Repairing Drywall with Butterflies Part 1

I learned this patch as a butterfly patch, but I have seen the same patch called a “hat patch” and a “top patch”, but all use the same method. The only difference I have noticed is that most other methods teach you to cut the damaged drywall out first and then cut a patch to fit. The butterfly method I learned is the opposite, we cut the drywall first then take the cut piece of drywall and trace around the damage. This way you do not have to make persist measurements. To figure out what size to cut the drywall, you will need to roughly measure the damaged area,

and add three inches. The butterfly patch can patch a hole from two inches to twelve inches. After you measure the widest part of the damage, add three inches to your measurements and cut a new piece of drywall that size. This cut does not have to be exact. To cut the drywall, but the finished side up and score the cut lines with the razor knife, break at scored marks. Now put the finished side of the drywall face down and score the back of the drywall all the way around about 1.5 inches.


Now peel the 1.5 inches of drywall off the paper and try not to ripe the paper on the face of the drywall.



Now you are ready to mark the wall