1

Texture sprayers are common. Is there an analog for flat mudding? The use case is to cover over existing texture to get a [nearly?] flat result. It is tedious to mud wall after entire wall, so I'm looking for another way..

Update: we are in the range of maybe 1500 square feet so production/throughput and cost per area is important. I would be looking for a good but not always perfect quality finish. A litte bit of unevenness in spots is acceptable. Let's get close anyways. In any case in my mind [and others I have discussed with recently] texture is just not even trying: you already conceded to a poor end result.

isherwood
  • 158,133
  • 9
  • 190
  • 463
WestCoastProjects
  • 1,577
  • 1
  • 13
  • 32

3 Answers3

3

Don't know for sure what kind of texture you're dealing with but it sounds like what you're looking for is skim coating. There are sprayable high-build primers but that's more for a level-5 drywall finish of new walls, not things like getting rid of a knock-down texture in an old house.

Check out this youTube video. This guy has a lot of useful tutorials, more than one of them covering skim coating, and generally provides lots of good information in a clear (and occasionally entertaining) manner.

In a nutshell, for skim-coating, you thin joint compound to a soupy relatively thin consistency, apply it with a trowel or paint roller then wipe it off with a wide joint knife (or trowel (or special skim coating squeegee)). I won't take on describing how much to thin it down, the video does a much better job than I can do verbally. It takes some practice but goes pretty quickly and you can work with a 2nd person: one rolls the thinned mud on the wall and the other follows behind skimming it off.

A few tips from experience:

  • I would recommend using drying compound. If you use setting compound, it may dry before it sets leaving it powdery and crumbling away.
  • If there are already many layers of stuff on the wall (plaster, different types of paint, etc) you may end up in a situation where the skim coat sticks but applying paint makes it lose grip and bubbles up the paint or leaves you with pinholes. I understand this is because the moisture is essentially trapped in the skim layer. If that happens, you'll need a sealing primer.
1

I agree with aquaticapetheory's answer and helpful tips, but you raise an intriguing point. Why not use a sprayer to initially apply skimming compound?

I've done texture flattening with a trowel. It's not fun and takes a while. It might be made quicker by applying mud with a sprayer in a heavy pattern to uniformly distribute it, then trowel it out. For a hack like me, pulling mud out of the bucket and getting it on the wall is the most challenging part. This might eliminate that hassle altogether. With a little practice the right quantity can be learned for a minimal application.

isherwood
  • 158,133
  • 9
  • 190
  • 463
0

Following up on the answer from @aquaticapetheory: I did watch the video a couple of times - before trying out the roller and knifing and then after. The initial experience results and thoughts:

  • For significantly uneven walls such as mine with thick knockdown pay attention that the consistency being recommended is not soupy at all but rather almost as thick as you can do while getting it into the nap. We want to get enough material onto the wall so there is extra hanging out. The knifing work is there mostly to remove material not to supplement. In the video he is pulling a small amount off on each swipe. I needed to add substantial amounts because the soupy approach was putting more material on the dropcloth than on the wall
  • Follow the pro-tips of the video for angling the knife to one side to [mostly] avoid the double-sided rim lines (one rim line per swipe is happier)
  • Go ahead and mix an entire box of topping at a go: you'll use it
  • More tips to come after I try again with a thicker consistency
WestCoastProjects
  • 1,577
  • 1
  • 13
  • 32