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The object is with what to fill the hole. One can use sheet rock, mesh, even plywood or a board. I once used a Reader's Digest to patch a hole that went through two walls from a room into a hallway. I rolled up the digest, cut it to length, and stuck it in both holes and plastered over it. This is not recommended and would be frowned on by the authorities but I only did it once, probably to see if I could. Paper tape is used to cover all edges which will crack eventually if they are not covered with tape and then plastered over.
Securing the backing in a hole is the trick. One could enlarge the hole from stud to stud and nail in a piece of sheet rock. One can put puncture holes on four edges and wire in a piece of sheet rock. One can use wire mesh, but this is difficult and time consuming. I also used Structo Lite, a USG product, which was a lime based plaster that had to be mixed with water. The advantage of this is that it was slow drying, could be laid in as much a four inches thick, did not expand, dried very hard and could be scraped with a Hyde combo, paint roller extruder, paint can opener and scrapper, or a putty knife. The patch is covered with plaster and the edges with paper tape which I would wet in water which made it thinner and easier to apply.
The walls of a lot of these buildings were pretty beaten up, depending on the type of dormitory or fraternity. Many of these buildings were built in the late eighteen-hundreds and so saw a lot of wear.
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