Rant: Got called out for a bad wall fish in a Chicago high rise

I was running a new RG6 line in a condo on the 22nd floor of a building on Wacker Drive. The drywall was way thicker than standard, and I ended up making a huge mess of the patch job. The building super saw it and chewed me out for 10 minutes straight. Now I always carry a 4.5-inch hole saw and a box of 1-hour mud for those old plaster walls. What's your go-to method for a clean repair in those tricky pre-war buildings?

2 comments

2 Comments

ben_rodriguez18d ago

Man, the real killer in those old buildings is the lath. You think you're just patching drywall, but you hit that wood or metal mesh and your hole saw just binds up and shreds everything. I've had way better luck using an oscillating tool with a wood and metal blade. You can cut a clean square right through the plaster and lath in one go, then back it with a piece of plywood screwed into the studs. Makes for a rock solid patch that won't crack like a quick mud job over a ragged hole.

the_nina18d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, that plywood backing trick is a total game changer.