i am doing work in my laundry room and added recessed lites. however i have two 6 inch holes that were going to be lights but we changed our mind, i used the cutout dry wall and secured it in the hole. question is do i just spackle it in or do i need to use tape with the spackle.the other question is smaller holes from existing plumbing( smaller than 2 inch) do i need to use tape with spackle here too?? thanks in advance for any replies

You need to use tape for any patch larger than about 3/8". Use the mesh style fiberglass tape - it is self sticking and easier to work with compared to paper tape. It's also stronger and works better for repairs.

Still plan on 2-3 THIN coats of mud (spackle) on top of the tape.

thanks jaybee, now i should be on the right track to doing this right the first time lol thanks again

Just remember to use thin coats. Everyone new to drywall mudding puts it on way too thick. A correct coat of drywall mud is about as thick as a sheet of paper. Any more and you are just looking at a lot of sanding and a lot of mess.

Jimbodog:

You should be aware that joint compound for repairing drywall comes in 3 flavours:

1. Regular or "Taping" - which has the most glue in it, sticks the best and dries the hardest.

2. Finish or "Topping" - which has the least glue in it, dries the softest and is the easiest to sand smooth.

3. "All Purpose" - which is half way between 1 and 2 and is popular with contractors because it allows them to use one compound for everything instead of carrying two compounds around with them.

NOW, paper or fiberglass mesh tape is intended to be embedded in Regular joint compound, which will glue the paper or fiberglass mesh tape to the drywall the best. The problem is that you then need to use a Finish joint compound over that Regular joint compound so that your joint compound is easy to sand smooth.

But, you can sidestep that problem...

After you apply your fiberglass mesh tape over your repair, paint that fiberglass mesh with white wood glue diluted with enough water to make it into a paintable consistancy.

As the glue dries, it'll bond the fiberglass mesh to the drywall and surrounding surface as well or better than Regular joint compound would.

Then apply several coats of Finish joint compound to your repair. That way, it's the glue that bonds the fiberglass mesh to the drywall, not the first coat of joint compound.

That saves you from having to buy two kinds of joint compound.

And, of course, you can also mix diluted white wood glue into your Finish joint compound to make it stick better and dry harder, just like Regular joint compound.

Every joint compound shrinks as it dries, so you always have to apply multiple coats to fill in the shrinkage no matter what joint compound you use.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS work with a bright light near the wall or ceiling you're repairing, but some distance away so that the light exagerates the roughness of your repair.

When the repair looks "not that bad" under such critical lighting, it'll look OK under normal lighting. When it looks "OK" under critical lighting, it'll look like it was done by a pro under normal lighting.

And, if you're new to repairing drywall, I'd invest $20 in something called a "curved trowel", which you should be able to buy at any home center. Take a close look at this curved trowel:

http://www.bryson.co.uk/images...ts/Medium/190001.jpg

Notice how it arches upward about 1/8 inch in the middle?

Since you hold the trowel at a comfortable angle to the wall or ceiling when using it, a curved trowel allows a total newbie to spread a perfectly symmetric mound of joint compound over a repair that's only about 5/64's of an inch thick in the middle. That's flat enough so that you won't see a "bump" on the wall even with wall mounted light fixtures. (My sister, who had NO plastering experienced used my curved trowel to repair water damage to her drywall basement walls after a mini-flood, and she has wall mounted light fixtures, and no one can tell the drywall at the bottom of those walls was ever replaced with Dens-Shield.)

Also, if you consiously hold the trowel at a steeper or shallower angle to the wall or ceiling, you can spread thinner or thicker coats of joint compound over your repair.

Hope this helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

thanks nestor very informative, i will heed all advice thank you