Shadowing Practice: How to Fix Holes in Drywall - 4 Easy Methods - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi there, I'm Nils with Learn2DIY and sometimes bad stuff happens to your drywall.

So today we're going to cover all of these types of damage

and we're going to show you how to fix each one of them.

Now, just about every hole that you'll find in drywall falls into one of four types.

Basically, you've got something that's really small, like an inch, inch and a half or smaller,

maybe that's two and a half, three centimeters and that's something

that we can patch a certain way up from there you got anything between

that size and maybe fist size four or five inches or

so and then from there you've got something that's big enough

that it's in between your studs or maybe it's even over a stud

but it needs some support so we're talking stuff that's about this big

or smaller maybe seven eight inches nine inches in that range

and then lastly we've got some major damage like what we showed over here

and this is just going to need to have a whole section replaced.

So those are the four types we're going to cover.

And with those four types, we're going to show you the best and quickest way to handle each of those.

And then I've put chapters below so you can actually skip ahead to the section that matches your situation best.

And then with that, we'll show you how to do the patches for each one.

And then at the end of the video,

I'll show you how to match that texture and make it look smooth and just like the wall was before,

whether you've got orange peel or a Santa Fe or knockdown or a completely smooth wall.

Now to start off with we had this really small hole right over here

that was about an inch and then we had another one in this lower left corner

and with something like that anything that is about an inch

or so maybe two and a half centimeters or so and smaller you can actually just patch that just with mud.

You don't really need tape you don't need a patch kit necessarily

and you can use those things but they're not going to help a whole lot

because it's such a small hole it should be easy enough to work with.

With that, what you're going to do is take some mud

that you get at the store and you can buy this in this larger bucket like this for about $6.

They're actually really inexpensive.

You can also buy powder that you mix up yourself

or you can buy a really small container if you just have a small hole like that.

Now with that, you're going to use a putty knife.

I would recommend using one that's at least three or four inches in width and with the knife like that,

a mud knife, you're just going to take it and we're going to fill in that hole as best we can.

You want to be pretty generous in pushing that mud back into

that hole to make sure that it's really backfilled

and there's plenty in there so that it's nice and strong when it dries.

Now on the first coat, you're going to have some bubbling.

It's going to bulge out a little bit.

It's not going to want to stay in place really well, and that's okay.

We're going to just put that in there as well as we can, cover it up, and then we'll let that sit.

Now with this fist size hole that we've got over here, there's a few ways that you can tackle this.

I'll show you all three and two of them are very similar.

With the first one, you can buy a large patch that's a mesh adhesive patch like this one here.

We can actually just apply this eight by eight patch over the whole thing.

And the goal here is really simple.

We're going to clean up our edges, make sure it looks good.

And then we're going to smooth

that patch out as best we can to make sure there's no creases or wrinkles or any issues with that patch.

And it's nice and smooth.

And then we're going to take our mud and we're going to fill

that in and push a lot of that mud into the area

that has the hole in it and you can see from the back here

when you push mud in through these patches like this it's kind of a play -doh fun factory effect

and that's what we want we want to get a lot of

that back there to rebuild that drywall that's back behind there

and once we've got

that filled in really nicely through the area behind the patch

then we're gonna cover up the whole patch itself using

that same knife and our goal here is just to get it nice

and clean it doesn't have to be perfect we just want it to look really good and cover up everything that's there.

So that's option number one for your first coat.

Option number two is what's called the Presto Patch.

The Presto Patch is a really simple idea.

Basically it's a four inch circle of half inch drywall

and then it's got a larger section of paper that we'll use to blend that in with the surrounding wall.

So the idea with this one is you take the styrofoam that came with it, it's a template, you trace out your template with pencil

and then we're going to cut that out with a knife

and get that circle just the right size to match that Presto Patch.

Now once we've got that circle cut out, we're going to liberally apply mud all around the inside of the circle as best

you can also apply it around the outside of the circle where the paper goes.

And then don't forget to apply it also to the plug itself.

So you'll want to apply that mud liberally to the patch itself, especially on the top of it,

of that circle where some of the gravity will have pulled it down from the hole in the wall.

And then we're going to push that in.

And from there, we're going to use our knife to pull across.

We're going to pull from the center outward

and we're going to smooth all of that mud out from underneath the paper

and try to get that nice and smooth and matching up with the contour of the wall again.

Now, just like before we want to cover it enough

that it's covering everything there and we're not going to have anything peeking through,

but not so much that it's going to take two years to dry where we're going to have to sand for eternity.

Now the third technique that we can use for a hole like this is we can use what's called a California patch.

Now with that, we're doing the same thing that we saw with the Presto patch,

but this time we're actually cutting our own essentially out of drywall.

The first step in doing something like this is cutting out

a square as big as it needs to be to get good, strong drywall all around it.

So anything that's been roughed up or broken, especially on that backside, we want to cut that out

and make that square as big as it needs to be to where

We've got good solid drywall there.

So I'm using a square about this big here.

I'm going to clean up my edges and make sure it looks decent.

Then I'm going to use a piece of drywall.

I'm going to cut a piece that's about an inch and a half bigger on all sides than that square.

So let's say this was a five by five.

Then we want to cut a piece of drywall.

That's about eight by eight.

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That leaves us with that inch and a half all the way around.

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Now, once you've got that piece, you can hold the piece right up to the wall,

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use your knife to score a line all the way down one side

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and all the way down the inside that's just a little bit smaller than the hole.

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Now we're going to flip it to the other side for the height and do the same thing.

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We're going to have that square in the middle that's going to keep there and end up being our plug.

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From there you're going to snap off and then you're going to peel everything but that front paper off.

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So you're going to get all the gypsum and

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that back paper removed on all four sides so

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that you end up with a plug like this just like the presto patch

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but one that we made ourselves

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and then from there the technique is exactly like what we showed with the presto patch

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we're gonna line the outside of this

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and the inside of the hole with mud

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we're gonna line mud all over the inside of the patch itself i'm gonna push

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that in after we've got the right fit

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and we've dry fitted it to make sure it works okay

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we're gonna smooth out all the mud from all of the paper.

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And then we're going to cover the whole thing in its first coat.

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Now the only difference between the second type of hole and the third type of hole in your drywall is backing.

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If it's a little bit bigger, if it's anything bigger than about fist size, I would recommend that you put some backer boards on it.

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And this technique is really simple.

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You just need a couple of scraps of wood.

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Could be anything.

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Plywood works really well because it doesn't split very easily, but you can use some leftover MDF, some trim,

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just some one by pine that you have lying around anything will work pretty well

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and what you want to do is cut it so

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that it extends out a couple of inches past the width of the hole on both sides

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or the height whichever way you want to go it doesn't matter

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if you put these horizontally or vertically really

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but our goal is to provide four corners for the patch to screw into

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and then those four corners are supported by screws into the drywall around it

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so we're going to drive some screws with these boards here we're going to drive them right into the board

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and have that pucker the board right up tight against the drywall

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and then once i've got those two boards in i end up with a nice area

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and support for my patch to go into now a fix

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like this you can actually go fairly large on this

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if you've got a 10 inch hole for example then it can cover something like

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that pretty easily as long as you've got that support

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and you've cleaned up your square and you've got made sure that you've got good drywall to work with.

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What you don't want to do is kind of go skimpy on the size of the hole

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that you cut for this and then have weak drywall to work with around it

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because this depends on the strength of the drywall surrounding the hole that you've cut out.

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Now our fourth type of hole is the largest thing.

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That's where there's a lot of damage.

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Somebody body checked the whole wall or something like that

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or got thrown into it and you've got a large amount of damage here and it's pretty beat up.

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With that what I would recommend doing every time is just cutting it out from stud to stud.

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You're going to need a stud finder

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that you can rely on to find exactly where the studs are and then you're gonna mark those on your wall.

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Once you have those studs marked you can use a jab saw or drywall saw.

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You can also use a knife for this like a box cutter like we've been using

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but a jab saw makes quick work of this and we're gonna cut from stud to stud.

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We're also going to cut right down along the inside of the two studs where we're working.

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So now that we know exactly where the inside of the studs are, we want to come over about three quarters of an inch

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or about half the thickness of the stud

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and we're going to use a knife and we're going to open that section up.

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The goal here is to have a lip

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or a secure area for the new piece of drywall that we're going to put in to sit on.

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We're going to actually have it span from stud to stud

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and it will then be able to use those studs to fasten in

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and hold in place really well now just like with the california patch

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we could create a large california patch here to fit in this area

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but i'm going to show you how to do this with mesh tape instead

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which is a very common method for a larger area like this

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so basically we're going to fasten this new piece in we're going to use our drywall screws

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and drive it in we're going to apply some of our yellow adhesive mesh tape

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we're going to apply one piece on each side try not to overlap them

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because that just adds to the thickness of the of the covering that we have to do.

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And then use your knife to tear it.

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It makes a nice straight line.

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It's really easy to work with.

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And once we've got all four sides covered up there, then we're just going to apply mud just like before into those seams.

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We're going to push that in.

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And from the back, you can see what this looks like.

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We're really just pushing that mud really thick into

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that area to try to cover as much of that half inch section or five eighths inch section as we can.

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So we're going to just cover this all up so that you can't see the tape anymore.

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Again, it doesn't have to be perfect on the first coat.

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And we're going to do our best to get it nice and covered.

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We'll come back the next day and the next day we can go through and sand this.

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And you can do this with a hand sanded sponge like this guy here, or you can do this with a orbital sander for example

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or a palm sander if you have one

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but make sure to wear proper respiration this is going to kick a lot of dust up

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so make sure that your lungs are protected i would recommend some goggles

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or safety glasses as well

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so our second coat we are going to use a larger knife

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and i'm going to try to cover that up

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and smooth everything over after it's been sanded so we'll put

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that second coat on we call it a skim coat

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and what i also recommend doing there is mixing up some water into your pan.

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So if you have a mud pan, if you don't, you can use something similar to it.

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But mud pans are awesome because they have a blade on either side to scrape that extra mud off of.

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And it gives you a nice clean blade every time you use it or a nice clean knife.

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So we're going to use that and we're going to skim across here and we're going to get this nice and covered.

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And hopefully it ends up with a pretty smooth finish.

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Now, depending on if you're working with kind of a knockdown style

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or Santa Fe style texture on your wall versus an orange peel, you might end up with some,

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you know, high spots and low spots and things like that.

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But again, the goal is just to get it as smooth as we can.

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I'm going to feather on that outside, feather on this outside, same with the top and the bottom,

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creating a nice, smooth transition.

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and then one down the middle.

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There we go.

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Okay.

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And that makes all the difference having a good blade.

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It really does help.

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So if you can get one, these things are pretty cheap too.

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I think they're usually around 10 bucks for a metal blade like this.

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I've been using this one for years and it works well.

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Now, depending on how that comes out with that second coat, you might need to come back and sand it into a third coat,

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or maybe it's looking good at that second coat

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and you're ready to place texture now no matter what size the patch was

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that we had to take care of on the wall you want to make sure to use something

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that matches the texture afterward so

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if you've got an orange peel sort of texture on your wall

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and you finish it smooth it's going to look like it was patched same with

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if you do the opposite now they do sell different textures

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that you can purchase you can buy these online

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and i'll put links in the description below they come in different size cans

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and there's different ways to do it but i'll put some of my favorites

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and then you can also stop at the local hardware store and pick up this wall texture in a can.

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They've got orange peel like you see here and then they also have a knockdown variety.

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Now with both of these you've got different settings.

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You can move this tab from side to side to adjust the pressure

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that it sprays and then you can twist this knob here to adjust the coarseness or fineness of the spray.

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So you might want to experiment on a piece of cardboard

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or an unseen area just to make sure that you're not trying this out for the first time on your actual wall.

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And then you can just spray it in circular motion like this

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and this actual spray is in bad shape for whatever reason

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it's not spraying out very well typically it will spray a little bit better than this

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but you get the idea so we're gonna cover that up

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and then you'll end up with a hopefully a decent matching orange peel texture now

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if you don't have orange peel but you have something more like the Santa Fe

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or knockdown texture and you can recognize that by how it has some areas

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that are raised and some

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that are lowered it looks kind of like this kind euro texture going on to it it's very traditional

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it's been around for a long time so if you have

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that texture you can also buy some knockdown texture in a can

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and just here is very similar you're going to spray it in kind of a random pattern around the area

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that needs to be treated and then you're going to use a 10

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or 12 inch knife and pull across it really evenly

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and your goal is to leave this as smooth as possible you don't want any little streaks

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or cuts or scrape marks in there or anything like that, because this is kind of the final coat that you're going to be doing.

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Now, if you don't want to use the can,

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you can also just use this by hand with some mud and just dab some mud on here in different areas, kind of randomly.

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You want to make sure to not make it look like it's in rows or lines or anything like that.

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So keep that as random as possible.

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And then just like before, you're going to take your 10 or 12 inch knife and pull it across.

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Go in various directions if you need to, to try to get that nice smooth finish to it.

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And if you have a good blade, a metal blade makes it so much easier.

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I've tried this with the plastic ones and they don't really do very well.

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But with that metal blade, you can pull that across and get a really good texture.

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And your goal is to leave some of the areas a little lower, some a little higher.

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So you have that knockdown or Santa Fe look to it.

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Now, the last thing to do is just paint.

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So make sure that you get all of the dust off there.

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This stuff can be really porous.

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It can really soak up a lot of that paint,

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but you don't want to end up with a lot of dust on your roller while you're doing this.

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And as you can see here, this wall that was full of holes just a couple of days ago.

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is now patched up and looks good.

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Now one tool that was really helpful on these larger patches, especially like this one up here, is a good stud finder.

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Knowing exactly where that stud is, having an accurate representation of that.

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I did a video a little while ago on several different stud finders compared.

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We did the stud finder showdown.

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So if you want to check that out and see which one works best for you, you can click on that link right up there.

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Thanks for watching.

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I'm Nils, and we'll see you on the next one.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Fix Holes in Drywall - 4 Easy Methods”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: patch, mud, hole, stud, drywall. This video has 268 sentences and 3606 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:37. The speaker talks fast, about 231 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
patch noun	/pæt͡ʃ/	A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a…
stud noun	/stʌd/	A male animal, especially a stud horse (stallion), kept for breeding.
knife noun	/ˈnaɪ̯f/	A utensil or a tool designed for cutting, consisting of a flat piece of hard material, usually steel or other metal (the blade), usually sharpened on one edge…
smooth adjective	/smuːð/	Having a texture that lacks friction. Not rough.
texture noun	/ˈtɛkst͡ʃə(ɹ)/	The feel or shape of a surface or substance; the smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. of something.
coat noun	/ˈkoʊ̯t/	An outer garment covering the upper torso and arms.
blade noun	/bleɪd/	The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
spray noun	/spɹeɪ/	A fine, gentle, dispersed mist of liquid.
peel verb	/piːl/	To remove the skin or outer covering of.
sand noun	/sænd/	Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in…
tape noun	/teɪ̯p/	Flexible material in a roll with a sticky surface on one or both sides; adhesive tape.
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
dust noun	/dʌst/	Fine, dry particles of matter found in the air and covering the surface of objects, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair, fiber…
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
plug noun	/plʌɡ/	A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
clean up verb	To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy.
cover up verb	To conceal or disguise.
cut out verb	To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something).
come back verb	To return to a place.
mix up verb	To mix or blend thoroughly and completely.
beat up verb	To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows.
come out with verb	To say (something) unexpectedly.
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We've got good solid drywall there.
Then I'm going to use a piece of drywall.
We're going to push that in.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	we've been using · I've been using
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	been roughed · is cut · are supported
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've put · that's been roughed · you've cleaned
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might end · might need · might want

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 143 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, you're, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: smooth /smuːð/, width /ˈwɪtθ/, thickness /ˈθɪknəs/, feather /ˈfɛðə/, thick /θɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: mesh /mɛʃ/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, respiration /ɹɛspɪˈɹeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, eternity /əˈtɜɹnəti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like patch, stud, knife.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How to Fix Holes in Drywall - 4 Easy Methods - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?