Does anyone have any good tips for taking out drywall anchors? As I prepare to paint the walls in Bamboo's new bedroom, I am finding that my ex-roommate left me with at least 8 pairs of these suckers. Nice.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Screwed
Does anyone have any good tips for taking out drywall anchors? As I prepare to paint the walls in Bamboo's new bedroom, I am finding that my ex-roommate left me with at least 8 pairs of these suckers. Nice.
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I work at a museum and we have to take out lots of these suckers every time a show comes down. I usually tug at them with the prong side (sorry, don't know the official term) of a hammer until they come out (if they're in there really good, I try to get under them with a sharp-ish instrument like a screwdriver), then fill the hole in with putty, sand over the putty until it's nice and smooth, then cover that with a couple of coats of paint. Phew - you're done!
I've used razor blades and/or wire cutters to remove the outer portion, pushed the stem into the wall until flush, & then spackled.
Good luck.
Okay, I tried a few different options. I read (online)about shaving the heads off, leaving the anchor in the wall, and just spackling over the whole thing - like anonymous suggested. I tried that on half of them and it seemed to work pretty well but I also wanted to try to whole "pull 'em out" method. Sadly, these anchors were made of the most pathetic plastic ever and when I tried to pull them out, I would either smush them or pull off a little plastic bit. I ended up shaving the heads off all of them and spackling over the hole. So far, so good! They look more filled in than the regular screw holes!
I wish if i can share my art reserch portal and painting website with you.
Jayesh
To get out stubborn plastic anchors, I go a few routes:
First I try to pull them out with a hammer or needle-nosed pliers if they aren't sticking out far enough.
If you can't get a good grip, then try partly screwing in a drywall screw and pull that out with the hammer (use a piece of scrap wood on the wall under the hammer's head to prevent marring the wall even more)
Pushing it back into the hole isn't a bad idea but seldom appeals to me unless I'm feeling really impatient to get things done.
The last resort is to drill it out. Put a drill bit in your cordless drill and its done in a couple of seconds.
I usually use a box cutter, x-acto or razor blade to cut back the loose edges of the hole to "countersink" the hole and cut away any loose bits of paper from the surface of the drywall. Blow or brush away any loose bits.
Real plaster walls are a bit different, but I still enlarge and countersink the hole a bit to let the spackle or repair plaster get a good grip on the hole and leave a nice smooth repair.
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