Plaster wall refinishing question

[Rot 911]

Finally getting to work on a room I am making into my office/library. Home was built in 1926 and the walls are plaster. The room had wallpaper that I have removed. In one area (aproximately 12"x12") the plaster is damaged and needs to be replaced. That is something I can do. However the finish on the wall is rough and looks like it has fine grains of sand in it. I am repainting the whole room, but only this patch will have to have the sand finished added to it. Can I just add some fine sand to a small batch of the paint that I am using to repaint the whole room, or is it something I can add to the plaster? Here is a picture showing the finish. Thanks!

[Joeaksa]

Kurt,

Hope you get this figured out. I need to do the same thing (different pattern) in a couple of places in my house. Have heard that doing stuff like this is easy... course thats easy with years of experience!

Joe A

[Gogar]

IMO you should fix the plaster then try to match the texture with a small batch of primer+sand. That way if you get it wrong you haven't ruined all your regular paint. If you can't get close enough then you could always consider the sand/paint thing with just that single wall, no need to retexture the whole room.



I just went trough a murderous round of wallpaper removal myself. 1928 house, no less than 2 layers of old, non-vinyled wallpaper on every wall, and every ceiling. I'm good at it now that it's over!!

[Rot 911]

Damn Jeremy, your project definitely is more involved than mine. Walls are in very good condition in the room I am working on and the wall paper came off fairly easily, with the exception of a few spots. I hate to retexture the whole wall if I can avoid it. I like your idea of using fine sand in the primer.

[johnsjmc]

Home Depot sells a product in the paint dept. It is a small box of addative for a can of paint . I had to match a drywall repair to a sanded plaster wall in a florida house I had.
Results looked like sand added but was a lighter material like ground up plastic and stayed in suspension in the paint once mixed. Sand would be heavier and will need constant stirring while painting.

[Bill Douglas]

I'm sure that will work. And once you have painted the whole wall you won't notice it at all.

I've been refinishing some rooms that had very textured wallpaper and I'd cut various holes in for running wires and plumbing. I glued and screwed bits of drywall into place, plastered the particular bits, then sanded it in a circular motion with 40 grit sandpaper. Then evenness of the sheen/humpy bumpy-ness makes it even hard for me to spot where the holes have been.

[Rot 911]

Thanks for the advice!

[Rick V]

The few places in my house, also plaster that I have had to touch up I ran over the top coat with a roller while it was still wet. Blended right in but my "pattern" isn't as pronounced as yours.