How do I go about fixing holes in plaster walls? I recently pulled my baseboards off and there were some holes

Question

There was water damage to my house and when I went to remove my old baseboards some of the plaster just crumbled leaving gaping holes. I need to put up new baseboards, but don't have much to nail them to.

Answer 1

You can buy some sheetrock at a lumber yard or home improvement center (or maybe even pick up some free scraps). Cut it with a utility knife to size and screw pieces in place with dry wall screws to replace the crumbled plaster. You may have to remove more plaster to expose the studs, which are the best places to screw the sheetrock to (I'm assuming you are talking about lath (wooden strips) and plaster in your wall; if what's crumbling is sheetrock (hard plaster between two sheets of paper), then just cut out the bad parts with a utility knife, back to a stud. After you've screwed on the new sheetrock pieces, use joint compound to plaster up the gaps.

If you've just got small holes, you can just use joint compound to fill them up. You could also just apply joint compound over big areas of lath, but I find for larger gaps that it works better to screw up a piece of sheetrock to cover most of the hole, then patch up the edges.

If your crumbling wall is sheetrock, measure the thickness of it so you can buy the same thickness. If it's lathe and plaster, measure the thickness from the surface of the lathe to the surface of the plaster.

Also note that joint compound shrinks when it dries. Its best to apply it to the holes, smoothing with a putty knife, let it completely dry (a day), then do it again (it will have cracked and sunk in spots). Professionals also use joint tape, but this seems overkill since the repair will be hidden behind a baseboard.

Answer 2

Use caulking made especially for the job. You can find it in various colors at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. You can sand it down and paint over it. And it beats using toothpaste, which my grandson used in his bedroom.

If holes are very large, you'll need to wedge some solid material into the hole before you add the caulking, something to give the area some greater substance and strength than just the caulking---maybe a small chip or block of wood. Then just apply the caulk, filling in all the small gaps and then smoothing the surface. It's a piece of cake.

Answer 3

cut a small piece of thin wood just as high as the hole and about one inch longer... put a long screw in to the center of it ... on each end of the long sides brush some glue... put one long end of the stick in the hole and then using the screw as a handle move it to one side of the hole so that the other end fits in... move the screw back to the center so the hole is covered or at least most of it ... pull on the screw for just a bit and the glue will being to stick to the back side of the wall covering then leave it ...after it is set up.. about 30 minutes usually then gently unscrew the screw and glue in a piece of sheetrock to cover most of the hole then simply plaster over it with rock mud and sand it after it dries

Answer 4

assuming you have "plaster over slat" walls, you can get a 4.5 pound bucket of drywall plaster at lowes pretty cheap, and simply replaster, dry, sand smooth, and repaint the area

or you can tear/cut out the slats so that a piece of drywall can be cut and hung...

have a good one