I’m hoping somebody here knows a clever trick for this problem.
I took out a door for my stepdaughter, the house is 15 years old, drywall, with knockdown texture on it. I got it framed, drywalled, screeded, and sanded smooth. Then I tried this “Knockdown Texture in a Can” stuff from HD. You spray it on, and a few minutes later hit it with a trowel.
The resulting pattern was pretty much the right size, but it was about 30% highs – 70% lows, while the original wall is about 70% highs – 30% lows. I’m thinking we may need to re-texture that whole wall (kind of a pain since it’s 13′ high).
So, I’m looking for good ideas on how to do knockdown texture for small jobs. They also want to move a wall and enlarge the kitchen, so I think we may be facing this problem again a few times.
Thanks —
— J.S.
Replies
Your timing is excellent, John. I just tried out a new (to me anyway) technique yesterday around some replacement windows I installed for a customer.
I loaded drywall mud in my pan and stirred it thoroughly to get it real creamy. Then, I used a 6" margin trowel to apply the mud. I loaded the back of the trowel and used a "slapping" motion to pat the mud onto the wall. Then I used a 12" drywall knife and lightly drug it over the fresh mud to get the knockdown effect.
It took a bit of practice to match the existing texture and I found that letting the trowel slide a bit gave me larger "patches" while a straight up-and-down motion kept them small. The acid test comes tomorrow when I go back to sand and prime.
Interesting.... How much mud per slap? Ours is a fairly small texture pattern, highs and lows maybe 3/4" to 2" long.
-- J.S.
You lind of have to play with it to figure out how much mud to get on the trowel. I kept it light and used a slapping motion - reloading the trowel as necessary. Unless you're using a "hot" mud, there's plenty of time to play - and you can scrape it off and start over if you need to.
http://www.redtailtexturegun.com/
Spendy for a low-tech tool, but once you've used one you'll never go back to spray cans, mud-flingin', or whatever.
Looks like a cool tool Huck, but it's way outta my price range - I just don't do enough of this to justify that price.
Several years ago, I used one of those plastic hopper gizmos that you connect to an air compressor and spatter the mud. It seemed to work pretty well and I probably would have gotten better with more practice. I've seen them at the Agent Orange store for around $50.
Thanks. It's expensive, but if we go ahead with the kitchen job maybe my wife will OK the purchase.
-- J.S.
I finally got around to buying one of those mason jar style guns a couple of years ago. None of my guys ended up liking it, we all decided we'd rather just use our hoppers because they were just about as much of a pain to clean and we never did like the patches we were spraying with it. The patches not looking very good were probably just technique though, none of us had the patience to fiddle with it when a small pancake compressor and hopper work as well as they do when you know what you are doing.
This one's different. It's the Lexus of bug-spray texture guns. Costly but well-made, and very effective. You can control the texture by how thin or thick your mud is, by how close you hold the gun to the wall, and by adjusting the orifice. With this gun you can confidently match just about any texture (except it doesn't do so well with acoustic ceiling texture, even tho' they make a special tip for it).-------
edited to add: I drilled the orifice a little bigger than it came for the acoustic ceilng tip, and it worked great on small patches, but not so good on large areas. Kept jamming up with popcorn.
Edited 8/10/2005 10:57 pm ET by Huck
Ok, now you have me curious. I'm going to see if I can find where I put that gun and give it another try. I only get real small patches the place I'm working now so it's a great place to learn the ins and outs of using it right.
Like you, I used a hopper/air compressor for years. Problem is, its a lot of labor for small patches - mainly because of masking/overspray and cleanup. The hopper/compressor gun really blows a lot of texture all over the place, and cleaning up afterwards is time-consuming.
The little hand-held gun is much less labor-intensive for smaller jobs. Plus, with the Red Tail, adjusting the texture to match is a lot easier than the hopper gun also. I used to have one of those little plastic bug sprayer texture guns, cheap but ineffective. I only bought this (OK, I'll say it...overpriced) one out of sheer frustration with the spray cans, and because I do a LOT of wall patches (it cost about the same as a case of spray cans, which are also, in my opinion, overpriced!).View Image
I think EVERYTHING is overpriced anymore. Be eating beans and drinking water now, no more steaks and fine drinks.
I love the ad for this thing - it's used for "million dollar plus luxury homes" -- with trailer park wall finishes. My how the mighty have fallen, LOL!This sprayer will probably match any pattern -- once the operator learns how to use it.
John it was probably at least sprayed with a hopper gun and if it was done by a big rig it can probably be matched by one . 1 hundred bucks I think er maybe 60 for a taiwan special which I own one of them and use it. It believe it or not had different size orfices in the handle and I use the big one which Goldblatt doesnt offer for the mere price of their hundred dollar gun. Could rent one for a day for next to nothing I guess.
I use 3 dippers[insert a mud pasn into a five gallon bucket of water and bring it out resting on one side of the bucket while the pan is scooping out the other side of the bucket. Works down to about 2 gallons.] for a 4 gallon box and stir for thick texture. 10 lbs of air . Try it on some scrap out side and you can always thin the mud. Remember it gets smaller when the water leaves out. Wait until it glazes or the shinny water has left it and soaked into the rock. Bring a 12inch knife across it with the handle close to the drywall with out touching it.
That should put you in business for ever more.
Edit; Oh yea, Let it dry when youre happy and put some paint over the new and the old. It has a habit of not looking the same , but you probably wont be able to tell it after paints dry on the surface. Its kinda like wallpaper till its dries.
Tim
Edited 8/11/2005 2:02 am ET by Mooney
Edited 8/11/2005 2:05 am ET by Mooney
Thanks --
My stepdaughter put a coat of primer on my first attempt, and she's satisfied with it. I haven't been out there to see it painted over yet.
-- J.S.