Walls with textured paint: scrape or repair?

[Wayne Whitney]

Hello,

I wish to patch (many small cracks) and repaint a wall painted with textured paint. The paint looks like it has sand mixed into it, of various grain sizes. Is it possible to patch this sort of wall in a reasonable manner? Or schould I just scrape the whole wall to remove the textured paint?

Thanks, Wayne

[SofaKing]

Depending on how much wall you may want to consider also going down to the studs and drywalling again. To many it sounds daunting but really it isn't so. Reasons if you scrape: a) the scraping will probably leave gouges b) why so many cracks c) are you going to spend a lot of time and effort fixing something that's going to be a problem again down the road. Opening the wall may not be the right option for you but find out before you rule it out.