texturing walls

[WHoME?]

i'm a novice willing to try out texturing two of my rooms. i plan on experimenting on some card board boxes first. at what air pressure do you suggest this be applied?

thanks in advance

[Roger Shoaf]

If you are going to texture your own sheetrock, why not use the roll on texture and then just trowl it out?

[WHoME?]

never heard of roll on texture, how does that work?? i actually wanted an orange peel texture.

[DanG]

If you own or have access to a compressor and hopper gun, try at

30-40 psi.

If you want roller orange peel texture, mix paint and drywall compound about 50/50, use 3/4 or longer nap roller. Be generous on the wall, you need the roller hairs to pull the texture. Roll several roller loads ahead of yourself, go back with a good wet roller and go top to bottom pulling a uniform texture, watch for heavy ridges left by the edge of the roller and blend them out before they set.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[davefr]

About 20 psi and thin the compound to about the viscosity of flapjack batter. (buy premixed vs bagged)

Experiment, experiment, experiment until you get the splatter pattern you want.

Ignore the other advice and spray. It'll look much better than rolled or troweled and is much less work.

[Tom Miller]

"Novice with spray gun" is a recipe for a major mess. At least it would be in my house with me aiming the spray gun! Instead, try this:

Get a paint roller with a deep nap sleeve -- the deepest available -- and a bucket of pre-mixed dry wall mud (joint cement). Roll the mud on slowly just like you would roll on paint. The deep nap of the roller and the thick mud will leave the texture you want.

You might have to thin down the mud a little with water to get the right application, and you will have to practice a bit to get the exact texture you want. Try it out on a small area first (or on a board or box as you suggested) and see what you get. If you make a mistake you can scrape it off while wet with a trowel or putty knife.

If the texture you leave on the wall is too "peaked" for example, you can knock it down with a clean, damp roller after the texture sets up a little. Make sure you roll it on smoothly, as ridges and odd swirls will show. You have to be a bit artistic and pay attention to matching the existing texture.

After the texture dries, paint the whole wall the color you want. I did this on several areas in my 1921 house when we were renovating it and it worked fine. I never found it necessary to add sand to the paint or texture. My experience with my own house and homes of neighbors from the '20s is that sand was not used -- that was a later method and yields a different effect. A crappier effect IMHO.

You can also buy more expensive premixed texture paint the color you want.

[gary]

The roll on always looks cheesy and amateurish. The spray on texture looks professional. I did my own knock down ceilings for the first time a year ago and they look great! I bought a gun and a knockdown knife as it was cheaper than renting as I am slowly going through my house room by room sprucing up my flat ceilings. If he has some manual dexterity it will go fine. I practiced in the closet ceilings but first on the backs of some old drywall.

[Roger Shoaf]

There is a couple of ways. First of all you can mix some latex primer with joint compound and apply with a regular paint roller. This will give you a stipple finish, very easy to blend and match.

At Home Depot they sell a premix along the same line and a roller cover that has plastic loops that applies the compound rather thick. Then you use a trowel to knock it down and swirl it a bit.

I prefer either if these to the machine finishes as making repairs are simple. A lot of the pro drywall people like the machine splatter as it hides a multitude of sins but it is a pain to match when your kid knocks a hole in the wall.

[Tom Miller]

Any job can look cheesy and amateurish if you do a cheesy, amateurish job. Mine looks great, as good or better than a spray job. It's just the effect I wanted. I am a graphics artist by profession, so I am concerned about how things look.

I was able to roll right up to the edge of the original natural chestnut, wide-plank woodwork without worrying about overspray. And if I made a mistake, I could scrape it off and do it over. A sprayer is often not so forgiving.

I only did this in one particular room for a special effect, and on a damaged ceiling area in a stairwell that was already textured. My opinion is that to do the entire interior of most houses would indeed be cheesy, no matter how the texture was applied. You don't want your house to look like the interior of a cave.