Measure the hole before starting repair.
When you own your own home, seeing a hole in your drywall can be really frustrating. You've went through all the work to attain a mortgage loan, work forty hours a week to make the payments, and still everything seems to take time and money! But what if you had another option that didn't take nearly as much of your time and money? That solution is known as skillful home improvement. Even if you've never fancied yourself a do-it-yourselfer, with this article, you may just find yourself inspired.
First, repairing a small hole in your drywall will mean finding some necessary tools. In addition to primer and properly-colored paint, you'll want to find a wallboard taping knife at least half a foot wide, a drywall sanding block, wallboard joint compound, and a metal drywall patch with adhesive mesh. Note: you're going to want to measure the drywall hole size before buying the metal drywall patch.
Measure the hole in your drywall - since we describe it as a "small" hole, there's a good chance it's somewhere up to 8 inches. Once you've got it measured, go to your hardware store and buy the drywall patch mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Once you have this patch, you can simply peel it and apply it to the part of the wall with the hole in it.
Take your wallboard taping knife and apply the wallboard joint compound to the patch, being sure to fill all of the holes in the area. Give it a good two or three coats to make sure the entire area is well-covered and relatively smooth (if it's not perfect, don't worry; you'll be sanding it down once it dries).
After waiting for it to dry, take your sanding block and sand off the area so that it's smooth and consistent with the rest of the drywall. Don't worry about making mistakes, because you can simply fill those in and begin the process of filling in and sanding over again. It's frustrating, sure, but that doesn't mean you can't get past it.
With the area properly sanded and dried, you should be ready to apply the primer. Now you can put the primer on the area and wait for it to dry. Once it's dried, roll the paint on (much like how you would apply the paint on the rest of the wall) and voila! You have a fixed drywall hole.
Photo Credits: soxophone player
Originally posted 2009-09-30 03:55:55.
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Posted by Fix Handyman on January 26, 2010 in
Drywall, Handyman, How to Fix
There's the chip.
If you've been driving behind a truck carrying stones, looking for a way to drive through traffic and get out of harm's way, you're definitely irritated when one of the rocks slips out and comes down on your windshield, chipping it slightly. Even if you know a lot about cars, this inconvenience seems like a waste of time and money to get fixed, especially since it feels like it never should have happened. But thinking about the problem won't fix the chip. Here's how a chip in your windshield can be fixed.
First, remember that fixing chips in your windshield is usually best left to professionals. Unless you've fixed chips before, this article will only serve as a demonstration of how chips are fixed by technicians who know how to work with glass. Even though glass is all around us in our daily lives, it is still a highly fragile and brittle material that can easily form into sharp edges that can do a lot of damage to someone who's not being cautious.
Glass professionals will be able to drill into your glass windshield and apply some sort of vacuum pressure to prepare the area. The professional will then inject resin into the windshield, which will work to fill the affected area as if the glass was always there. Once this has been injected, it is cured by ultraviolet light and then scraped smooth.
This is ideally what happens, but not always how it goes down. A chip present in a windshield means that there's a strong possibility the glass can crack, causing further damage to the windshield and making a total replacement necessary. That's why your chip repair costs can be higher than you expected - not because anyone is ripping you off, but because of the fragile nature of glass. If you could work with glass, you would probably understand the complications that often arise in glass repair. It's often best to simply replace glass instead of repairing it.
Now that you know a little more about the chip in your windshield, you should try to strive for better prevention. Stay clear of debris-stirring or carrying trucks that might drop a stone on your windshield. If you're careful about how you drive, you should be able to avoid a chip in your windshield.
Once you do notice a chip in your windshield, be sure to have it taken care of as quickly as you can. Be sure to ask professionals for advice about what to do before you take the car in for treatment.
Photo Credits: Lee Bennett
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Posted by Fix Handyman on August 3, 2009 in
Car, How to Fix, Mechanic
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