Beginner Carpentry & Home Repair

Part 1

Finding the stud — why things fall off walls

Drywall is about half an inch of compressed chalk. It holds nothing. Everything heavy must reach the timber studs behind it, or use an anchor designed for the load. This one concept prevents most failed DIY.

1. 1

   Know the spacing

   Studs are almost always 16 inches apart, center to center — occasionally 24 in newer or cheaper construction. Find one and you can measure to the rest. They always sit beside windows and doors, and at every corner.

2. 2

   Use an electronic finder properly

   Start flat on the wall away from the target, hold the button, and slide slowly. Mark where it first lights up, then approach from the other side and mark again. The stud center is between your two marks. Approaching from one side only gives you an edge, not a center.

3. 3

   The no-tool methods

   Knock along the wall with a knuckle — hollow between studs, solid and dull over one. Or look for the tiny dimples of drywall screws in raking light, which run in a vertical line straight down a stud. Electrical boxes are also nailed to the side of a stud, so there is one right beside every socket.

4. 4

   Confirm before committing

   Drive a small finishing nail where you think the center is. Solid resistance the whole way means timber. If it goes through into space, you missed — and a pinhole is nothing to patch. Always confirm with a nail before drilling a big hole.

Part 2

Anchors — the right one for the weight

When you cannot hit a stud, the anchor does the work. Choosing wrong is why shelves end up on the floor with a crater above them.

• Into a stud, with a wood screw: strongest by far. Always the first choice for anything heavy — shelves, TVs, cabinets, grab rails.
• Plastic expansion plug: light duty only, maybe 10 lbs. Fine for a small picture. Not for a shelf that will get loaded.
• Self-drilling threaded anchor: screws straight into drywall, no pilot hole, holds around 25–50 lbs. The best general-purpose choice for medium items.
• Toggle bolt or snaptoggle: a metal bar that flips open behind the wall. Genuinely strong, 50–100+ lbs. Use for heavy mirrors and cabinets where no stud is available.
• Anything that holds a person — grab rails, handrails, climbing holds — must go into studs or solid blocking. Never an anchor alone. A failed grab rail injures the person who needed it most.
• A wall-mounted TV must hit at least two studs. Every viral video of a TV on the floor is a drywall anchor doing exactly what it was rated to do.

Part 3

Patching holes in drywall

Three sizes, three methods. All of them are more forgiving than people expect, because the final sanding hides a great deal.

1. 1

   Nail holes and small dents

   Press lightweight filler in with a putty knife, leaving it very slightly proud of the wall. Let it dry fully — rushing is the main cause of bad patches. Sand flush with fine paper, then prime the spot before painting, or the patch will drink the paint and show as a dull circle.

2. 2

   Holes up to a few inches

   Use a self-adhesive mesh patch. Stick it centred over the hole, then spread joint compound over it with a wide knife, feathering the edges well outward. Two or three thin coats, sanding between, beats one thick one every time — thick compound cracks as it dries.

3. 3

   Large holes — the California patch

   Cut a square of new drywall bigger than the hole. On its back, score and snap away the gypsum around the edges, leaving an inch of paper facing all round. Cut the wall hole square, put the plug in, and bed that paper flange into compound. The paper acts as its own tape, and it is the tidiest repair there is.

4. 4

   Feather, do not build

   The commonest mistake is making the patch flat and the edges abrupt. Spread each coat wider than the last — eight or ten inches out for a big patch. The eye sees edges, not thickness.

5. 5

   Texture and paint

   If your walls are textured, spray texture in a can matches most finishes; practice on cardboard to get the distance right. Prime, then paint. Painting a whole wall corner-to-corner hides a repair far better than spot-painting ever will.

Part 4

Doors that stick, drag or will not latch

Nearly always one of three causes, and the first one is free.

1. 1

   Tighten the hinges first

   Doors sag because hinge screws work loose. Tighten every screw on both leaves. If a screw just spins, the hole is stripped: take it out, tap in a wooden matchstick or golf tee with wood glue, snap it flush, let it dry, and drive the screw again into fresh timber.

2. 2

   The long-screw trick

   Replace one short screw in the top hinge, on the frame side, with a three-inch screw. That reaches past the frame into the structural timber behind it and pulls the whole door back up. It fixes a huge proportion of sagging doors in five minutes.

3. 3

   Find where it actually rubs

   Slide a piece of paper around the closed door's edge; where it will not pass, that is your contact point. Or close it on a strip of carbon-marked paper. Do not guess and start planing.

4. 4

   Latch not catching

   Look at the strike plate on the frame — the latch usually misses by a fraction. You can often file the plate opening slightly, or unscrew it and shift it a couple of millimetres. Only if it is far out should you move the plate properly and fill the old screw holes.

5. 5

   Planing, as a last resort

   Only after hinges. Mark the rub area, take the door off, and remove a very little at a time from the hinge edge rather than the latch edge where possible. You cannot put wood back.

Part 5

Habits that make everything come out straight

• Measure twice, cut once. It is a cliché because the alternative is buying the timber again.
• Mark with an X on the waste side of your line, so you always cut the correct side of it.
• Drill a pilot hole before any screw near the end of a board, or it will split.
• Level everything, and check again after the first screw — things move as you fix them.
• Clamp or have someone hold the work. Chasing a moving workpiece is how hands get cut.
• Safety glasses on before the tool starts, every time. It only takes one chip.
• Photograph anything before you take it apart. You will not remember which way round it went.
• Buy a little more material than you need. Returning the offcut is cheaper than a second trip.
• Start with something that does not matter. Your first shelf should live in the garage.