Hi everyone,
Any good tips for matching drywall texture, or is there a recommended website with good info? I’ve been doing some remodeling, and have had decent success with matching the current texture, but it’s a little off. Good enough you won’t notice easily, but off enough you can notice with some inspection. We have knockdown throughout the house. I’m using Fastex, and I have a good gun. It came with three nozzle sizes, and I think the medium one is best. Not sure what the best pressure or consistency of the mud should be. I’ve been using 25psi at the nozzle, and undiluted Fastex. I can post a picture later if needed. I would call it a medium to medium-heavy knockdown.
As always thanks for the upcoming great advice!
Ryan
Replies
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Trial and error, that's pretty much how I got so good at it.
But it took me a couple of decades of learning to get this good.
Ya gotta play with it like a new woman. Find out what she likes .
Ive never used this fast tex you talk about . Ive only used splatter in dry form or JC.
The thickness of the material and the pressure can usually bring you home . EXCEPT, in the case of thick mud being shot with a pump. No matter how hard you try , you cant match that woth a hopper.
You may be too critical looking at the raw product. It blends a lot better painted . So do that before you kick the dog.
Otherwise play with it out side on scrap or carboard before shooting inside. You can get damn near perfect if you have time to play . Just take your time .
When you cross into the end zone do me a favor? Act like you been there before.
Tim
Memphest 2006
November 18th
"You may be too critical looking at the raw product. It blends a lot better painted ."
I disagree with that. We tried to blend some patches and what looked like a great match primed turned into hack job with color. Professional was only slightly better, I can still see without trying where the patch is.
Tell me how you painted it exactly.
Tim Memphest 2006
November 18th
Not sure what you are asking here?
Wash all the old with tsp substitute. Let dry.
Prime (roller) with latex primer, wait a day. Since we had a lot of primer and wanted it to look even, we went ahead and primered the whole thing.
Paint (again, roller) on the color, 100% acrylic latex. Color coat had satin finish.
Looks like crap. The textures that looked great when it was all white are obviously different when it is light yellow.
Looks like crap. The textures that looked great when it was all white are obviously different when it is light yellow.
You just gave the answer or part of it .
Its more the painting than it is the texture . I know you find that hard to believe . Ill tell you how to fix it if you are interrested in going to the trouble . That is if the statement I pasted is totally true.
Tim Memphest 2006
November 18th
I would like to know what I did wrong with the painting for when I'm faced with it again. As far as repainting this room, it is low on the list now because of other maintenance items.
Ill reply tonight as Im home for lunch and was just gonna look in.
Tim Memphest 2006
November 18th
What sounds like happened ;
The yellow paint was enamel. The white was flat. The build up from the previous paintings of the other part of the wall had it "blocked" in. You primed raw drywall with primer but it didnt block it enough to match the other paintings. But anyway;
Any time I use enamel whether it be slck wall or textured, I prime the wall with drywall mud and paint mixed. 1 part paint to 4 drywall mud rolled out like primer and two coats over the new patch will set the wall up for enamel.
I did some hospital work and troweled the whole wall slick with mud to do the same thing , but to really give it a slick finish as they were washing the walls on a regular basis and using gloss enamel. So the whole wall had to be blocked.
So what happened to you was the paper is pourous and much rougher than a smooth joint . So when you did your patch you provided a smooth joint of mud around it and left the middle. You then textured over it thinking it would suffice. But as a matter of fact it has holes in it . The holes through the texture is whats making it look different . You could have fixed it with a sloppy mud coat rolled on like paint with paint added to it . Thats the reason I mix latex primer with mud and roll it on. From the application above you would have been ready for enamel.
Years ago when this emamel wall thing started , it caused a bunch of problems. The taper did his thing and the uneducated painter was happy to apply what ever the homowner wanted . Often times the painter in this case is anyone who will do it to save money. Contractors wife or the homeowner. Often times they went to walmart and bought the whole set up with that dandy throw away nap that was all of 1/8 or less and what I always called stained the wall with paint or dry rolled it letting every joint and set of nails show.. To make it worse they might use satin enamel to really dress it up. To make a long historic story short the paint companies built "high build" primers to get the wall ready for enamels. Not any better than what I mix but a whole lot higher of course. I bring in the mud paint mixed with a 1 1/2 nap roller and slop it on heavy causing runs and drips on the wall. I got about 12 feet of wall and back roll it offering no more material. After the stuff sets for several minutes the water leaves it and will lay right down on the back roll.
So thats the story.
Tim Memphest 2006
November 18th
Tim, thanks for your detailed explanation, even though I didn't understand it all.
I'm not sure what "blocked" in is. We bought our paint and primer together at a real paint store, and the primer was the right type (according to the guy there) for the paint. We primed the entire wall, not just the patch.
I believe what Tim is trying to say is that when you patched the drywall, you taped the joint between where the existing and new work met.
But the middle of the patch was left bare paper, with out drywall mud applied to the entire surface.
By leaving the bare paper next to the taped joints you in effect created two different surfaces for the primer/paint to cover. One being the fully coated tape joint with texture applied to it and the other being the paper face of the drywall with texture applied to it.
The area in the middle, the paper face with texture, will have some areas that are not covered with mud, this will change the appearance of the paint vs. the area that is/was 100% covered with mud.
He explained it correctly.
In other words , the primer wasnt good enough to seal the raw drywall for enamel. It needed either high build primer or drywall mud rolled on the wall. Even the wipe down wasnt enough to 100 percent seal the wall which Im calling blocking. ,<or blocking out the raw paper. >
Primer is not enough for raw drywall when using enamel to be redundant . You "could" have used primer and flat wall paint and you would have been tickled.
Tim
Memphest 2006
November 18th
Thanks both of you for the explanation. Someday, when the list of chores is shorter I'm planning a little date with D-mix for that room so I can start over. I'll keep this in mind for that time.
What Mark said -- trial and error. The other thing to do is re-texture the whole wall rather than just the patched area. A difference across a corner is less bothersome than on the same wall.
If you're taking out a door or window, doing the whole wall makes sense. For small fixes, a few square inches, I've had some success with patting the mud with a trowel, and pulling it straight away from the wall, parallel to the wall. You can knock down the resulting spikey surface if that'll give you the right look. Or, you can let it harden and block sand it to get smaller highs and larger lows in the texture. Thinning with water and testing will give you a little control on the size of the pattern. Speed of pull is another variable to play with.
-- J.S.