Repair hole in plasterboard wall

Hi!

Straight up I admit to being pretty much hopeless at any kind of DIY or work with my hands.

During some furniture removal today I managed to slip and punch a hole through the wall of my house.

This is a chunk of what fell out :

http://i.imgur.com/LCCkSD4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9rK5t4A.jpg

I have no idea what this is, so if someone could identify it that would be great.

Based on that, I'd be looking for some advice about

a) is this likely to contain asbestos? do I need to do something special to repair the hole (the rest of the wall is perfectly fine, no damage, and I understand asbestos is a 'don't mess with it if it's fine' thing)

and

b) regardless of if it's asbestos or not, what's the best material to repair the hole with? Gyprock and fiddle with some kind of seating to get the surface to line up?

First of all, it's just called plain old "Fibrous plasterboard"

a) As far as I have read everywhere, it'll only be either organic hemp fiber or coconut fiber. Cement sheeting is where you would come up against asbestos.

b) Unfortunately you'll never get to the same flush finish as before. You'll have to fill up the hole and feather out over the hole enough to make the hump blend in. You'll need to provide a backing of some sort in the hole, eg a piece of plaster, cardboard even. Then just grab a hole repair kit and read the instructions!

+1

NOT Asbestos!

Looking at the pics, you have an older home built post war in the 50's or 60's. In South Australia we have a slang for it, we call it "Horse Hair" Although it is not!

Just get some polyfiler and patch it up.

Try YouTube and enter something like "repair drywall"

Good luck,
Give it a go, the more you do the more you learn!

Andrew

My pool build below...
http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=73509