I’ve been spackling some rooms in my own house renovation. In all honesty I do a very good job, VERRRRRy smooth but I am verrrrrrry slow at doing this. Maybe too anal about getting a perfect wall and corners? I have light sanded and re-spackled areas sometimes with a 5th coat.
Anyway I have heard here and there about applying a very thinned coat of spackle using a paint roller. But I have never seen the process.
Out of boredom and wanting to try something that may be faster I tried a roller.
Here’s some pics of what I attempted on a scrap of drywall. I thinned out some finish coat spackle with a lot of water. I used a 3/8″ nap paint roller.
I have no idea how thin to make the spackle. Nor how much to apply with the roller or what type of paint roller to use.
I figure to do this after the second coat has been sanded but do this INSTEAD of the final smooth sanded finish coat.
Anyone with the recipe and technique? Any books or videos showing how?
Edited 10/28/2004 4:30 pm ET by Patchogue Phil
Edited 10/28/2004 4:36 pm ET by Patchogue Phil
Replies
called a roll coat around here. You will still need to finish well so the taped joints (hollows) don't show through. You need to be semi careful with roller lines and/or direction. Some will lightly trowel a wet roll coat that sort of applies a skim to all the board to help even out the paper and compound difference. Repairs are pretty easy to blend in on a roll coat.......unlike the chore of making a repair disappear in knock down and worse yet, popcorn.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
The roller makes an interesting texture if that's what you are going for. If you are skim coating the entire room the faster way is a 14" trowel and loud music, that's what seems to work for the Rastafarian dudes :~) Those guys rock... er I mean mud.
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
- Fyodor Dostoyevski
Thanks for the replies.
How do you "make" the mud - how thin should it be?
What kind of roller is to be used?
Did the pics of what I tried look "right"?
When you say spackle, do you mean joint compound? Ordinary pre-mixed joint compound can be mixed with water. The consistency will depend on the effect you want. It has been a long while but we used to mix a batch in an empty 5 gal. bucket to the consistency of heavy cake batter. It was applied with a roller and a variety of tools would be used to texture the surface. Bopping ceilings with a circular brush was popular once as were swirled trowel marks. Today a popular design is called skip troweling. The surface is skipped over giving an old plaster look. Let your imagination run, you can draw in it, stamp it, brush it, make snow angels. Just remember, you will permanently affect the walls. The next time you paint you will have to live with the texture or start over. The most difficult areas are up against casings, baseboards and adjacent non textured surfaces. If you use the joint compound on walls, you should paint the surface. Work the paint roller as little as possible to prevent softening the compound. The compound alone won't stand up to water. Rough surfaces are also hard to keep clean.
Many companies make texture paint. Faux finishing, Venetian plaster and many other techniques are very popular and there are many tools available for special effects.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match