Drywall – fill a drywall hole with something and reuse the hole

drywallholerepair

I made a mistake with drilling a hole in the drywall. It's off by about 1/4-1/2 inch. The new hole will be really close to the old hole, or knowing my poor drilling skills, it will overlap the old hole.

Someone told me I can use joint compound or something to fill the hole and reuse the hole. However, when I went to OSH, the worker said structurally, we can't refill a hole and reuse it and that the screw/anchor will eventually get loose and fall out.

Is my friend correct that I can reuse the hole or is the worker correct that structurally we can't reuse the hole?

EDIT: I'm trying to drill holes for screw to hold a curtain rod and use anchors in the drywall. The anchors are the plastic anchors that came with the curtain rod set. I don't think the rod and curtains weigh that much but the store worker said the filled in drywall won't be as strong as untouched drywall.

I didn't measure the line or drill the hole correctly b/c one of the end brackets holding the rod is like 1/4-1/2 inches too low (stupid me). I COULD move it out (or in) 1-2 inches to the left or right but then it doesn't look symmetrical, which is why I want to just fill the holes and re-drill a hole 1/2 inch up to line everything up but if the filled in hole won't hold the anchor, then that won't do.

Best Answer

Joint compound usually bonds fairly well to the gypsum inside drywall panels. However, you must get it thoroughly filled to make good contact. Also, standard joint compound shrinks substantially, so you'd be better off with a setting-type product (Easy Sand 45, for example).

If you press the compound in adequately and let it dry or cure fully, you'll be able to drill a new hole at the correct location. You'll want to start with a small, sharp bit to be sure that it doesn't "walk", or shift position. Anchor your drill well to help with this.

Then, the paper surface of the drywall panels provides much of the strength of most anchors. I'd use an anchor that spreads the load behind the panel, such as a toggler. This won't rely so much on your hole plug then.

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