they’re my fault, but I know what’s going to happen if I don’t fix them before I move, knowing the landlady and how little Tennessee sharecropper-- oops, landlord/tenant laws are ever going to support the tenant. ) One is a problem with the drywall above the shower. The shower curtain rod wasn’t installed right in the first place, and one end of the fixture has torn a long hole in the drywall. The only way I can see of fixing this is to repair/replace that patch of drywall. Is there a good source that explains how to do this? A book, for instance? A DVD? Advice? Words of wisdom??
Get a small bucket of USG blue drywall mud at the local Home Despot. Stuff newspaper into hole. Slather mud on the hole. Sand when dry. Repeat as needed until smooth and paintable. Your net cost=<$5
Disagree. You’ll have MUCH better results if you build up three or four fairly thin layers and let them set up in between, rather than trying to fill the entire hole at once. You lay too much on at once, and it tends to sag and bulge. Mud dust is nasty and gets everywhere, and the less sanding you need to do at the end, the better. Use a large (8"-10") drywall knife to lay it down. If you do it right, you barely have to sand at all when you’re done.
You’ll note that in my post USG “Blue” was specified. Green will behave as you observe-blue is stiffer, has a lower water content and isn’t as prone to sagging.
The contributed suggestions are very good but there are also a lot of good resources both in print and on the web, especially for the step-by-step photos. The home repair/construction/DIY shelf of your library is sagging and creaking with big tomes on home repair. The Reader’s Digest, Better Homes and Gardens, Home Depot, and Black and Decker DIY books are all excellent. Of course, there’s also the web. I don’t have the exact URLs, but go to the Home Depot, Ace/True Value (especially good), Lowes, doityourself.com websites or just google “drywall patch”.
That said, I’ve repaired holes in my drywall numerous times. Small holes can be repaired with a swipe of spackle. Medium size holes can be patched with either newspaper (as above) or you could insert a mesh screen (buy at home store), stuff it in the hole, keep in place with a string tied to a stick outside the hole to keep it taught, and then slather on the plaster (AKA “mud”). Large holes might need repairing with a drywall patch. In this last case you enlarge the hole a little to make it square and smooth. Glue some sticks or wood laths onto the backside of the hole for backing. You cut a patch the size of the hole from a sheet of drywall (same thickness of your wall). Insert the patch into the hole. The patch must be snug. The glued sticks or lath will prevent you from pushing the patch through. Then swipe mud around the sides of the patch, allow to dry, and sand smooth. The green or blue mud and drywall (greenboard) is water resistant and the kind you want for your bathroom.
I am a remodeler and with apologies to the above posters, the correct way to fix it is to completely remove the damaged drywall and patch it. What I mean is cut out the damaged drywall all around in a square pattern, install wood backing for the new patch, cut a piece of drywall to fit the new square hole, screw it into the wood backing, and then tape/float/prime/texture/paint.
Anything that puts pressure against the wall like the shower curtain rod you describe, especially in a wet/humid environment needs to be done right, or it will not last.
I know it’s just a rental and you will never see it again, but the professsional in me behooves me to post the right way to do it.
Thanks Rick, I have a couple questions about my GMC truck I will post tomorrow.
I definitely respect your expertise about vehicle repairs. One trade to another…
Yes, I’ll concede that Klaatu has something there. My suggestions were generic and didn’t spefically address the matter of the added stress to the wall at the location of the curtain rod installation. But if the hole is away the rod connection or other stress point then the more generic solutions are easier.
fightinmad your suggestions were generally fine, but as I said regarding the stress points, we like to beef them up a bit. Another example is doorknob holes in the drywall. Usually they are small and and can be just mudded in, bit we put some backing behind because it tends to happen over and over.
