Magically Delicious Drywall Patch

I recently needed to patch a large portion of drywall in the garage. I found some neat hacks to fix small holes on Instagram. Basically, the repair person scores the back of the patch to the size of the hole, cracks the patch on the score line without cutting the front paper, and peels away the excess wallboard, leaving the front paper as tape. Then, the back of the patch is mudded and inserted. Finally, the front is mudded. It is a neat trick and a good way to fill the void between the patch and the hole.

However, my patch needed much more drywall, and my patch piece was not much larger than the hole itself. I decided to use the power of (a) Lucky Charms (cereal box) for my repair. This is my first time making a template for a repair like this. I made a cardboard template and sized it to fit the hole. Then, I used the template to cut out the drywall patch. I made a mistake and put the template on the wrong side of the drywall. However, since it was for the garage and the wall is textured, it wasn’t too big of a mistake.

Overall, the repair was a success. The patch made a tight fit in the hole with minimal final adjustments needed. This is one of those projects that I did not want to start. The thought of getting an appropriately sized patch piece from the limited-sized repair board I had on hand kept me from starting. Mudding the seams kept me from wanting to begin. In the end, I took it a step at a time. I made the template one day. I cut the patch the next day. I screwed the patch in on day three. I mudded on day four and day five.

What projects are you keeping yourself from starting? Please let me know below. Let’s figure out the first step together and begin to make progress.

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