I made 5 california patches based on this video and i couldnt believe how well it turned out. https://youtu.be/17awCvAA7Q0

I'm incredibly not handy and had never touched drywall before and the results were essentially perfect to my eyes. If I had paid someone for that work I would have been completely satisfied

Lots of good youtube videos on this. My favorite is Leah from seejanedrill: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1MOSNtI5boE

Instead of the wooden brace, I used drywall clips. Just another of many options: https://www.lowes.com/pd/SHEETROCK-Brand-6-Pack-1-25-in-Steel-Drywall-Clips/3009628

I don’t sand. I wet sponge 🧽. If you use a wide taping knife and a stainless mud pan you can spread the mud nice and thin and taper it out wide. Two coats will do.

He's badass. Been watching his videos while doing random projects. Love his calm attitude. Also, if you've not seen stud pack, they are pretty awesome as well.

Don't use too much mud. Don't use too little mud.

I haven’t checked him ouT. But a carpenter isn’t a drywaller. HavIng said all I have said….I suppose it’s possible to not sand a very small patch and recoat it. Not a great idea but possible if under duress. I do whole houses or hundreds of feet of cutouts at a time. The sanding between coats isn’t meant to be a grind down…just a buff. To make things easier. Bear in mind I’m only doing 1-2 coats after tape coat.

If they are hole saw holes, just get the same size drywall and do a california patch.

Use the same size hole saw bit to drill almost all the way through from the backside of the new drywall. Cut the facing of the drywall into 6-8" squares (atleast 2" of "flap" all the way around), and peel them off while pressing on the back of your cut, and you'll pop out a plug of drywall the right size for the hole, with a square of facing attached. Pop it in the hole and trace around the paper. Sand the texture off inside that area. Then apply drywall compound to the back of the paper and around the plug edges. Press it in, and use a large drywall knife to squeeze the compound almost out. Let it dry, then blend like normal drywall.

Alright. You convinced me. Appreciate the knowledge dump. As an example of a source of my expressed opinion,, the Vancouver Carpenter on YouTube talks about not needing to sand. But again, you convinced me.

California patch is much easier for holesaw holes. And much less prone to cracks in my experience.

For reference I work out of the lower mainland in British Columbia, canada

Hit send by accident. The bits of dried mud will then cause difficulty in skimming the coat. Your also going to contaminate your pail. The next reason is really an extension of the first. Any kind of fast setting compound is naturally going to be tougher than your top coat…again A quick buff sand to take any bits of grit off is going to go miles in providing a super slick top coat. I’m 51…and I own a construction company. It’s literally what I do for a living. Every drywaller I know sands in between coats. If you don’t…you do not make money at it. Amateur.

As a new homeowner this guys is amazing and makes everything so much more approachable. Redid a whole wall, multiple rooms and some electrical watching him the past few months.

Where are these pros operating? What part of the world. Couple reasons why you sand. There is always going to be slight imperfections in the mud…these will break off as your adding your next coat

I wish somebody told me when I was learning: it’s going to take you a lot longer to get “good” results then you probably think, if you’re a perfectionist.

Good comments here already. Don't cheap out on taping knives. Get 4", 6", and 8" knives from Harbor Freight. It's much easier to get smooth surfaces and feathers when the knife is the right width.

Certainly not inline with what the pros I’ve spoken to say. whats Your reason? It isn’t needed to get a flat finish. Is there another reason?

YouTube it. It's not that hard, and a good learning experience.

As a professional drywaller…you always sand in between coats. Always

I’m fairness, I do a lot of DIY but I don’t do doors and I don’t do drywall. Drywall is easy to patch but difficult to look perfect. Drywall in my laundry room? Sure. Living room? Handyman

To add on to this, mudding done right should only require a light sanding on the very last coat and none on each of the initial passes. it took 10 years for me to get this right as a DIYer. Some tricks: As said above, do thin passes between drying. Better to add to little than too much. As the mud is drying, when it’s firm but not hard, you can hit it with a wet sponge to to level out a mistake. Also, it’s okay to leave little ridges in the mud. You can scrape these off pretty easy with the putty knife. Anyway, no big deal if you need to sand a lot, but it’s good to know that done right, there’s almost no sanding involved.

Find the centers of the studs in the bays that they cut the holes in, cut out a square piece of sheetrock the same thickness as the existing, cut a square from center of stud to center of the next stud, secure the new sheetrock with 1-1/2~1-5/8" sheetrock screws, sand the surrounding existing sheetrock back to almost the sheetrock's outer "paper" about 8~12" back from your cut lines.

Once you have it sanded down and even with your patch, put a coat of drywall mud on the seams, then tape the seams and mud over your tape. Don't allow the first coat of mud to dry before taping and re-mudding. This will help give an even finish to skim over.

Once it's taped and mudded, you may need to sand the tape lines depending on the thickness / type of texture.

Put an even skim coat over the patched area and surrounding area and feather it into your existing texture.

Once you are happy with the base, texture it to match the existing, whether it's orange peel or hand texture, put a coat of drywall primer on the areas with new mud and paint.

I prefer to go back to studs instead of just patching the round hole because it allows for the patch to be completely secured and most of the time prevents cracking at your seams, and is also easier to tape squares evenly.

Just my two cents.

YouTube 'Vancouver Carpenter' ....he's set the gold standard of YouTube drywall content.

Tips? V grove your seams. Apply a fill coat first, let that dry. Then do a really tight seam tape with fibafuze. Then start coating for aesthetics. Scrape between coats, only sand once. At the end.

Also. Take a tape measure and measure 12 inches from the left of the hole and make a pencil mark. The right. Top and bottom too. Now draw the biggest circle you can to connect all those dots. That's your finish line, when you're done your mud should be feathered out that far.

Edit: typo

Not an appropriate response in this sub. It is DIY, after All.

One piece of advice, especially if you haven’t done a patch before - you’re better off doing 3-4 thin coats of mud (making sure you allow enough time for it to dry in between) than trying to get it perfect with just 1 coat. Each coat can go a little wider than the previous so that you taper any bump that might appear.

Was going to say this is one of those projects where YouTube will make it 100x easier