Drywall texturing revisited.......

[Donald Gares]

Ok, we am looking for an easy way out and after googling for hours I am not sure that it exists.

I am removing wallpaper from a near new victorian style home and I want to redo the walls with a "knockdown" texture. Obviously I understand that I can get a pro to come in and do it at a very reasonable price. My problem is that I want to do it a little at a time thus I would like to find a method to do it without a big mess. As I have a compressor I could just purchase a gun and hopper and go for it but it certainly involves a lot of masking and cleaning up.

All in all, is there a method of application (roller, hawk, etc.) that an individual can actually get a good "knockdown" finish with and NOT create a big mess each time?

Cheers,

Don

[SofaKing]

Nothing wrong with wanting to do it yourself. My advice would be to do it all at once even if you do it yourself. Your setup and clean up times are going to add to the overall time of the project. Also lessens your chances of getting divorced early. Better to have the texture "event" happen and be over with. Drywall and mud are dirty things short of spraying you could do a hand finish using a mortar board and trowel and do swirls or another pattern then at least you wouldn't be spraying, the little bits can get into the darndest places when your spraying that's why it's important to cover and prep the site prior to starting.

[Jeff Wisnia]

I've had pretty good luck with stuff called "ceiling texture" which came as a dry powder to be mixed with water and applied with a "rough surface" paint roller cover, and stippled into place with a stiff brush where the roller couldn't reach. Why not experiment with a little of it on a scrap piece of plasterboard and see if you like it?

No messier than rolling on latex paint in my estimation, and cleanup of the tools is just as quick, so doing it a little at a time shouldn't be a big whoop. You can paint over it with the color of your choice after its dry.

Good luck,

Jeff

[PAUL100]

What we do for that effect is to mix some coarse sand with drywall spackle, then we apply it with like a 10" knife. this part is hard to explain but we load the knife up and push it ontot he walls not trying to cover everything . we drag the kife along the wall letting just a little of the spackle stick. it kind of looks like stucco. then you take a clean knife and flatten it down.

[pray4surf]

Can also be done without sand. The technique I selected for a master bedroom redo, the drywaller called 'skip-coat' (I'm in SoCal). Looked easy enough.. Used a 'runny' mix (the proverbial pancake batter consistency), wide blade (his was over 12"L), held at a very sharp angle to the surface < less than

5-10 degrees. The resulting finish is very much like the traditional knockdown, a bit more subtle. Since, seeing it down, I've attempted it myself to thoroughly satisfying results...

Rick

[Donald Gares]

Rick, do you mean that it is only a "one pass" process rather than applying some mud and then coming back in a few minutes and doing the "knockdown"?

Don

[pray4surf]

Yes.