Rant: I was using the wrong kind of spackle for years without knowing

I was patching a wall in my old Denver apartment and the repair kept cracking after a few months. My dad came over, saw the dusty, powdery mess I was working with, and just said, 'You're still using that lightweight stuff? That's for nail holes.' He handed me a tub of DAP Fast 'N Final, which is a setting-type compound. I'd been using the wrong product for bigger gaps the whole time, thinking all spackle was the same. Anyone have a favorite setting compound for bigger drywall patches?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan_hill24d ago

Forget the compound for a second and check the backing. If you're filling a hole bigger than a quarter, you need to put a piece of drywall or a mesh patch behind it first. No spackle, not even the good setting kind, will hold a big gap by itself without something solid to stick to.

abbyp6124d agoProlific Poster

My last landlord just slathered joint compound over a fist-sized hole. That patch held for the entire three years I lived there, no backing at all. Maybe the rules aren't as strict as people say.

holly70924d ago

That "maybe the rules aren't as strict" part is the dangerous takeaway... just because a bad patch didn't fall down for three years doesn't mean it was done right. It was pure luck that it held, and the next person to put a nail in that wall or even lean on it is gonna have a real mess. The rules about backing for big holes exist because physics doesn't care about landlord shortcuts.