A hole in the wall basically removes the entire fluid symmetry that your home has. No matter how small these holes are, it just sometimes annoys us to the point that we just remove our eyes from it in horror. Aside from being such an eyesore, holes can also be the breeding ground for some of the smaller monstrosities of most households. It is very easy to repair a hole in the wall, but we must first know how to do it correctly.
Know what type of filling material is best to use for a specific type of hole. Different kinds of walls and wall composition need different kinds of materials to fix them up. You don’t always need to use the exact same material of the wall itself to repair a hole in the wall, and you can use other similar alternatives. Also, remember to remove any obstruction around the area where the hole is, so even if there would be slight errors or misses you can fix the early and easily.
If the hole is in a plaster wall, you need to use the same plaster material that was used for your plaster wall (can be different, but should be at least of the same color and preferably of greater durability). Fill up the hole using the material. This would be your first coat. Now, plaster materials often shrink just before they completely dry up, and so you’ll have to go for a second coating to finish it all off. Once the second coating dries, just make the surface smooth again using sandpaper.
For concrete walls, you don’t just pour over wet concrete on the hole immediately. The wet concrete would just flow outward and leave you with another mess to clean. Before pouring the concrete on the hole, try to get something that can make the concrete hold onto itself while it dries up inside. It can be anything that you can fit inside without obstructing any section of the hole. Chicken wire can be used here, as you can easily fit one inside a concrete wall hole without obstructing the flow of the wet concrete. Once done fitting the holding material, pour one layer of wet concrete. Repeat the procedure several times while the last layer dries up until you completely fill the hole up.
Holes from walls made of wood are a bit trickier to fix, mainly because there are relatively few materials that can mimic the texture and look of genuine wood. Fortunately though, there are materials that can do this, namely, the standard wood putty. Just like how you apply the plaster material into a plaster wall hole, you also apply the wood putty using a putty knife, only this time there are now drying sessions and no waiting for drying coats. After filling the hole with the wood putty, simply use the sandpaper again to level the surface and you are all done.
The hole in the concrete wall is to be repaired, before you think of applying a fresh coat of paint on the wall. I find it quite convenient to fill the hole with plaster of Paris, or simply with the cement paste.
Alan,
Offering FloMix for Asphalt Repair