Small drywall holes: what you can patch yourself, and what to call in
A doorknob-sized hole is a weekend fix. A damp, spreading stain is something else entirely.
Most small drywall holes — nail pops, doorknob dings, a picture hook that tore out — are genuinely manageable with a patch kit, some joint compound and patience across a couple of dry coats.
Where it gets more complicated is size and cause. Anything larger than about a dinner plate usually needs a backing piece to hold its shape, and texture matching gets harder to blend in by hand the bigger the patch gets.
The bigger flag is moisture. If a hole or crack has a stain around it, feels soft, or keeps reappearing after you patch it, that's usually a symptom of a leak somewhere else — a roof, a pipe, or window flashing — and patching the drywall without finding the source just delays the real repair.
When in doubt, a quick photo and a short description is usually enough for us to tell you whether it's a same-visit patch or something that needs a closer look first.
Source: EPA Indoor Air Quality
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