Friday, October 23, 2009

Drywall patch.....what material do I use?

Drywall patch....what material do I use? Good question. When I patch drywall, I use a material product called "quickset". The actual drywall patch material is not called that at the store though.

The reason why you would want to use this drywall patch product (quickset), rather than regular wet style drywall mud, is because wet drywall mud will shrink between coats & the shrinking process lasts all the way through the necessary drying time between coats & it usually takes a day (between coats) for this type of mud to properly dry between coats so you cannot complete your drywall patch project in 1 day (depending on how large your patch is).

The drywall patch material is located near the sheetrock/drywall area & you will see white bags of dry material with different numbers on them ie. 5, 20, 30, 45, & 90. You're looking at the right drywall patch bags. This drywall patch material is a fast drying non-shrinking drywall patch material thus its better known name of "quickset".

The associated number on the bag will tell you how long it will take for the drywall patch material to harden so you can then apply another coat of drywall patch material over it. These numbers mean minutes, so the 5 will mean that is how many minutes (5 minutes) it will take before you can apply another coat,etc..

If you have a smallish drywall patch/hole to cover, I would recommend something like the 30 minute or 45 minute quickset (if this is the first time you will be using the drywall patch product). I myself would generally use the 20 minute drywall patch material/quickset but I've used the product alot & know how it will respond,etc..

This drywall patch material comes in a dry form as you will need to mix the patch material in water before applying it to your wall. Mix the drywall patch material in a drywall pan with a 3" drywall putty knife. Start out with only putting a little of the drywall patch material in your pan to start off with (you don't want to mix up too much the first couple of times until you get use to this drywall patch material & how it goes on the wall,etc.).

It's also important to realize that if you get the drywall patch material that says 30 on it (for example), that doesn't mean you have 30 minutes to apply the drywall patch material to your wall. You will only have a certain amount of time to apply this drywall patch material to your wall patch. Mix up a little & you will see what I mean.

I would say you have maybe 6 or 7 minutes to apply the product to your wall (this is apprx. as the time may differ from batch to batch you mix up depending on how much water you put in). It also depends on how much you mix up in your pan & how big your drywall patch areas are. The quicker you put it on the wall, the better.

Use this drywall patch material for your taping & first coat of topping only. You do not want to apply your skin/skim coat (last coat) with this drywall patch product. I would recommend you using the regular mud, all purpose or topping sheetrock mud for your skim coat.

You want to apply a thin layer (skim coat) of "all purpose" or "topping" mud over your drywall patch material at your drywall patch on the wall. Your all purpose &/or topping mud are the "wet" drywall mud products you will find at the hardware store near the sheetrock/drywall materials area.

It's important to realize that no matter how smooth you apply the drywall patch material (quickset), you do NOT want to paint over it. If that's the only thing you remember from this article/post, you can put a gold star by your name. The reason is this:

The drywall patch material (quickset) is a very pourous material & when it dries, it will never accept paint the same as everything else on your wall. You will see the drywall patch & it will stick out like a sore thumb, no matter how smooth of a job you did.

That's why you have to apply the "all purpose" or "topping" drywall material (better known as mud) over the drywall patch material (quickset) in order for your paint to blend in to the rest of the paint on your wall(s). You call this last coat the skim coat because it's a very thin layer applied over the topping layer.

So let's review: You will use three layers of mud to your drywall patch. The first layer is the tape layer...that is the first coat of drywall patch material you will be using for your patch (to put your tape on with). Then you will apply a topping coat using the drywall patch material for this coat....this is the overall 2nd coat. You then will apply a skim coat (last of 3 coats) using wet all purpose or topping mud. So you will have 3 coats of mud ie. tape, top, & skim for a total of 3.

Try this drywall patch material & I think you will find it easier to patch your drywall patches!

Click here to get some free video painting tips for your drywall patch

Patch On!

VideoJoeKnows

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