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Appreciation post: My neighbor showed me how to patch drywall with toothpaste of all things
Was complaining to old Mr. Garza about a nail hole in my hallway last Saturday and he laughed, grabbed a tube of plain white toothpaste from his pocket, and filled it right there. Said folks used to do this all the time back in the 70s when they didn't have spackle around. Dried overnight and I sanded it smooth, now you can't even tell where the hole was. Has anyone else tried weird household stuff in place of actual repair products?
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maxpalmer6d ago
The toothpaste trick works because it's basically the same stuff as cheap spackle just with mint flavoring and fluoride. Old man Garza probably has a tube in every room of his house for this exact reason. Biggest thing nobody mentions is you absolutely cannot use gel or whitening toothpaste, it has to be the basic plain white paste or it will crack and look terrible. Did the hole need more than one coat or did it fill in with just one squeeze?
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singh.blair6d ago
Man I learned that lesson the hard way with whitening toothpaste, stuff looked like cottage cheese after it dried. I did a little hole in my bathroom once with plain white paste and it took two thin coats because I tried to load it up too thick the first time. Let it dry fully between and it worked fine though, didn't even bother to paint over it.
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