Man, I see so many Youtube videos and articles/post explaining how to do something that sometimes are creative, but very seldom do they show/explain to you how the PRO’s actually do it.
I’ve been drywalling since I was 18 years old, at the time of writing this I am 46, I’ve worked with several drywall and painting contractors. I’ve got to EXPERIENCE first hand their ‘tricks of the trade’. I’ve seen mistakes and how to correct them. I’ve seen some AMAZING things and a.
lmost died a few times working for people.
Well if you want the simple version:
- Go to Menards, get a bag of sand texture
- mix with water or primer or both and
- spray through the smallest hole of your hopper gun. The small hole should allow the sand texture to pass through without creating the orange peel effect.
Of course you are welcome to back roll after spraying the texture, if that gives you a better result. (especially if you are using a larger hole in your hopper gun)
You can use a scrap piece of rock, cardboard or maybe in a back wall of a closet (some where inconspicuous) to spray a sample and see how it turns out before deciding upon the exact process to use for the rest of the project.
When in doubt, read the directions on the bag of texture for preparation and application.
The directions may tell you to mix the texture w/cold water or (if you want you could add 1/2 gallon of primer to a 5 gallon bucket of texture) the night before. Reason being, this will allow the texture(powder in the bag) to absorb the water and thus you won’t get chunks in your texture. That’s right, if you don’t allow it to sit 24 hours, it may come out chunky.
What happens if you run out of texture while spraying and you can’t wait 24 hours. Easy, mix more texture w/warm water. This is the equivalent of mixing w/cold water 24 hours. Or I suppose you could strain it.
On a remodel if you have finished flooring, you may want to mop the drywall surface after sanding so that you don’t have to use paint sprayer to spray primer and risk getting primer on the floor.
The mop we also like to get at Menards, it looks like a hotdog (T shape). It’s a small mop and will fit in a 5 gallon bucket. When the mop plugs up with dust it will stop removing dust off the wall. That when you know you have to dunk the mop in the 5 gallon bucket to get it clean, and then you can go back to moping the wall/ceiling again.
If they are going to replace the floor or you’re not concerned about getting primer on it, then you could spray primer w/paint sprayer and then texture with your texture sprayer/machine.
On our last remodel I chose to use primer in the texture as it was a small area. The next guy might have chose to spray the primer on low pressure near the floor w/paint sprayer or he may have chose to roll the primer on with a roller.
For me it usually comes down to speed and also what will work. There are always draw backs… but if you can save a step and it turns out well, then maybe you’re on to something.
Sand texture, at least in Wisconsin, is not a very popular texture now a days. It was kinda popular one upon a time, years ago. It is hard to wash the walls for one thing, avery prickly texture that don’t play nice w/rags.
It is a texture, non the less and is still being sold at Menards, so it’s good we have the product for remodels.
I have yet for someone to ask me to spray it as a texture in a new house and to be honest, if they did ask, I would just refer them to someone else.
The major textures in our/Wisconsin area are orange peel, knockdown and fine aggregate. I’ve done smooth, skip-trowel, a few odd ball textures, but those are the main ones.
Fine aggregate AKA popcorn, is usually sprayed on the ceiling.
Knockdown is primarily sprayed on the ceiling but can also be sprayed on walls. Unless you want to do wall paper, then you should go with orange peel on the walls.