Don't Play (Foot)ball in the House



Mom always said...

Owning a home is expensive but you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself. In the case of our hole in the wall here it's money not spent that's even better than saving money. You can  teach your children lessons above and beyond responsibility and accountability; they get to learn the most important lesson of all--a handy home improvement tip.

One day our boys were playing football in the basement; not just football but tackle football. Guess what happened next. After the yelling and screaming died down and the "he did its" went back and forth we had a fairly big hole in the basement wall. Excellent.

Fixing holes in sheetrock walls is not hard, it just requires knowledge. Knowledge is power. Power is not having to call a painter in and drop a couple of hundred dollars to repair something that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Regardless of the size of the hole in the wall here's all you need: fresh sheetrock (Lowe's and Home Depot sell 2X2 sheetrock panels for about $5), wall joint compound, pencil, spackling knife, sheetrock saw, power drill with screwdriver attachment, plywood, sheetrock screws, 3/4 inch drill bit, and a straight edge with level. Once you got all that let's get at it.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. First, we draw a box around our hole. We also take note of any obstructions that could complicate the project like a power line.

After you finish drawing the box around the hole cut out the box with a sheetrock saw. The father in me has to point out that you need to be as careful as possible not to cut into that live wire.

Important to clean as you go. Sawing sheetrock makes a lot of dust. The sound of the Dust Buster in mid-project also makes mom happy.

Next, take your plywood and cut to approximately a third larger than the size of the hole in the wall. Then drill a hole in the middle of the board so you can hold it up against the inside of the wall.

One of the toughest parts of this job is holding the plywood against the inside of the wall as you drill sheetrock screws into the outside of the hole to secure it. 

Measure the hole and cut a piece of sheetrock from the size of the hole. Once again be sure to clean as you go. Or cut this outside or in the garage. Minimizes the mess.

Then put the sheetrock patch against the plywood and put sheet rock screws in to secure it to the plywood.

I apply two to three thick coats of spackle to fill in nooks and crannies and then four if not five thin coats to get rid of any seams.

Toughest thing is matching the paint. Hopefully you have some paint leftover from when the wall had last been painted. In this case we were planning on repainting this room anyway so the boys lucked out. And I lucked out because I got to spend an hour or so with my son laughing and being silly.