If you are fond of constantly redecorating your wall by hanging a variety of picture frames on it, your wall might contain many small holes. These can prevent your house from looking at its best, but how do you fix them quickly?
To fix a small hole in the wall fast, you will need a putty knife, sandpaper, and specialized filling solutions for your wall type. Spackling paste for drywall and plaster, concrete filling paste for concrete, putty for wood, and brick powder and sealer for bricks.
No matter what type of wall you have, this article will provide you with an in-depth guide on how to fix these holes in a day or less.
Find Out What Kind of Wall You Have
To get the appropriate and correct materials needed to fix your wall, you need to find out what type of wall you have. Here is a list of some of the popular materials that might have been used to construct your wall:
- Wood
- Drywall
- Concrete
- Masonry
- Plaster
If you cannot figure it out just by looking at your wall, you are likely dealing with either drywall, plaster, or concrete.
When you rap on drywall with your knuckles, it will produce a very hollow sound as compared to a concrete wall. Here is a video you can watch that clearly illustrates the difference:
However, drywall can be used to cover denser substances like bricks, which will prevent the production of hollow sounds. In this case, a slightly more destructive way to find out which type of wall you have is to drive a nail into a small, unobtrusive section. Drywall will easily give way but it might seem impossible to drive a nail into a plaster or concrete wall without a tool like a hammer.
Once you know what kind of wall you have, it is time to learn how to fix it.
Quick Fixes You Want to Avoid
You might have read articles advising you to use toothpaste, toothpicks, or such to fill in the hole. It might seem like it gets the job done, but it will look shoddy and will not last long. Instead, follow the techniques suggested below.
How to Fix a Hole in Drywall Fast
Tools
To fix drywall fast, you need the following:
- A good-quality spackling paste. Ensure that the paste has the same tone as your wall. You can pick a tube up from a hardware store or order this DAP INC White Spackling Paste from Amazon.
- A knife. The kind of knife does not matter, but you need a flat, hard, steel knife that can cover some area to spread the spackling paste. If you don’t have any, I recommend this MSKEI Putty Knife Set.
- Fine-grit sandpaper. Available at your local hardware store, or you can get this 3M General Purpose Sandpaper.
The Process
Now that you have these items, you can finally start the repair. Here are the steps to fixing a hole in drywall:
- Chip away any splinters near the hole.
- Smear the spackling paste over and into the hole.
- Use your knife to scrape away any excess.
- Allow the mixture to dry.
- Reapply if necessary.
- Sand the hardened mixture down until it is even with your wall.
Normal drywall spackle only takes a maximum of three hours to dry. You can be done in less than 24 hours. However, if you want your wall to look clean and even, consider painting the wall.
Paint stores like Nippon have a paint color chart that you can look at to match your shade. If you cannot find the correct shade, scrape some paint off your wall and go to the nearest paint store to match it. Otherwise, there are also online applications where you can match pictures of your wall to the nearest paint shade in the manufacturer’s inventory.
You should only be applying paint 24h after the spackle has dried. Otherwise, your paint will run and not set properly.
You can also use the spackling paste to fix your plaster walls. Special products like this DTDR Spackling Paste can be used on both drywall and plaster. Alternatively, if you have a great amount of damage done to your plaster walls, you can find a patching plaster in your hardware store to fix up your walls.
Fixing a Hole in a Brick Wall Fast
To fix a hole in your brick wall fast, all you need are:
Brick
A brick that is the same color as the ones used for your wall. If you have any excess bricks lying around in your storeroom, now is the perfect time to use them. Otherwise, get some from your local hardware store.
Brick Sealer
If you lack some, use this Black Diamond StoneWorks Sealer. Otherwise, you can find any sealant at your hardware store. Make sure to buy one that bonds to bricks and is exterior rated.
Now, you can use these step-by-step instructions to fill in the holes in your exposed brick wall:
- Use a vacuum or brush to get as much dust and dirt out of the hole as possible.
- Remove any wall anchors in the hole.
- Scratch the brick that you have with sandpaper, knives, anything that you can get your hands on to form a fine powder the same color as your bricks.
- Fill the hole up completely with sealant.
- Immediately apply the brick powder over the sealant to conceal the hole.
- Leave it to cure and harden.
Fixing Holes in Wooden Walls
These are the tools that you will need to fix holes in wood:
- Damp cloth
- Wood putty that blends in with your wood color. This DAP 4-color value pack is amazing because it blends in with numerous wood shades and is very easy to apply.
- Hole repair kit
To fix the hole quickly:
- Scrape off peeling wood splinters with a knife or screwdriver.
- Using wet hands, try to squeeze as much putty as you can into the hole.
- Taking the damp cloth, clean off the excess on top of and around it.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the hole is sufficiently camouflaged.
You can find more detailed instructions in this article.
Fixing Holes in Concrete Walls
When holes in concrete develop, you should have these tools on hand to fill them:
- Concrete Filler. Use this DAP Liquid Cement Crack Filler if you don’t feel like going to the hardware store to find some on the shelves.
- Trowel. A putty knife will do as well. All you need is a flat tool to smoothen the concrete over the hole.
To fix the holes:
- Squirt the concrete caulk into the hole.
- Smoothen it out, so the concrete is on an even surface with the rest of the wall.
- Wait approximately 30 min for it to dry.
- Reapply as needed.
Concrete caulk dries very fast and hardens completely in 24h. If you apply this caulk, it will seem like you have a pristine wall within an hour, even if the caulk takes 24 hours to harden completely.
Conclusion
Fixing small holes in your wall is not impossible with the right materials. Be sure to use certified and proper chemicals to make any repairs, preventing the need to patch up your wall often. These can be found in your local hardware store, or via the Amazon links in this article.
Never go for instant fixes advertised online. You might see some suggestions to grind up walnuts, toothpicks, and super glue them into a hole, but these repairs will never be permanent and will always look uglier than if you had gone for a more professional route.
