Texture spraying a ceiling – help me!
I have an old home and am about to embark on sheeting all the plaster ceilings with drywall (after scraping off the heavy popcorn texture, that is). Some of the original ceilings had a sand texture in the plaster.
I’ve noticed that in many new homes that ceilings are textured with a knockdown or orange peel. I was thinking about using one of those two, or maybe a sand texture.
First off, do you folks use the hand held hopper, or the machine with the remote hopper. Any opinions on choice of texture?
Is this a relatively straightforawrd process once the room is “bagged”, or are there some tricks? Is it difficult to achieve a uniform finish? Do you paint after texturing, or does the texture serve as the final finish?
Any and all comments are appreciated!
DIA
Replies
hand held will be fine...
practice on an area 1st... don't like it scrape it off before it sets up...
the hopper Lowes sell works very well and the book that comes with it is all yer ever gonna need to know....
generally texture is used to hide or camoflauge crappy finishing work...
I take it you have a compressor...
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You'll need a big compressor (bigger than a pancake), and the joints need to be taped and finished pretty well before spraying. Spray texture will hide a lot of small imperfections, but not big ones.
Actually, you can spray an orange peel texture, but for knockdown you need to roll on the goop and then hand trowel the peaks. I guess you could spray it on heavy, backroll to get the peaks, then trowel.
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Thanks for the info. I though that one had to spray to achieve the knockdown look. Define goop, please. And what type of roller. How long do you let it set before knocking down the peaks. Do you then paint the knockdown after it has dried?
thanks.
DIA
Knockdown, in my area, is sprayed (like orange peel), then the tops are flattened with a wipedown knife. There are no "peaks" to speak of.
The handheld sprayers are miserable, but unless you are doing a lot of work, the bigger setup probably isn't justifiable.
The best thing you can do is play - play with your mud mix, play with how long you wait to knock it down, play with how thickly you spray.
Good luck!
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WEe're both right. If you spray on a heavy orange peel, you will have little bumps to flatten. That's fine, it's an attractive texture.
If you roll on the goop, you get bigger peaks so the knockdown is more dramatic. As someone mentioned, it can be done as a stomp application. If you use a regular 1/2" nap roller, you get smallish peaks. They also sell a roller cover that looks like dried noodles, and it gives a much bigger peak and thus a more dramatic texture.
The goop can be as simple as regular joint compound, or they also sell a compound specifically for texturing. Even Lowes carries it here.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I think I rate that task as very DIY-able. And you ought to be able to rent a completely adequate little unit on a 2 wheel cart from a drywall supply house. Thirty bucks, yours for the weekend. You'll want to practice, oh, ten or twenty seconds. Then you'll have it licked.
Knockdown is done, lightly, with what I call a knockdown knife, someone else called a wipe down . . . long, usually plexi, but sometimes metal. How long to wait really depends on how fast the stuff is drying. You don't want to wait real long. I'd say in average room temps, you're going to spray a bedroom ceiling in just a couple of minutes. A couple more to quickly scrape the overspray off the walls (you're going to skim up there one more time, dont get too overzealous) and so 6-10 minutes into it you're going to want to be knocking.
The "peaks" you sometimes see is probably the result of a stomped finish, done with a drywall broom. Its not a broom, just a head that screws onto the end of a pole. You roll the stuff on with a heavy nap, fast as the second guy can sling it up there, and you start mashing. Even, steady, trying to keep the center off and the ends whacking away.
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Thanks, all, for the input. Do you then paint the knockdown (once it's thoroughly dry), or is that the finished ceiling?
Any preference as to common mud vs. the actual bagged texture material?
Thanks.
DIA.
That one is completely up to you. Lots of new construction, the ceiling is left as is. No paint. Pros/cons - in new construction, that first year, you are going to get shifting, and how much, and how that affects the drywall, anyones guess. It is much easier to patch / fix the raw mud than painted. Cost too. Not painting saves costs. Cons, left that way for years, it can yellow with age, debris, especially in areas like a kitchen where you're pumping fumes out all the time.
If you want to paint it, go for it. "Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think -- there are no little things" - Bruce Barton
do you folks use the hand held hopper, or the machine with the remote hopper. Any opinions on choice of texture?
Any and all comments are appreciated!
I prefer which ever type of machine or hopper our drywall sub has....;)