patching hole in hollow door
 

hey,

i looked around but couldn't find much practical advice.

anyways the situation is this. I've got a small (2 inch) hole in a hollow bathroom door. It's a rental property so i just want to patch it so we get our damage deposit back. I thought i'd head you could stuff something like this with a little paper and then spackle over it, is this true?

if not is there anything else you can do to clean it up easily

thanks

You can repair a door with crumpled newspaper and drywall compound, but the large patch takes forever and a day to dry, and it will shrink and crack, and so forth. There is a better way. Go to Pep Boys or even the K-Mart auto section and buy a can of Bondo. Bondo is the stuff used by body shops to fill dents in your car's fender. Mix up a small amount per the directions on the can, smear it on the hole, and wait about 15 minutes for it to set. Then sand smooth with 80 grit, and apply batch #2. Repeat as needed until the hole is filled. Then sand with 120-150 to take out the 80 grit scratches, wipe off dust, and paint with any latex or alkyd enamel. BTW, this is easier if you pop the pins out of the hinges and do this with the door lying flat, natch.

I've fixed rot, insect damage, dog claw damage, and other mangled painted wood surfaces with Bondo over the years-it's great stuff. Good luck.

It may be simpler, cheaper, and faster to replace the door panel depending on size and how it's trimmed.

Yes, but unless the OP has a router, some good chisels and other necessary toolage for fitting a slab door, fixing the existing is a better plan.

kazoo is right about the plaster (drywall compound). but ive always used it, and although it takes a day or two to dry if u have used a bit, it does the job, and its cheap.
sometimes i use plasterboard tape over the hole and just skim the plaster compound on top. wait for it to dry, then sand it down and then one more coat. sand again and then clean and paint

might take 2 or 3 days if your not in a hurry. drying time is dependant on the weather, but so is cracking too.

Use one of these:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle_ur...jkkAAAAAAAAAAA

with some plaster compound and it'll be an easy fix.

Bondo is your friend, it will give you similar results as Spackle. The major differences being that Bondo has a much faster cure time, and is much more durable than Spackle.

Don't use an outside surface patch kit. They look like ass. Anything that raises the surface will look terrible once painted. Better to affix a patch board across the inside and fill the depression.

Just in case, spackle is not the ticket beyond ~1/4". Spackling a 2" hole is going to take more layers and produce poor results. Not to preach, but this is someone else's house, right?

Solid wood doors are made of rails, stiles, and panels. The faces of hollow core doors are just single sheets. There are no panels to replace.

Here's what I'd do to repair it. First of all you need some strips of wood that you can insert inside the hole, and glue to the back of the hole so that you have a backer to apply a filler to. Next, get some wood filler, not wood putty. Wood putty is good for small holes, but it shrinks and cracks. Wood filler is designed to fill larger holes, and shouldn't shrink or crack on you. Plus, it has a cure time of about 30 minutes, so you can sand it after a shorter time and apply more if required.

Here's a link for wood filler: Minwax Wood Filler

I would get some expanding foam and squirt a little in the hole, cut off the excess, sand it down just a bit, and put wood filler over it. That way if something were to bump the same spot, the foam would support the wood filler instead of the filler breaking loose and falling in the door.

Don't use plaster or drywall compound. Both will shrink and crack and in the case of drywall compound will take a long time to dry. Get a Patching compound. One designed for deep holes is lighter and easier to use but harder to get a smooth finish. If you use one of those patch plates you will always have a lump on the door. If you clean off the edges of the hole and get one of the patches that wedges behind the hole you will end up with a flush repair. This kind of patch may be trickier to find, but worth the effort if you are inexperienced. If you can't find a pre made one you could just make your own by wedging something inside the hole and covering the whole mess with a couple of coats of the deep hole patch and hope that no one hits the door until you get your damage deposit.
If you go looking for the pre made patch, it looks kind of like a large cocktail umbrella that you insert, expand, and then wedge against the other side of the wall (door in your case)

I solved the same problem once by taping over the hole with Scotch "Magic" tape - painting it all with gloss paint, and feathering the edge of the paint with some very fine wet&dry.

I would like to 2nd the suggestion of using thin wood, gluing it to the inside of the door and then gluing another piece over that so that the new piece is level with the door and mostly fills the hole. You then use wood filler to fill in the spaces and make it level. Sand repair and a bit around the repair and paint. You should be all good at that point.

I would also like to recommend that you take the door off the hinges and paint the entire door as the damage will be less noticable at that point.

Also - if this is an apartment you may find that they have used a generic door and that home depot has a door replacement with the proper cuts for the hinges and nob already. This still would need to be painted and mounted so it may be more work than is neccessary.

As a second suggestion the expanding foam one was very interesting - I have used that a ton and it should work easily and provide a reliable solution.