Before I get started–no, this is not about a strange kind of facial hair.
I was recently hanging some sheets of drywall in my basement when I totally messed up my cutout location for an electrical outlet. Since I like my drywall cutouts to be butted up nice and tight against my outlet boxes, I decided to grab another sheet and make the cut all over again. Second time is sometimes the charm.
With the first sheet ashamedly sporting my cutout error, I went ahead and hung it on the wall anyway. Nothing a little patchwork can’t handle…
And that’s where the inspiration for this article came into focus: the California patch.
I learned this about a year ago watching one of my favorite YouTubers: Jeff Thorman.*
If you’ve never heard of this method for patching drywall, get ready to get learnt! It is, by far, the fastest, cheapest, easiest method for drywall patching that gives excellent results every time. And even better—you don’t need any tools that you wouldn’t already have on hand for drywalling.
Materials Needed:
- (Maybe) a drywall saw.
- A piece of scrap drywall that is about 1.5 inches larger on all sides than the hole you want to patch.
- Rock knife.
- Drywall mud.
- Drywall taping knife.
- A can-do attitude.
How to do a California Patch
Step 1: Prep Your Materials
Square off the hole you are going to patch. For this to work easily, the hole can’t look like a circle or some kind of Jackson Pollock-esque nonsense. It doesn’t have to be a perfect square or rectangle, but get it close. If this is a necessary step for you, use your drywall saw. Then, take your scrap piece of drywall and cut it so that it’s about 1.5 to 2 inches larger than the hole on all sides.
Step 2: Prep Your Patch
Hold the drywall scrap piece up against the hole with the back of it facing you (brown side away from the hole). Slide the piece down so that you can see the left and right extent of the hole and cut about a quarter-inch in from both sides of the hole (our aim is to make a piece that is slightly smaller than the hole you’re trying to fill). Repeat this step to cut the top and bottom extent of the patch. Or draw the outline onto your scrap piece (like I did) and then cut it out.
Next, break your piece and remove the gypsum and rear (brown) paper without tearing the face paper (white/green). If this step was a bit hard to follow, hopefully the photos here will help clear up any confusion.
Finally, dry fit the patch into the hole to ensure it will fully fit. If you encounter any resistance, trim a little bit extra off and try again.
Step 3: Mud
Spread some drywall mud onto the wall surrounding your hole, ensuring you have enough to cover the full surface area of the patch face. Then, mud the back of the exposed paper of the patch and work some mud onto the edges of the gypsum. Getting the mud onto the exposed edges of the gypsum seems to be an important step here because it will eventually form a great bond once the patch is applied.
Step 4: Apply Your Patch
The moment of truth… stick your patch into the hole and use your taping knife to press it to a depth level with the rest of the wall. Then, use your knife to remove excess mud by scraping flush the corners and edges of the patch onto the wall, from the center of the patch outward.
Step 5: Let it Cure
Walk away. Let it dry for a few days if you can.
Step 6: Mud Coat and Sand as Needed
After it’s dry, mud over the whole patch with a wide drywall knife. Once that’s dry, sand it and check out whether or not you need another mud coat. If not, you’re all done and ready to paint.
Bonus Patch!
I realized I got a little screwy with another piece of drywall I hung, so the spot I cut out for the junction box was a little off. So here’s another little application of the California patch for your viewing pleasure:
For this one, I just cut out three sides of the patch and applied it as I did the first go around. With a little more mud, you’ll never know it was there!
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it. I was skeptical of this method at first, but damn if it didn’t work better than any patch I’ve ever applied. The secret to why this works so well is that the paper face on drywall is thinner than drywall tape (which would be used traditionally to join the seams of your patch). As a result, you barely have to build up a bed of mud to obscure the patch. Brilliant.
Hopefully this provided a good intro to the California patch. Try it out the next time you need to patch some drywall and let me know how it went in the comments!
*Jeff has a great knack for teaching. I first came across one of his videos on soundproofing a room and ended up quickly devouring most of his video content. If you want to learn basic skills for DIY renovations, this guy’s channel is an amazing resource.
