How to fill holes in a wall: from rawlplugs to chases, with the right filler

What you need

• 5 cm filling knife and a 15-20 cm wide spatula or plastering trowel
• Pliers or a corkscrew to pull out rawlplugs
• Stanley knife
• Sanding block with 120 and 220 grit paper
• Small brush and a foam roller
• Vacuum cleaner and a damp cloth
• Ready-mixed filler: Aguaplast Rellenos, Polyfilla Rellenos or Titan Tapagrietas (Leroy Merlin, Bricodepot, any ferretería, the local hardware shop)
• Powder filler or repair plaster for big holes: Aguaplast Reparaciones or a slow-setting plaster
• Self-adhesive fibreglass mesh tape for cracks and chases
• Water-based primer or stabilising sealer
• Emulsion paint in the same colour (take a chip of the old paint or ask for the colour code) and a small roller
• Masking tape

Step by step

1. 1

   Pull out rawlplugs and nails without enlarging the hole

   For a rawlplug, screw a screw in two or three turns and pull it out with pliers, or use a corkscrew. If the plug will not come out, cut it flush with the knife and tap it 5 mm into the wall with a nail; do not rip it out by force. Nails: needle-nose pliers and pull straight out.

2. 2

   Clean and prepare the edge

   Run the knife around the edge to remove flaking paint and any burr. Vacuum the dust out of the hole. Dampen it lightly with a cloth or a water spray: the filler grips better and does not dry too fast.

3. 3

   Small hole (rawlplug, nail): ready-mixed filler

   Load the small filling knife and press the filler into the hole diagonally, in two crossing passes, leaving a slight excess. Ready-mixed filler shrinks as it dries, so leave a small bump. It dries in 1-3 hours depending on depth.

4. 4

   Large hole or chase: powder filler in two coats

   For holes bigger than 2 cm, chases left by cables or pipes, or large rawlplug holes, use a powder filler (Aguaplast Reparaciones) or plaster. Mix to a thick cream, fill to 2-3 mm below the surface, let it dry, then apply a second coat flush with the wide spatula. On long chases, lay self-adhesive mesh before the second coat.

5. 5

   Crack: open it into a V and add mesh

   A crack opens again if you simply fill it. Cut the crack into a V with the knife or a triangular scraper to about 5 mm wide, clean it, fill it, stick fibreglass mesh over it and skim a thin coat of filler over the mesh extending 5 cm each side.

6. 6

   Sand

   Once fully dry (uniform white, no grey patches), sand with 120 grit to level and then 220 for the finish. Run your hand over it: you should feel no step at all. Sand with the block flat, not with your fingers, or you will make a dip.

7. 7

   Prime the patch

   Filler soaks up more paint than the wall around it, and if you paint straight onto it the patch dries flatter and shows against the light. Apply a coat of primer or stabilising sealer, or paint thinned 20 per cent with water, over the patch only.

8. 8

   Paint without leaving a halo

   Paint the patch with a small roller and, without overloading it, feather outwards 20-30 cm. If the wall is a few years old and the paint has yellowed or is a colour, the patch will show: paint the whole wall corner to corner. The exact colour comes from the original tin or from the shop's colour code.

Which filler to use for each hole

There are four families of product, and using the wrong one is the usual cause of patches that sink, crack or fall out. This is what we use in each case.

Common mistakes when filling holes in a wall

• Filling a big hole with ready-mixed filler in a single coat. It shrinks, sinks and cracks. For anything deeper than 5 mm, powder filler in coats.
• Leaving the rawlplug in. Filler over a plug falls out at the first knock. Pull the plug out or tap it 5 mm in.
• Sanding with your finger. It leaves a dip in the middle of the patch. Use a flat sanding block.
• Painting without priming. The patch soaks up the paint and dries flatter: you see it against the light from the window. Primer or thinned paint first.
• Painting only the patch on a wall that is years old. The colour never matches. Paint the whole wall corner to corner.
• Filling cracks that move. A crack that reappears months later along the same line is not a paint problem: it is usually the joint between two materials (column and brick, plasterboard and blockwork) or movement. Open it into a V and add mesh; if it comes back, get it looked at.
• Toothpaste and video tricks. Fine for a photo on the day you hand back the keys, not for a wall.

When to call a professional

If you have a whole property full of holes after a move, chases from air conditioning or electrical work to close up, big holes in plasterboard, holes in gotelé (the textured finish common in older Spanish flats) where the texture has to be reproduced, or cracks that keep coming back, it pays to have a builder or a painter do it. The value is in it not showing, and that takes a practised hand and the right products.

At Manitas Costa the builder by the hour costs 30-40 euros an hour and repairing a crack or a chipped patch costs 50-120 euros. A whole flat with the holes from a move filled and sanded usually takes 2-4 hours; if you also want the walls painted so nothing shows, our painting team does it for 6-8 euros per square metre in white. Fixed price by WhatsApp from photos, 6 months written guarantee.

More in small building works and repairs in Valencia and Alicante, in how much a builder charges per hour and in painters in Valencia and Alicante. If the holes are in bathroom or kitchen tiles, the method is different: how to fill holes in tiles without replacing the tile.

Walls with gotelé, damp and salt air

In flats built in Valencia and Alicante between the 1970s and 1990s, most walls have gotelé. A smooth patch on gotelé shows from three metres away. To hide it, after the filler you reproduce the texture with a repair gotelé spray (Aguaplast Gotelé en spray, for example) or by dabbing the filler on with a brush, and then paint the whole wall. If you have a lot of holes, it may be the moment to remove the gotelé altogether: we explain it in how to remove gotelé wall texture.

On the seafront and in flats shut up over winter, holes often come with flaking from damp and rust stains from the old screws. A patch over active damp falls out within weeks. First the wall has to dry and the source has to be dealt with (a leak, condensation, salt in the masonry), then a stabilising sealer and an anti-mould filler go on, and finally an anti-damp paint in bathrooms and kitchens.

And so you are not filling holes again in a year, hang things with the right fixing from the start: for light pictures, with no holes at all, as we explain in how to hang pictures without drilling.