Bathroom Drywall Repair

Bathroom drywall repair can be a challenge for anyone, but especially for the novice who has little or no experience with installing or repairing drywall. The biggest challenge to repairing drywall in a bathroom often comes from finding a paint that resists the humidity and moisture typically found in a bathroom. If you have the right paint, tools, and advice, you can—even if you are a novice—repair your own bathroom drywall. Check out the required tools, materials, and the 5 steps listed below.

Repairing Peeling Paint

Moisture and humidity in a bathroom can often cause the paint to peel from drywall. To repair any peeling paint, first scrape off the loose paint with a paint scraper, joint knife, or putty knife. Apply joint compound to the surface with a joint knife to hide edges of paint that remain after you have removed the peeling paint.

Sanding

When the joint compound is dry, use the edge of your joint knife, or putty knife, to remove the ridges made by the compound build-up. Then, use a sanding block and fine grade of sandpaper to sand the repaired area and prepare it for your primer. Another option to remove these ridges is to use a wet sponge. Be sure you squeeze excess water from the sponge, then wipe the wet sponge gently across the ridges until they are smoothed out. Allow the surface to dry.

Repairing Drywall Dents and Scratches

If your drywall has shallow scratches or gouges, and if these damaged spots do not extend all the way through the drywall, fill them with joint compound, and then sand and smooth the surface as in Step 2.

Repairing Deep or Broad Holes

At times, gouges and holes made in drywall are too deep or wide to fill with only the drywall compound. You can, however, repair them with the use of a large piece of scrap drywall and mud. First, locate two wall studs running parallel with the gouge, one stud on each side. Draw a rectangle, or long box, on the wall around the gouge. The right and left ends of the box should be long enough that each box end can be centered on a wall stud.

Next, use a keyhole saw to cut this box out of the drywall sheet. Hold this cut out piece against a separate, unused drywall sheet. Draw another rectangle on this sheet, using the edges of the first rectangle as a guide. Then, cut out this second rectangle and fit it into the space created when you cut out the first rectangle. Next, drive two drywall screws through the rectangle and into the wall stud behind it. Finally, fill with mud the spaces between the rectangle and the main drywall sheet. Allow the mud to dry, then sand ridges made from the drywall compound.

Apply Primer and Paint

Apply latex primer, and when the primer is dry, brush on polymethyl methacrylate-based paint.