At Absolute Painting we pride ourselves in doing the finest wall repairs when preparing a home to be painted. Many homeowners attempt to do wall repairs themselves and have difficulty. The most common mistake they make is to take a spackle knife and try to fix a small nail hole with putty. This will take a small problem and make it big. When this happens we have to sand down the area and apply new texture which takes much longer than the original issue to fix.
If you are just filling small cracks, holes, dings or dents in drywall you can purchase what is called lightweight spackle. Most of these small repairs can be done by dipping your fingers in the container and pressing the spackle into the hole. You can smooth it out with your hand or finger and remove all excess spackle so only the damaged area has it. Make sure to push the spackle deep into the hole. If the hole is larger than a dime you may need a different product such as drywall mud which is a bit more difficult to use.
If the area you are fixing is very large then you may need to sand it down and apply texture to it to make it blend in to the wall. Most homes in the Portland area have orange peel texture that you can purchase in a can at your local paint store. You do need to practice with this stuff on cardboard to get the hang of it prior to using on your wall. You should prime any areas that you texture prior to painting so it will blend in well.
If you have settling cracks in your home you may need to use a flexible product to fill the cracks such as caulking. It will not dry hard so it will expand and contract with your home. Lightweight texture will dry very quickly in small areas and can be painted in most cases within a couple hours. Drywall mud comes in various forms and can dry extremely fast. It is easy to sand and can do larger repairs than spackle.
If you have any questions about wall repairs please contact Absolute Painting & Power Washing and we will be glad to assist you.
