How to Repair a Hole in the Wall

RON HAZELTON:
Now when you've got a couple of young kids around the house like I do, this kind of damage is well, not all that surprising. What I think happened here is that my daughter found it was a lot of fun to swing on this gate and her weight simply pulled that toggle right out of the wall. Now I need to make a repair here that's strong enough to hold the new toggle when I put it back in again.

Before starting, I head out to my van to get a couple of tools and the material I'll need to make the repair.

Now this is a scrap piece of half-inch wallboard. It's the same material the wall is made of. The first thing I'm going to do is to cut a small patch out of this that's slightly larger than the damaged area right here.

To cut wallboard, I make one or two passes over the paper front with a sharp knife, break the board, then score or cut the paper on the back. I always like to keep a few wallboard scraps around just for repairs like this. Next, I trace the patch over the damaged area and trace the outline onto the wall. I also mark the top. Now this is a wallboard saw. You notice there's a really nice sharp point right here.

So to get this started, all I've really got to do is place this on the line, kind of give a little bit of a twist and a push and it goes right in.
[SOUND OF SAWING]
Well, that's just about a perfect fit. And when you think about it, well, it really has to be because I used the patch as a template to draw the outline and then I put this arrow up here, so when I put this back in, it's in the same position as it was when I drew the outline.

Next, I apply some glue to the back of the patch, lay a piece of quarter inch plywood on top and attach it by driving screws through the wallboard and into the wood. Now this long screw right here is going to be a handle. So I'll put a little bit of glue on this backer board, [     ?     ] as kind of tabs, all right.

Now I'm going to slip the whole patch up inside the hole, I'll grip that nail and secure this patch in place by running two screws through the wall into that piece of plywood in the back.

With the patch secured in place, I fill the gaps around the edges with joint compound. After letting it dry and sanding it smooth, I touch up the paint. Next, I reposition the gatepost, drill a locator hole, bore a larger half-inch opening, insert the bolt, screw on the toggle, push it into the wall and tighten.

Well there we go, good as new. Actually, this is a little bit better than new because that toggle is now resting on the plywood and not just on the wallboard. But I am going to have a little chat with my daughter and see if I can't find something else for her to swing on.