Help! Need to patch 90 holes in drywall.

[John Dorough]

Problem: I am going to have my garage/workshop walls insulated (blown). Insulation company sez I need to have a 3" hole at top of wall, with a small air escape hole at the bottom, for each 16" section of wall space. That means a total of 90 holes.

Questions: What is the best method for creating the 45 3" holes; and, perhaps more importantly, what is the best, easiest, and fastest method for repairing those holes (in preparation for painting) when the job is done?

[I am assuming the 45 air escape holes will be small enough that I will be able to use joint compound to simply "patch" the holes fairly easily. Should my assumption be in error, please feel free to advise.]

Thanks, in advance for your assistance.

John

[Ed Labadie]

I would use a 3" hole saw to do the holes at the top of the wall.

To repair them.....trim the garage with 1x6 pine, prime and paint to match. Make sure you layout the holes evenly and far enough up so that the trim board will catch them.
Theres no easy way to fix a 3" hole in the center of a stud cavity.

Ed

[John Dorough]

Ed,

I hope any suggestions that follow are as simple and ingenious as is yours. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about and dreading the laborious task of repairing all those holes. In one fell swoop, you have given me a suggestion that makes perfect sense and cuts anticipated work time by an incredible amount hours.

Your response is yet another example of why I enjoy SMC so much.

Thank you so much for your help.

John

[Rob Russell]

Interesting idea. If you really secure the 1x6 well, you might even be able to hang stuff from it.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

If adding some trim isn't going to work, you could always just snap a line along the top, maybe 6" from the top, then cut the drywall (with all the holes) out, and then replace it with new pieces. you'd have to tape/mud some seams, and add screws to secure the top of the drywall, but you wouldn't have to repair all those holes.

I like the trim piece better though.

[Jim O'Dell]

I like Ed's idea if you can get the holes up high enough to make it work. If not, stay with the hole saw idea, save all the cut-outs, Use a 2 1/2" wide piece of wood that you can slip into the wall cavity through the hole. Screw through the drywall into the wood to hold it in place where it is across the hole. Screw the disc back in the hole. Tape, mud, texture and paint. Like I said, I like Ed's idea better.
Something someone did in our previous house, garage and outside the house, was to cut some squares of thin wood, turn them at an angle so it was a diamond shape, and nail them over the holes. A little crude, but it worked. Jim.

[Steve Leverich]

Or, a combination - if the 3" holes don't have to be at the VERY TOP, put 'em down a bit and use your "cover strip" as half of a french cleat system for hanging cabinets, etc... Steve

[Sam Layton]

John, does your walls have fire blocks. If so, you will need the 3" hole at the top of the wall and one below the fire block. The walls in my house as well as my shop have fire blocks in every stud bay.

Sam

[Anthony Whitesell]

I'll have to agree with the trim/hanging cleat idea as the best. But if you want to repair them, it's more time than work, and here's how.

1. Keep the 'holes' that were cut with the hole saw
2. Cut a series of 5" long, 1-2" wide, 1/2" thick pieces of wood.
3. Slip the piece of wood inside each hole and fasten it with a drywall screw on either side of the hole so it bridges the opening.
4. Take one of the 'holes' you kept from step 1 and fasten it to the piece of wood with a drywall screw or two
5. Spackle, sand, and paint.

[Greg Cole]

Anthony's got some good advice there.
Works for patching a 6" hole for a can light that was in wrong place.... twice. DAMKHIT. I will say I did just install can lights in my kitcken though.
Going to have the same scenario this fall too as my garage has no insulation between the 'rock in the shop and the subfloor overhead. They just don't build in the midwest like I'm used to in New England.

Cheers.
Greg

[Chris Holder]

I like Ed's idea if you can get the holes up high enough to make it work. If not, stay with the hole saw idea, save all the cut-outs, Use a 2 1/2" wide piece of wood that you can slip into the wall cavity through the hole. Screw through the drywall into the wood to hold it in place where it is across the hole. Screw the disc back in the hole. Tape, mud, texture and paint. Like I said, I like Ed's idea better.
Something someone did in our previous house, garage and outside the house, was to cut some squares of thin wood, turn them at an angle so it was a diamond shape, and nail them over the holes. A little crude, but it worked. Jim.

Beat me to it, Jim. That was going to be my suggestion. But the 1X6 would no doubt be easier- just less cost effective.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Just like Anthony said is how I have done it.

I do like the 1X6 idea, especially to use for hanging, etc. If you have to hold it down from the cieling a bit, use a chalk line to keep them at the same istance down.

[Scott Kilroy]

My first thought regarding this tread was "mom always said don't play with guns in the house"


Anthony's idea seems like the way to go for me. I'm having a similar insulation put into the walls of my home (it's a brick house) and I wasn't sure about the best way to repair the walls.

[Bob Albrecht]

I would use a 3" hole saw to do the holes at the top of the wall.

To repair them.....trim the garage with 1x6 pine, prime and paint to match. Make sure you layout the holes evenly and far enough up so that the trim board will catch them.
Theres no easy way to fix a 3" hole in the center of a stud cavity.

Ed

This is similar to a job I did but in a house and we covered the holes with crown molding takes no time at all!!!

[Chris Padilla]

I didn't have so many holes to fill when I poked some holes in my den's ceiling to fish wire but what I did was to experiment a bit with hole saw such that the plug to fill the hole was snug. I used mud like glue to patch it in.

If you have a drill press, you can omit the drill bit in the middle of the hole saw and punch out "clean" circles....