Filling a hole in a ceiling?

[mo]

Just having an old smoke alarm removed from our white ceiling

I will need to fill in the hole and paint it matt white

What is the best way to fill it? bearing in mind the stufff might fall back out!

[NT]

Pretty much any filler will do, just avoid the fine surface ones as they shrink too much. Put something* behind the hole to stop the first batch of filler just droping out, then when that's set you can fill the hole full depth. You can fill proud and sand, or fill it perfectly flush and you're done.

• anything to hand that'll stay in place

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

stuff full of newspaper, wedge a bit of mesh behind the board and flob bonding plaster on it.

Sand back and skim.

[Tim Watts]

mo wibbled on Thursday 22 July 2010 14:18

For a larger hole:

Get a scrap of plasterboard, or even ply and stick it on top of the hole with a bit of grab adhesive.

Then fill the hole with plaster or a suitable filler.

For a smaller hole, say 1/2", try to stuff something in so that you can pack the filler in tight rather than it falling out the top. Tight fitting scrap of wood that can be knocked in below the surface, balled up paper, anything really...

[Phil L]

how big is the hole? - if it's a couple of screw holes, emulsion is usually ample on it's own, if it's a penny sized hole, IE for a mains cable, then a small blob of polyfilla pushed in will stay in place