We have a hole in a ceiling located in a obscure place. The hole is so large we would like to attach a piece of drywall to cover up the existing hole. There is no wood above this area so how to attach a horizontal piece of drywall to the horizontal ceiling. The only pressure applied above the ceiling (to help the drywall screw catch and enter the ceiling after penetrating the new piece) will only be the weight of the ceiling area itself.
Thanks.

 

Many ways to approach patching a "largish" hole in sheetrock, here are three:

1. Enlarge the hole so it reaches the joist on both sides. It's not much more work to patch a big hole that it is to patch a smaller hole.

2. Make the hole square or rectangular and cut a piece of sheetrock to fit. Insert two pieces of scrap wood (1x2 or the like) a few inches longer than the hole into the hole so they span across the hole. While pulling down lightly on the wood, used sheetrock screws through the ceiling to secure the wood strips to the existing ceiling. Then hold the patch in place and screw it to the wood strips.

3. If the hole isn't too big, you can use a self adhesive metal sheetrock patch that just covers over the hole with thin metal.

Once you have the hole covered, use compound and tape (if needed) to finish the repair.

 

Is the obscure place maybe like a closet and you want to cut a piece of gypsum board to cover the hole and the whole ceiling? There has to be some support there somewhere. Find it. Use long enough screws to go through both pieces of ceiling and into the joists, Use adhesive to help hold the new board to the old.

If you are wanting simply to cover a hole with a piece and have that piece be offset from the rest of the ceiling go the extra step and do it as Carbide Tipped suggests. One thing. If you cut over to the joists as he suggests in the first option you can screw or nail a piece of lumber to the side of the joists so you can screw the new piece to those. It's easier to do that than to cut to the center of the joist.

 

You can slip several short pieces of wood in that are longer than the hole is wide. Screw the drywall on the edges of your hole to that wood. Then screw your new piece of drywall into or over the hole.

 

I didn't get email notification for the last two comments only the one at 10:06am. I may be subscribed for a daily notification only, I'll check that.
Here you see the small room for the gas water heater. Every room in the house had been painted, repairs, etc. Never did we expect (or remember) this area to have so many issues. The red circle shows a cut romex coming out of the hole around the water pipe. When the house was bought the water heater was electric and we can just assume that is the left over when the seller removed the electric water heater and they installed gas. Per my volt tester it's not hot. This tester is getting different results for the outlet shown in our other question. The other photo shows a red straight line which indicates that those two screws are into the joist or 2x4 above. The two screws on the left are just drywall to drywall. The screws are holding that end fine and if it wasn't that end would rest on the yellow gas line. Around the gas line is a piece of cardboard cut to cover up the area not covered by the piece of drywall. That can be painted, maybe caulk added. At least the way it was done, for the time being,
guards against mice, etc. However all the holes you see here are 13+ years old and no animals in several years. Then there is the long hole behind the water heater. I'm thinking to trim it up and cut a 12x12 drywall patch into two pieces which gives me 6x24 and that covers the hole which is no wider at it's widest point than about 4 inches. That small wooden ladder is all we can get into that room to work. When someone such as the new owner glances into the water heater area unless they look up and over their left shoulder they won't see the fixed or temporary patch seen in the photo. All comments and ideas appreciated past and future. Thanks.

 

I defer to electricians on the wire. I would just plaster that hole in with quickset mud. It might take two coats because you want to use the sides of the hole to start filling it in then add more. When it is nearly flush then tape it with some FibaFuse tape embedded in the last coat. I might even do that on the long hole. I have and would use a piece from a 36" wide roll of FibaFuse after I had it filled.. But you don't want to buy a roll for this little bit of work so use 2" FibaFuse tape.

But it you want to laminate drywall over what you have use adhesive as well as laminating screws. I have never used Wall Dogs for laminating. They might be just what you want. They are really coarse threads. But they don't countersink. Laminating screws do countersink, usually.

Is there room to work behind the water heater? Can you get your screw gun or drill in there?

 

Is there room to work behind the water heater? Can you get your screw gun or drill in there?
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The back two sides furthest from the doorway are 5 inches from the water heater to the wall. I was able to use the drill for the screws used to attach the piece of drywall added to the ceiling. It was however a one handed job due to the height and location lean against the water heater and hold on to a 2x4 wall brace. The same may be true on the vertical hole.
On the exposed romex I think I can pull it out a hair or maneuver it to wrap it in electrical tape. Thanks.