How to Repair Damaged Sheetrock Walls

It happens. Your moving a piece of furniture and it slides too far and hit’s the wall. Oh no! Look at that! Caved in, cracked, dented. A hole in your perfect wall. It can be fixed! You know what else also happens? Time. As time passes and your house settles and shifts sheetrock will often crack. It’s usually not the actual sheetrock itself that is cracking you know, it is a seem where two pieces of sheetrock meet and have been mudded. This problem too can easily be fixed.

The supplies you’ll need to fix any blemish in a sheetrock wall are sheetrock compound also called MUD, a sheet rocking tool called a sheetrock saw which looks like a kitchen knife in a way, some fresh sheetrock to be used when damaged area is cut out if need be, another sheet rocking tool called a sheetrock knife which is used to spread the sheetrock compound on the wall and make it smooth, sheetrock tape which is sticky on one side and comes in a roll which is used for seems, a screwdriver or drill, sheetrock screws, and finally some sandpaper. After repair supplies include paint which is the same color as the rest of the wall is, or replacement wallpaper to match the repaired area.

Now it’s time to approach the damaged area. Look at it. If it is little you can most likely repair it without cutting the area out and replacing the sheetrock. Rather, you can simply apply tape over the area like a cross and then use your sheet rocking knife to apply the sheetrock compound. Once dry sand until smooth to the touch. Once sanded repaint or re-wallpaper the area. That’s it!

Cracks in the wall get the same treatment as the little holes and dents do. Really tiny holes or dents do not need to be taped. Neither do hairline cracks.

Larger holes are a different story. Large holes cannot be repaired with tape and mud alone. In order to repair a large hole the sheetrock of the damaged area needs to be replaced. You’ll need all of your sheetrock tools for this job, but it really is not that hard to do.

First thing is first. The damaged area needs to be cut out. Use your sheetrock saw for this job. Cut out a square or rectangle around the area. All straight, even sides. Vertically speaking cut the damaged sheetrock across the very top and bottom edges of the damaged area. Horizontally speaking cut all the way over to the stud on each side. You must cut horizontally to the stud or else you will have nothing to screw your fresh sheetrock to. Studs are two inches wide. Once you get to the edge of the stud you’ll need to keep going one half of an inch. Remove the old screws too. Once the area is fully cut out measure it and cut a fresh piece the same size to fit the area. Insert the fresh piece with your screws and drill or screwdriver. Tape the seems and mud. Sand to smooth. Repaint or re-wallpaper and you are done! Damage be gone!