Last week Stuart covered some of the new tools Ryobi is introducing in 2016. One of these products is a new drywall repair kit that aims to make fixing holes smaller than 4″ in diameter a much simpler process. The thing that really makes this process strange is that the hole saw itself becomes part of the patch.
Ryobi describes its use as a 3 step process, but for clarity we’ll expand the steps to help explain what’s going on.
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Step 1 (patch placement): Apply the round template over the area you want to patch up, sticking it in place using the pre-attached adhesive backing tape. The area the template covers is exactly where your patch will be.
Step 2 (drilling prep): Chuck the mandrel into your drill, connect the drive plate to the mandrel, and attach the hole saw/patch to the drive plate.
Step 2.5 (drilling): Once you have placed the patch template and set up the hole saw, insert the pilot bit into the center of the template, and start drilling.
The consumable part of the hole saw has 2 main features. It has saw teeth at the leading edge, for cutting a hole into drywall. At the rear, there are screw threads, for securely fastening the hole saw into the drywall after the hole is cut.
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The drive plate and mandrel are removed, leaving the hole saw in place. You’re left with a flat and solid backing for applying joint compound to.
Step 3 (finishing): Spackle over the patch, smooth it over, and paint.
You can see in the picture below that the hole saw has a pretty aggressive saw tooth pattern, complete with two sharper teeth for scoring the drywall. You can also see that the hole saw/patch has a single thread molded around the perimeter. Once the teeth have cut the hole, this thread will engage with the drywall and keep the patch securely in place.
Also, it appears that the hole saw/patch is friction fit to the drive plate with only four studs, making it easy to remove the drive plate and mandrel once the patch is secure.
The back of the drive plate has wings so that you can use the plate without a drill to fine tune the depth of the patch after it’s in place.
The Ryobi Drywall Repair Kit includes 1 drive plate, 1 template, 1 hole saw, 1 cover plate, and 1 mandrel with black oxide pilot drill bit. It should be available in either April or May of 2016.
Price $12
Ryobi will also sell refill kits, with additional templates and hole saws/patches. We don’t have any pricing information for the refill kits. With the refill kit, you only need to buy the starter set once, for the mandrel with pilot drill bit and driving plate once.
To see the drywall repair kit in action check out the video below on the Charles & Hudson YouTube channel, where a Ryobi rep demonstrates the product. In the description they claim the kit will be available in 3 different sizes.
Josh
It looks like they’re both a Ridgid and a Ryobi rep, but I find it somewhat comical that they used a Ridgid drill to demonstrate a new Ryobi product.
Jacob
Well, both Ridgid and Ryobi are TTI made lines. Plus the Ryobi probably got bogged down trying to make the cut…….
ChrisP
Hey I have that Ryobi drill and ……..ummm…..your probably right
Jacob
Haha. My first set of cordless tools was all Ryobi and I killed the batteries before I had a chance to use all of the tools it seemed like. that drill couldn’t get through anything. Although that was back when they were still blue and yellow.
mikedt
The actual patching is the least of my problems. My biggest problem is that the patched area is too smooth and therefore noticeable when compared to the rest of the wall that is on its 10th coat of paint.
Chris
Something that Ive had luck with:
When priming the wall, use a thicker nap roller. If you normally use 3/8″ nap on finish coat, use a 1/2″ nap for primer.
Its not PERFECT but its a lot better than perfectly smooth. I think you could fine tune it even more with an even thicker nap (9/16 or even 3/4) and maybe waiting for the primer to set a little before you roll over it again to help “rough it up” a little.
The finish coat kind of knocks down the roughness a little by filling it it, leaving you with something closer to original texture.
Brandon
It looks like a great idea, to me.
John Sullivan
What is the depth of the teeth? If your patch is partly over a stud, will the hole saw have difficulty cutting deep enough? If there’s a screw in the circle of the patch, is there any chance of this working properly? I see (what appears to be) two metal teeth in the hole saw’s perimeter– what’s the rest of it made from?
This just seems ludicrously wasteful– patching tape or paper is just a tiny fraction of the cost of this product, and the tricky part is in the spackling anyhow. I feel like this is marketed towards consumers who just don’t know any better, rather than it being a product that simplifies or improves upon a process.
But it's me!
I agree, seems to over complicate what should be a simple job. Guess it’s cause I’m frugal!
Jon
I would have used these in a heartbeat when I was doing drywall repair. Stronger than a “California patch”, and faster as well, while the “California patch” is already much faster than the traditional method of screwing a support of some sort (usually some wood scraps) into both sides of the hole to be patched and then the new piece screwed to the backer.
In fact, every other method I have ever seen requires a step to size and cut the patch to be placed, and another step to trace the patch onto the wall to cut out the damaged section to match the patch to be placed, and then actually cutting out the section by any of a number of methods. The “California patch” skips straight to the tape (while some approaches even skip the tape and use the actual paper face of the drywall patch as the tape), while most have a step here to place a backer as described above. Then tape, then mud. With this you skip all of that except the mud. You cut, match, and patch in one step. It’s brilliant!
But I question how well it will hold without any sort of tape. There’s only a friction fit with the drywall and drywall mud has no internal structure (thus the need for a paper or fiberglass tape) to prevent cracking at the joint. If it does hold well then I would absolutely love it because you could mud flush with the original wall, whereas any form of tape, even super-thin FibaFuse tape that I absolutely love, requires building up enough mud to bury the tape, then tapering that out far enough to disguise the new high spot on the wall. If this actually holds well (never wiggles just loose enough to cause a crack) then it would also mean less mud and a superior finish at the end. Without the need to feather out the end result it would be easier than ever before to do the entire patch job with hot mud so you never have to make a return trip after a coat dries.
I dare say those who dismiss this as gimmicky haven’t done enough drywall repairs to appreciate just how much potential this has.
Matt J
It seems pretty neat to me. For people who’s definition of diy involves painting and hanging pictures this could be very attractive
Tomas
I agree, as someone that’s never had to do any drywall repair before, this seemed really easy, and $12 isn’t very expensive.
fred
Might be OK but there are many ways to patch drywall holes that don’t require a new tool.
One has you using a jab-saw (drywall saw) to expand the hole to a small rectangle. Then back the hole up with a small piece of plywood or stiff cardboard – slipped in and held in place by pulling on an attached string. You the use quick setting properties of plaster of Paris for the initial fill, snip off the string flush, then finish with compound.
Another technique has you cutting the hole to a rectangle and then making a blowout patch from a piece of same-thickness drywall. The patch is cut from one side of the scrap drywall leaving face-paper ears or borders all around. The patch is slipped into place – compound holds the borders in place – you let things set – then come back and re-compound – feathering the margins. If you do it right – the wall is only marginally bumped-out at the patch.
Then there are the commercial overlay patches from Hyde, Dap, Walboard Tools etc. These are mostly screens or thin sheet metal with adhesive backing. They Work OK – but leave a bit more of the patch standing proud of the remaining wall
Jacob
The blowout patch technique is still easier, and a far better solution that this IMO. I have done a ton of holes like this, and all you need is a scrap of drywall, which can be bought from the box stores, you don’t have to buy a whole sheet, and the joint compound that you would need anyway for this kit.
I feel like this kit is not even any simpler than a blowout patch, nor would it work in as many scenarios.
Lawson
“Lets make this small hole 10 times larger than itself”. For a hole that small, cut the surrounding paper with a sharp knife to rid it of hanging chads. You could use paper or mesh type drywall tape. If you use paper, mud the backside so when you apply the tape over the hole, it will dry and be somewhat rigid, continue to feather our the edges after it has dried. If the hole is too large for that then use one or two pieces of scrap 2x lumber longer than the hole is wide or tall, put the pieces behind the drywall but within the opening of the hole and use drywall screws to attach the 2x material to the existing drywall, cut your drywall patch and put it in the hole and attach that to the 2x material you installed, proceed to tape the joints and spot the screws like you would normally.
pete
wasteful
Jon
Time or money. This is definitely faster, but costs more. Which are you more concerned about wasting?
Philip
This thing is stupid. A blowout patch is the only way.
Milwaukee tool Steve
It’s a great Kit but only if you don’t know what your doing, and hopefully the hole is bigger.
Jon
I’m a third generation drywaller and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. It literally cuts out many steps. It’s brilliant. At $4/each these would have saved me so much time, which means earning me more money, when I was doing drywall repair full-time.
If you know how to patch a hole in drywall and you already have the materials on hand, then it would not make sense to go get these. Otherwise I see no downside (assuming it is as stable as one would hope for a drywall patch, as I questioned above).
Milwaukee tool Steve
I see what you mean and it makes since, what I do is get some cut pieces of sheetrock left over from rotozipped outlets, lights, and vents, hold it up to the were the hole is and trace the cut piece around the hole then I get a hackzall and cut barley inside the traced area then I get the piece and push it in the whole hopefully tightly fitting inside the hole, after this I taper and tape and mud, going over this I now see why this is a pretty good idea, but if your on a large construction site and see a whole just sitting their and you don’t have your kit with you, then it makes since just to tape it, lol.
Also another quick tip after your done sanding and find a few areas that need some mudding, put some food coloring in your next batch so that way you know were you last put your mud, but i’m sure you already have your quick and easy steps.
Jon
Oh absolutely, if you’re a drywaller or GC on the job and you see a hole you aren’t going to go buy this to fix it. For a while I worked for an exteriors company that did siding (mostly fiber cement), stucco, rock, and windows and doors. They had a huge condo renovation job where every unit had all the doors and windows replaced. Roughly 4 out of 5 units needed drywall repairs after their rip-it-out-and-slap-it-in-and-call-it-good doors and windows crews were done, so they moved me from doing siding on new construction to repairing the drywall. Many of the unit owners asked me to repair other damaged areas while I was there. The site manager said he had no problem with me picking up a little extra money doing that as long as I stayed on schedule. This kit would have made those hole repairs an absolute breeze.
As for time saving tips, take what you’re talking about with your patch and throw in a piece of FibaFuse drywall tape (either a couple inches larger than your patch, cut from the large rolls they sell for repairs, or a few pieces off of a roll of regular size tape) and glue it on with Super 77 or other similar adhesive spray (I just keep a can in the truck). Now the adhesive on the back of the tape will hold your patch in place very well, dries in just a couple minutes, and the open structure of FibaFuse will allow you to push the mud into the tape after it’s on the wall, while the super-thin nature of the FibaFuse means you don’t have to build up much mud to hide the tape. There’s a guy on drywalltalk.com named IceRock or something like that who has a lot of demos of that technique. He has some youtube videos as well, and a facebook page under IceRock Drywall Repair (or something like that). I’m sure his demos will make more sense than my explanation. It’s so fast.
I’ve never used food coloring. I just tint my final skim coat with chalk from my chalk box refill when necessary. A little goes a LONG way. 🙂
Milwaukee tool Steve
chalk does seem like a good idea, and i’ll watch those videos 😉
Nathan
2 things I don’t like – seems you leave the saw in the hole? Am I seeing that right – in the refill you get new saw pieces that are just plastic from the look of things.
and
doesn’t have various sizes. There’s a competing product – I don’t know who makes it – but it using more of a rounded X bar pattern for the plug. and it is plugs that you put into clean holes.
comes in sizes and you use either whatever drill bit you have – or you use various hole saws. spackle and clean – sand and paint.
Bill K
With no drywall repair experience to speak of……
As I first started reading this post, I was thinking the drill attachment was going to remove drywall material in a round dish shape, deeper in the middle, so one would just add a nice round patch on the area and then just mud it over. Seemed like a good idea….. but NOT what they had in mind. My original idea still seems like a better idea. What am I missing?
Stuart
Let’s say the saw blade has a kerf of 1/8″ and the drywall is 1/2″ deep. A 4″ hole will have circumference of 12.6″.
So that’s 12.6″ long, 1/8″ wide, 1/2″ deep. The total volume of drywall being cut away and removed =
Total area would be ~0.79 cubic inches. So that’s a little more than a 3/4″ cube of drywall turned into dust.
Now, if you were to remove drywall material in a round dish shape, that’s going to be a LOT more dust. And a lot more effort. And you would still have to cut out the patch out of a spare piece of drywall.
This product is not going to be suitable for all types of patch jobs. And no, it’s not going to be suited able for patching a small hole. But maybe we’re bound to see smaller sizes. I think if there’s just one other size, 2.5″ might work well to complement this one.
Bill K
Looking at the numbers…. If one was to cut a counter bore 4″ diameter by 1/16″ deep then the volume removed would be 0.79 cubic inches, equilivant to the kerf volume removed with the Ryobi kit. If the cutter was (slightly) dish shaped then one could vary the area or size of the patch to match the needed repair.
Could it be the cutting or removing of the drywall paper cover as proposed would be a bigger challenge or problem than I’m considering?
Jon
YES! The paper is a mess. It really only cuts cleanly when you’re cutting with a sharp blade perpendicular to the face. When you have to rasp the edge of a board to tweak the fit it just curls the paper up (even with a nice Tajima drywall rasp) and then you have to trim that paper edge off with a knife so it won’t mess up your tape line. Same sort of thing you often have to do on the edge of a hole you cut open with a jab or oscillating saw. I like your idea here, but I think the paper would really complicate it.
Jay
Pretty cool little deal there. Would have no hesitation trying that system, seems very fast. That said, I use backer boards with no tape for most hole repairs. Learned how to do it watching YouTube. Once you get the hang of it the repair goes quickly using joint compound mixed with quick set plaster.
Backer board patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF6TBU-Apow
Quick set mud mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BU-qIun5tU
Jon
Agreed. Backer with no tape works great, as long as it’s secured well enough that the patch won’t ever move relative to the main panel. For that reason I don’t do that when it’s more than a few inches because the larger the patch the more likely it is to be stressed differently from the rest of the wall (from hanging a picture or just bumping it or whatever). Without tape the joint there can very suddenly become very obvious. But with tape there’s a LOT more mud work and more skill required to blend it into the old work.
Milwaukee tool Steve
For those who are looking for a DIY welder or welding small jobs check out home depot’s special buy of the Day
http://www.homedepot.com/SpecialBuy/SpecialBuyOfTheDay
Cole Kemp
What happens down the road when someone tries to drive a nail into this patch?
Benjamen
That is a very good question. I suspect that you’d hit the plastic and shake the mud off the wall, unless you were lucky enough to hit one of the holes and then the nail would have much purchase.
I’m not sure if the nail would go through the plastic first or if the nail would dislodge the plastic patch
E. Baker
On that display table, it sure looks like that’s an upgraded / new version of their 18v one+ reciprocating saw. The handle and battery portion look much different than their current lineup. Anyway to possibly reach out to Ryobi and find out if they have a new reciprocating saw in their pipeline?
E. Baker
Just confirmed via the TTI Rep at my local Home Depot that Ryobi does indeed have a new reciprocating saw in the pipeline…as well as a pretty nifty garage door opener and versatile shoplight.