How do I fix a very large hole in my ceiling?

Question

O.k. so I'm renting an older house turned into an apartment building and a friend of mine went into the attic and fell through the ceiling (after we told him not to) he's going to help us pay for a fix it but we're not sure how to go about doing it. The hole is probably 3ft long and 1 ft. wide and it looks like its drywall. I thought maybe get a large peice of drywall cut it, nail it to the beams in the attic and then blend it into the rest of the ceiling with some kind of putty. Its a drywall ceiling with no texture. I've been reading about having to get mesh tape and boards with holes in it, frankly i'm confused with so much information out there. Is anyone who has done this before and had it be a success? Or any BEST way of doing it?

my landlord does know about this which is the least of her problems because we're willing to fix it. she's got other tenants who broke a toilet fixture and then left, letting it leak all over the floor and warp it so she's pretty pleased we're nice enough to fix it haha

Answer 1

You already have the basics you state in your Q. LARGE suggests spanning beams/rafters with a piece of drywall at the thickness, probably 1/2 inch. Making sure that the cut back area is at least centered on the Beam, even if you remove screwes to replace them. The beam is approx 1.5 inches, allowing you 3/4 inche for supporting the existing, remaining adjacent ceiling, as well as the patch. That may mean cutting away even more than the damaged area, and certainly to square up the patch in any case.

The CUTS you make on the patch will not all be at the depressed side/sides or the drywall, but can be if you enlarge the damaged hole. A sheet of drywall is 4 ft wide, most usually. That would allow that only 2 cut ends would be flush with the existing ceiling.

Mesh tape is best, and is usually modestly adhesive. Don't NAIL,,,use drywall screws.

MUD is best done in no less than 3 steps, as it shrinks in drying. Think of it this way,,,even if it takes MORE time. With regard to MUD, in this case, "LESS is MORE". Even the best can't expect a flush, non sandable surface in one swipe. HOT MUD is a technique you should probably not even investigate.

Obviously adding tape and mud will require sanding, an eventual repainting. The issue with regard to invisible is so often an illusion, in that when you MUD then sand, you're "Feathering" the patch to make it appear,,,in a decent job, that it too is flush, and vanishes. To accomplish that as a DIY you can use ceiling paint lightly rolled over your best patch efforts to judge any rise or depression, etc.

I want to assume you're honesty in alerting the landlord, but I'm not the OOOPS police.

Steven Wolf
thousands of sq. ft. of drywall
hundreds of gallons of MUD and paint

Answer 2

You have the right Idea with getting drywall and cutting it to the measurements of the hole. To make it easier. Take a straight line and trim the edges of the hole, then cut the drywall slightly bigger than the hole (I'm talking 1/4 of a centimeter bigger) then use drywall screws to attach it to the studs in the ceiling. Use some smooth sandpaper around the edge to take off the roughness/extra. The tape that you will need is drywall tape. You need it to help blend the seams together. It isn't very expensive, and it's really easy. Follow the directions on the packaging and then use joint compound/plaster to cover over the tape. You will end up going a few inches on either side of the tape to make it smooth and not noticeable, and it will probably take a few coats. It's not very hard to do, and not extremely expensive either. Good Luck!

also, ask someone at your local hardware store for any tips.

Answer 3

get a piece of dry wall, cut the old dry wall out showing only 1/2 of the stud on two side,
get two 2x4's cut to the width between the studs you will need to toenail them in making sure 1/2 the 2x4 sticks into the opening and the other half is under the existing ceiling this not only gives you something for support but something to nail the other two ends of the dry wall too.
nail the dry wall up,
get some seam tape put it over all four sides to hide the cracks where the old and new go together, or you can use spackle and a putty knife and using the putty knife push the spackle in the crack then using the putty knife and smooth it out, let it dry completely at least a afternoon or put a fan on it for a couple hours
get some paint and paint the whole ceiling as it will look obvious if you only paint the area you fixed.

Answer 4

You will need to trim the hole so it has straight edges in the shape of a rectangle, and the two edges parallel to the joists need to be cut halfway across the wood, so that you have half the joist showing along those two edges. That's so that you have something to nail the new piece to. You will need the proper drywall tape to cover the joins, and the proper drywall "mud" to do the cover-up. I would suggest drilling some holes for the nails along the edges to be nailed, so that you don't risk breaks, and be careful when nailing so that the head of the nail just barely touches the gyproc.

Then you will put a thin layer of mud over the joins, wide enough to take the tape, which goes on top of the mud. Then you wait for it to dry thoroughly. After that, you add more mud in thin layers so that the tape is completely hidden, letting each layer dry completely. When you get enough on, you then have to sand it down with very fine sandpaper to minimize the bump. Finally, repaint the whole ceiling.

Ask questions of the guys/gals at your building supply store to confirm my suggestions (or change them!), and tell you exactly how to apply the mud and tape.

Answer 5

With a hole that big your best bet is to remove the whole pc. of drywall.I do not know what size it is without looking at it.It may be a cut in or poss ably a full sheet,4'x8'.Whatever the size replace it and make sure it is the same thickness,1/2" or whatever.You will need plaster and tape.Better known as tape and bedding.Nail the sheetrock then tape the two sides and then "float" in the plaster.Depending on how good a job you do with the floating will depend on how much you will have to sand it smooth,top off with paint and you have a new ceiling.Have a great time,it is actually fun!!

Answer 6

I know superglue can be used for a 1001 different ways but fixing the roof is not one of them.