Our walls in our 1975 midwest home are non-textured or smooth to the eye, however, when you touch it there is a slight texture. It really is not noticable until you go to patch or also in our case, put up new sheetrock next to old. We have tried rough rollers and sponges, but can’t seem to figure it out. Please help.
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Matching a smoothwall 'texture' can be tough. Sometiomes you have to skim the wall from corner to corner for it to look right. If you are dealing with a paint stiple build up over the years, try rolling on an undiluted heavy-bodied vinyl primer (like Hamilton's prep-coat) on the patch first, then blending into a wider area before painting. I have had good luck with this.
Since I seem to be the only drywall guy here in the past , I will take a stab at this.
For one thing , you are not able to give much information , because you dont have any more. It still makes it difficult enough. Plus you have already tried {something ].
Ok , here goes!!!! Lets pole sand that whole wall, pretty slick. I use a mixture of 1 box mud , 1 gallon of paint , mixed throughly . Up down and around continually for as long as it takes. You can test this by turing your drill some what parerell with the floor. this will let you how smooth you have it mixed. [if you dont do this , you will get lumps and critters]
Roll the whole wall liberally with runs an lap marks galore. Then go back to where you started and dry roll it out . [Adding water will make it even a lighter texture. Sometimes as much as a gallon of water., but then you have to have two buckets.]
If you like this , you can roll the whole room to match. Block filler will do about the same thing with out all the mixing, but more expensive. They might have used one of those texture covers to dry roll it out also, but we have no way of knowing .
Trying to find my way home
Tim Mooney
Since I seem to be the only drywall guy here in the past
There are 5 or 6 GOOD drywall people here. Maybe they just haven't chimed in on any questions yet?
Most have been here for at least 3 years, some even more. When the time is right for them to chime in, they will most definitely give some VERY GOOD advice, tips, and opinions.
Just a thought...James DuHamel
J & M Home Maintenance Service
"Southeast Texas"
Why is it we are the only ones responding to these questions ? I would like to hear more responses on drywall. Im sorry Ive missed the others that have done it full time over a period of years. My experience is 18 yrs full time, with another 22 yrs part of the time after the first hitch. Im a remodeler and builder doing my own drywall. That statement wasnt intended to hackle anyone ,especially you , since you do reply .
Hey Tim,
You didn't hackle me a bit. I understand your frustration. I feel it too.
I personally do not do drywall exclusively, but I do a lot of drywall repairs. In almost every case in my area, the walls and ceilings have texture. It is extremely rare to find a smooth wall or ceiling, so I had to learn how to do all the different varieties of texturing so that the repairs looked good. I have learned over the years that each drywall pro (here at least) has their own technique and style. It is that certain texture or style that they prefer, and they use it exclusively. I got to know the different techniques, and learned how to apply them. Most are simple, while some are quite unique. I used to be able to look at the original texture job, and could narrow down the original drywall finisher to a few individuals that used that style. Sometimes, I could narrow it down to a single person. That person may or may not be in business anymore, or may even be dead by now. Lately, every body and their little brother is a "pro" drywall person. Some stink pretty badly at it, while others ain't too bad.
Nowadays, most of the stuff I repair is less than 10 years old, and the techniques and style are all the same. Stomp and drag is the most common, and it is REAL easy to copy. I really miss the uniqueness and special personality that I used to see in the finishing of the older drywall jobs. Now it just seems kinda plain and sorta mechanized in a way.
I am not one of the 5 or 6 that I mentioned as being professional drywall installers and finishers here. I am but a peon in their world, but I learned a LOT from them. I was wondering the other day why some of them haven't posted in a long time. The old site was full of their wisdom and knowledge. I wish I could have taken it with me. We used to have discussions on how drywall was made, why different areas of the country required different types, and one time some of these guys even did some experiments with drywall to see if their way was better or not. Then they posted the results (complete with pics). Man o man a lot of information was passed along back then. I really miss that. Not only with drywall, but with everything else too.
Thank YOU for all the time and effort you put into answering questions here. I read the info each time I find one of your posts. I may or may not agree, or I may learn some valuable information. Either way, the sharing of info makes good reading for me, and I am sure it does so for others as well.
Have a good Memorial Day, and keep up your spirits. It can only get better around here (mainly cause it has already hit rock bottom, and the only way to go is up).
James DuHamel
J & M Home Maintenance Service
"Southeast Texas"
Thanks for the input. I really am not looking forward to skimming practically every wall in my house...the house we are living in! Maybe the drywall fairy will come one night if I sleep with a spackling knife under my pillow. I am new to the this site (the lack of spell check has me totally paranoid and I don't know if I am even answering on the right "string"), but I am not to house restoration.
I grew up "house hopping" with my parents. I slept in walkin closets, entered my bedroom via ladder and even spent the summer in the family pop-up camper as they brought a property back to it's potential and sold it with multiple contract offers from which to choose. Until the last few, they stuck to the old houses with history and restored each one back to its glory. They have finally settled in a historical district in a turn of the century Queen Anne.
I grew up and married a "remodeler...modernizer". I couldn't let him do that to an old house, so we house hop in the 1950-1970 era. You can't mess those up, but there is good money there in the right neighborhood. This is our second venture. Our first house had the same "texture", but was low end quality and we faked it with sponges. "not great results" And yes, we had mulitple offers. This current house is "the established neighborhood of choice'' and demands a better solution. We "stole" this house because the owner was pissed at the neighborhood for not allowing her to rent rooms to unrelated parties, so she abused it and let it set vacant for 7 years. Then when she put it on the market, she priced it a neighborhood market value--yeah right. 9 months later and 3 price drops we swooped in and grabbed. Our friends are quite sure we are insane.
Back to the drywall thing... I think I am going to try finding a local drywaller/repairer who will talk to me, knowing I'm a DIYer, and see what he/she has to say.
Gotta go, the 3 and 5 year old have found the hole in the floor, or the open cavity in the wall, or the table saw, or the sheetrock knife (which is missing), or the....
From:
James DuHamel
12:38 am
To:
blue_eyed_devil
(18 of 36)
20525.18 in reply to 20525.16
Hey Blue,
WYSIWYG means "What You See Is What You Get". This simply means that whatever you actually see on your screen when you write, is exactly how it will appear when your message gets posted.
And I am with you on the lack of good debatable content. Seems like I learned a lot more whenever we got into some good discussions about things. Made me stop and think, and made me think of things I never would have thought of. Seems like now it is a "take it or leave it" type of sharing of info.
The words of James Duhamel quoted in another thread. James this is what I was talking about. Where are the experienced drywallers??? Where is there information printed? Without information given back to the people asking that is correct , then Blue is right. "Taunton has doomed their own site."
Another thing ; I just try to post what I know . I let others post on stuff I would like their input , but it seems there is less and less of that .
Last thing; I would like to thank you for particiapating. Im just a little upset at the lack of responses. This site has surely changed, and not for the good . I used to read a hunting magizine that would say a "good time was had by all".
Im sorry to say that there is less of that here. Nuff said ,
Tim Mooney