Textured Drywall Finish

[jyl]

My whole house has this textured finish on the interior walls. It varies a bit, some places there are distinct flats, other areas are more stippled, but the general effect is this sort of random rough effect. I need to figure out how to approximately replicate it, when patching and so on.

Any knowledge?

[red 928]

Originally Posted by jyl

My whole house has this textured finish on the interior walls. It varies a bit, some places there are distinct flats, other areas are more stippled, but the general effect is this sort of random rough effect. I need to figure out how to approximately replicate it, when patching and so on.

Any knowledge?

it takes a little practice to develop the
right technique but it's not too bad

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Homax-20-oz-Wall-Orange-Peel-Low-Odor-Water-Based-Texture-Spray-Paint-4092-06/100154309

[jyl]

Can you knock it down?

[red 928]

Yes.
I've used that product to make smaller patches and repairs
on Mediterranean knock-down textured walls.
But you have to control how heavy you put it on,
how far away from the wall, how long you wait
to knock it down.
Hence the practice and technique thing.
Get an extra piece of drywall or cardboard and
try a few different things and get comfortable.
If you are going over bare drywall,
you might want to wet it a little bit to keep it from
sucking all the moisture out of the texture.

For a larger area (like a whole wall) I'd use a real texture gun
but you'd have to start with a clean slate (smooth wall).

[dad911]

I use a hopper gun and thin down down the joint compound to the consistency of syrup.

For small areas or touch up I apply a thin layer of spackle with a rounded finishing trowel, then press the trowel flat to the mud and pull out to make bumps. When it starts to dry knock down with a clean blade.

Harder to describe in words than to do.

[cabmandone]

That stuff Red 928 suggested works well. If you have a piece of drywall laying around, you can spray it then take a trowel and knock it down. I think I'd start with the heavy pattern for that first pic. You'll want to play around with letting it "dry" a little before knocking it down. There are a couple things you can do to change the pattern. Spraying twice before knocking it down might give a closer look to that first pic vs one spray on the heavy or medium with the second.

[masraum]

I'm far from expert, but those look like two different kinds of texture to me.

The top one looks like it is mud that's laid on thick and then has the tops knocked off. It's often used on ceilings and there's a special brush that's used where the bristles have been pressed flat.

The bottom one looks like it's a splatter effect that's sprayed on with a gun.

[1990C4S]

For small repairs on the second pic you can mix Polyfilla with paint and leave the powder clumped.

Apply that paste with the tip of a paint brush, let it dry, then knock it down with sandpaper.

You can NEVER match those finishes. I hate them.

[jyl]

I think they are the same finish idea, maybe done by different workers or in different days. The pics are two adjacent rooms, that were certainly finished at the same time when the house was remodeled in 2000.

Looks like a cheap hopper gun at Harbor Freight costs barely more than a can of spray texture. I assume my pancake compressor will run it, for small areas anyway. I have various areas totaling about half a room wall to do.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

My house in Mexico has the whole interior done with a splatter coat.
The tool to apply it has little metal fingers that get rotated by hand and it splatters plaster on the wall. Quick smooth with a trowel and some artistic flare and its done.

[gacook]

Looks like knockdown (the texture).

For "professional" results, you need a hopper. Drywall mud to a watery/paste consistency in the hopper, airhose connected to hopper; shoot the wall. Let it dry a couple minutes, then lay it down with a 10 inch drywall knife.

OR you can buy the "same" stuff in a can...it's not as good but not bad for small repairs.

[look 171]

Hopper. If it is a small patch, buy the can but they aren't cheap anymore. The trick is to wait fir iut toi dry a bit before you knock it down with a towel. Play with the mud's for the same consistency you try to match. You doing the whole room, kitchen? YOu don't want to hear this but for period correct old houses, they are hand toweled, smooth walls with slight imperfection from towels. Hard to explain.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by look 171

Hopper. If it is a small patch, buy the can but they aren't cheap anymore. The trick is to wait fir iut toi dry a bit before you knock it down with a towel. Play with the mud's for the same consistency you try to match. You doing the whole room, kitchen? YOu don't want to hear this but for period correct old houses, they are hand toweled, smooth walls with slight imperfection from towels. Hard to explain.

I have multiple small spots to patch and a couple larger areas where we opened up the kitchen wall for electrical/plumbing. It’s been bugging me for years that I’ll do something and leave a smooth area that looks weird, and now I have to fix it. I think I’m going to pick up a cheap hopper gun and try to learn how to do this. Not going to try to take the whole house back to smooth. The entire fricking place was textured back in 2000. Sigh.

[red 928]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think they are the same finish idea, maybe done by different workers or in different days. The pics are two adjacent rooms, that were certainly finished at the same time when the house was remodeled in 2000.

Looks like a cheap hopper gun at Harbor Freight costs barely more than a can of spray texture. I assume my pancake compressor will run it, for small areas anyway. I have various areas totaling about half a room wall to do.

With half a room's worth to do,
the hopper gun is probably a good idea.
I have one like you described and haven't used it in 20 years,
but remember it as being almost idiot-proof



Just make sure the spackle is a little runny with no clumps.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think they are the same finish idea, maybe done by different workers or in different days. The pics are two adjacent rooms, that were certainly finished at the same time when the house was remodeled in 2000.

Looks like a cheap hopper gun at Harbor Freight costs barely more than a can of spray texture. I assume my pancake compressor will run it, for small areas anyway. I have various areas totaling about half a room wall to do.

First one is troweled on, then knocked down. Popular in the 70's.

Second one is sprayed on, then knocked down. Popular in the 80's.

If you want to patch or match them, find an old guy that did those finishes in that era. You can try to approximate them yourself but you'll never get all the way there.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think they are the same finish idea, maybe done by different workers or in different days. The pics are two adjacent rooms, that were certainly finished at the same time when the house was remodeled in 2000.

Looks like a cheap hopper gun at Harbor Freight costs barely more than a can of spray texture. I assume my pancake compressor will run it, for small areas anyway. I have various areas totaling about half a room wall to do.

I use the cheap HF Hopper gun, as outlined above. I also use the mudmixer from HF, big labor savor.

My goto compressor is not that big, a California Air Tools CAT-4610AC Ultra Quiet & Oil-Free 1.0 hp 4.6 gallon.

Hopper always uses air, even with trigger off. I can almost spray out a full hopper, then I shut air and let it recover while reloading.

[GH85Carrera]

Our house had some ugly wall paper on it when we moved it. My wife hated it, and off it all came. She did not want smooth painted walls, and since she was going to paint the wall, I called a former work buddy that was a interior house painter for 30 years. He came over and hand textured the walls by hand with a trowel to match some of the other walls that had no wall paper. He made it look easy, but a real pro usually makes most any task look easy. The wife was happy with the results, and that is what matters.

[look 171]

I am currently working on a house built in the late 20s. Alll hand trowel Plaster. We are putting a new kitchen, bath and all the wood windows with new operating wood windows. She can't stand the roughness so skimp coating the entire is the way to go and replacing some of the old plaster walls with drywall. Smooth wall and we are trying to have a bit of the old world look and not have completely sq corners. It will be nice once done and she will be happy so I am happy.

[jyl]

Well, turns out that this is like everything else with drywall and mud.

It is easy to do.

It is not easy to do well.

The can texture spray is too fine for a heavy knockdown finish. It’s fine for a splatter or light knockdown effect. I’ll keep the can I bought for little repairs.

On to the hopper gun. I bought a bag of 90 minute drywall mix, mixed up some pretty liquidy mud, poured it into the hopper, set gun for large tip, max airflow, and practiced on some cardboard, then did the wall. I wanted big messy blobs, and seemed to best get them by spraying in bursts with compressor at a lower pressure, like 60-70 psi, but I didn’t do it long enough to really know what is optimal. Then waited, had an espresso, tried knocking it down. Crap, too soon, I made a big flat swath. Resprayed that area, went away for longer, came back and tried knocking down again. Crap, now the mud is a bit too dry, it is kind of shaggy. Knocked down everything as best I could, and assessed.

It’s not good, but not bad, and actually within the variation on the existing walls - some original parts seem to have been done heavy knockdown, others more of a stipple, and others a spastic palsy St Vitus Dance. So my crappy work might fit in sort of okay. The main issue is my slightly shaggy mud has stipple in places where it caught on the knife instead of smoothly flattening out. But I think a bit of sanding block and then paint will help.

[creaturecat]

we had one hallway done in that fashion - took almost 1000 lbs of mud to flatten it out.