While moving a new couch into my apartment, it got bumped into my wall and there’s a notable indentation. I’d like this fixed but I’m not sure what type of repair person to hire? I think it’s above the level of a general handyman.
Heya, Dale.
You’ll probably wind up with two things to get fixed.
The dent needs to be filled which then needs to be painted.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a painter could do both, though.
If it is just a dent and not a hole, it can probably be easily filled with putty and sanded smooth. Painters routinely do this sort of thing for nail and anchor holes from wall hangings.
I hope it isn’t on a large, colorful wall as matching the paint might be challenging.
A “dent”:
- In what? Wood, pllasterboard/sheetrock/drywall. what?
- How deep? Is the surface broken?
An average homeowner could probably fix a dent. How clutzy are the “handymen” in your world?
As the above poster has noted, it depends upon just how big this ‘dent’ is. And to some, degree, what the wall is made from.
If it is any size less than (say) the palm of your hand it is more than likely something that any home handyman (or yourself) could easily fix.
The repair will either be quite simple, or slightly complicated, depending upon the area and finish of the wall it is on.
Read the following to see if you could do it yourself. It’s actually easier than you might think;
Filling the ‘hole’ is pretty simple. Purchase a small pot of readi-mixed (sandable) filler (some would call it ‘spackle’) and carefully plaster it (with a knife, etc) into the dent, leaving the filled area just slightly above the level surface of the wall. Keep things as clean as possible and don’t spread the repair any wider than you need to. The best way is to ‘screed’ carefully across the filled hole before the spackle hardens (with a straight-edge, ruler, etc), sand when dry, then probably add a little more filler to the imperfections. Then sand again, (using 150 grit sandpaper) and a flat wooden block. You should sand it to the extent that it you cannot feel the transition from the wall when you run your fingers across the filled hole.
(This is not exactly how a professional would do it, but I’m trying to keep things cheap and simple).
Now; see how it looks. You might be able to live with it as it is. If possible, you really want to avoid having to paint the entire wall.
The cheapest way out is to buy a small ‘test pot’ of paint from a decorating shop after taking a few color-cards home and matching the shade (in good bright light). Sometimes they give these away free, hoping you’ll buy a pail.
You don’t even have to buy a brush - a small square of foam-rubber will allow you to ‘dab’ the matching paint on to the repair. You can buy small disposable foam rollers too.
I have done dozens of repairs like yours and although I would use slightly more sophisticated equipment than I describe, I have done many small repairs exactly in the way I’ve outlined.
A painter will generally also be able to do drywall work to fix the dent.
You can try to fix it yourself, but the tricky part is making the repair invisible. That’s not always easy if the patch is large. Not only do you have to make the repair flat with the rest of the wall, but you’ll have to match the wall texture and properly prime and repaint.
If the dent is less than the size of a quarter, you can fix it yourself and it won’t be too noticeable. Anything bigger and you may want a pro for an invisible repair. You can try it yourself if you’re patient. Drywall work can be more of an art than just following a series of steps. So depending on your touch, you could get great results on your own.
Youtube has many drywall videos. I like the ones that Russ Olinatz does. The link goes to a series where he fixes a hole. It will give you an idea of the steps you’ll need to do. But that series ends with just the patch. You would still need to match the texture and prime to get a truly invisible repair.
There’s not too much harm in trying to fix it yourself. The worse that happens is that your repair would need to get sanded down and redone.
For a simple wall dent, I always figured the repair person was yourself. I mean how hard is it to fix a wall?
I am not handy at all, and I have managed to fix or help fix large holes from people going through walls, as well as small dents.
Sure handy man can do that.
He won’t do the big bulk jobs because he doesn’t have equipment, or he might but he costs too much … But a small section of wall is no problem…
The general strategy for where its just small dent , is
- fill
- sand
- paint
- sand to ensure flat.
- paint again
In the same group saying that this is an easy fix for a homeowner. Texture after the fill and paint (depending on the size of the ‘dent’) can be tricky. As is matching the color
You can buy spray texture, and full wall fix kits at places like Home Depot or Lowes.
Any reasonably good handy man or painter should be able to do this.
Probably not. It’s pretty easy to repair drywall, but the tricky part is to texture it to match the surrounding area. A patch may be a few square inches, but you could easily end up texturing an area 5 - 10x as big in order to blend it in well. Otherwise, it’s always going to look like a patch. You need a skilled tradesman to do the texturing right.
And you might end up having to paint the entire wall to blend in the paint, too. If the wall has not been painted for a few years, it’s not going to look the same with paint fresh out of the can.
In achieving a satisfactory result there are quite a few factors that are hard to assess from the brief description given by the poster. I take it that it is a ‘small’ dent, and not a largish ‘hole’. I was trying to keep the cost of your repair below $10.
Details, such as the size of the patch and just where it is on the wall, together with the amount and type of light shining on it would determine the success of the repair.
As I mentioned above, if the ‘dent’ is smaller than a handprint it should be relatively easy for almost anyone to fill with ‘plaster’ and sand smooth. It is important to get the patch flush with the wall surface and ‘feather’ out its edges so that in running your fingers across it in all directions you cannot feel any discrepancies.
The materials you use are pretty user-friendly, and even if the repair doesn’t look right after painting, it can easily be added to or sanded again.
I agree that the painting is probably the hardest part to get right.
However, I stand by my earlier suggestion that a very cheap and successful matching could be made by using a small ‘test pot’ (sample), having first done a match off a color-chart.
And then, by carefully using a small piece of (flat) sponge-rubber it is possible to replicate almost any existing color and texture. And you can feather the paint into the existing finish by dexterously dabbing.
I have done this (mainly on rental properties) many times. You can have confidence that, provided the ‘patch’ isn’t too extensive, no matter what job you do it’s never reversible and at worst you will end up with something that probably looks a lot better than the dent.
It’s called sanding. Most experienced painters can do it.
It’s more than just sanding. If you just sand, you’ll end up with a smooth spot on the wall which won’t match the rest of the texture when viewed from the side. Head-on it might look okay, but you’ll notice the patch when you look along the wall. Typically, a wall will have a light texture sprayed on it. A large spot without texture will stand out. You’ll want to match the texture, either by using a sponge to create it or spraying it on. They sell cans of texture and you can spray it on yourself, but it takes some practice to get it right. Don’t spray the wall until you’ve practiced somewhere else first.
Furthermore, if you don’t prime the patch, the paint will absorb differently in that spot and have a different sheen than the rest of the wall. It will look dull and flat.
The easiest wall to fix would be a white wall painted with flat paint. Anything with heavy texture, color, or a paint with a sheen will make a patch stand out more. Even if you get the texture right, you may end up needing to repaint the whole wall to truly hide the patch.
It’s not really difficult, but you want to take your time and do it right. I highly recommend you try to patch it yourself first, since wall dings will be a pretty frequent thing you’ll need to fix. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.
WTF are you talking about. Ceilings get texture, walls get painted.
We got out handyman to do our repainting, and while he did so he fixed all of our dents and stuff.
But I had covered a dent near the baseboard by getting an outlet cover with no plugs and screwing it over the hole. It looked like it belonged there and worked fine until we repainted and it really got fixed.
If the dent is high enough, hang a picture over it.
If it’s low, put furniture in front of it.
Are your walls flat and smooth? In some places they do that, where the walls are perfectly smooth. But in most places the walls have a slight texture sprayed on them so they look like orange peel or something similar. The texture hides minor flaws, so it’s a lot faster and cheaper for the builder to spray texture than get the wall perfectly flat.
In cannot speak for everywhere, but where I come from (New Zealand) dry-wall walls are rarely sprayed for texture. And, if they are it is usually a oncer, done during construction. How do you re-spray easily once the building is occupied?
Varying texture or stippling is normally achieved by using ‘ordinary’ paint and varying types of paint rollers on flat drywall. And this can be redone at any time, with minimal mess.
This also makes ‘temporary’ repairs (in between total room redecorations) pretty simple.
Provided you can closely match the color, it is relatively easy for even the home diy-er to disguise any repair with a little dexterous stippling with a piece of sponge. (You can’t easily do this using a brush or spraycan).
You’re thinking of popcorn ceilings. That’s a whole different animal. But walls are typically textured. There are all types, and the styles change over time.
Take a picture of the damage to the hardware store and ask what you will need to make the repair.
Unless it is significantly worse than your description, an average homeowner can fix this adequately, as can any painter, handyperson, etc.