Textured Walls?

Question

We just removed wallpaper from a hall and found alot of bad walls. The area will be hard to fix with drywall and we really think patching would be harder. I thought of using the same thing as used to texture ceiling on the walls. But I don't know what the stuff is called that is used on the ceiling. Can someone tell me? Also I don't know what kind of design will work that won't be too rough or stucco like. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I had the same problem as you. I went to Home Depot and bought BEHR TEXTURE PAINT. You can get it in three different textures, smooth, sand or popcorn. For different ways of applying the texture paint you can go to behr.com for ideas. Basically it is very forgiving and once it dries you can paint it any colour you'd like. Make sure you clean and prime the surface so the texture paint will adhere to the surface. I used a primer called Poly Prep but as long as it is an oil base primer it should be good. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You can put a skim coat of drywall mud on the entire wall after you fill the cracks and holes. then sand it smooth and paint. I've done this on damaged walls.
You can also use texture. It's also done with drywall mud aka joint compound. The knock down everyone is referring to is the most common. It's done by taking a large mud/tape knife and 'knocking down' the high spots while he mud is still partially wet. It is not a complicated procedure, but it is messy and takes some practice.
You'll need to rent or buy an air compressor and a texture spraying machine. The most common are a large hopper on top of a large nozzled spray gun. You'll also need a heavy duty drill, a mixing paddle, a 5 gallon bucket, a 16 inch mud/tape knife, a roll of plastic and some masking tape and the mud.
Cover the floor and anything else in the area you don't want textured with the plastic and tape.
Fill all the cracks and holes in the walls with the mud. After it's dried sand lightly. Put about 1/2 of a large bucket of the mud in an empty 5 gal. bucket. Add about 2 to 2 1/2 quarts of water. Using the drill and paddle, mix it thoroughly. Hook up the compressor and sprayer. Pour the mud into the hopper and spray onto a large piece of cardboard. Adjust the pressure and nozzle as needed to get the coverage you want.
You may also have to adjust the amount of water. If the mud is to thick, it won't spray. And if it's to thin it will run down the wall. Once you get everything adjusted and mixed right spray the walls. Back and forth, top to bottom. After the wall is sprayed let it sit for a while. When the mud starts to look dry, take the knife and lightly go over the wall. Start at the top and go all the way to the bottom without stopping, if possible. Overlap a little between passes. You should be flattening out the texture, not removing it. After it dries completely just prime and paint.

Answer 3

I'm not sure you want to go with anything as rough as what would get put on a ceiling. For a quick fix up, get a little palm sander that vibrates and use a somewhat fine sand paper to smooth out some of the worst imperfections in the wall. If the imperfections are too bad you'll probably want to go over them with some spackle once or twice.

I'd probably recommend having a professional painter come in and texture your walls. There are spray cans that you can use for texturing your walls. The spray cans normally have about three different spray tubes that you can put on the sprayer can to get different sizes of texturing. The reason why many builders use wall texturing is to cover up drywall mistakes. Professional painters have a machine that has a nozzle on it that they can set to different settings to get the right texture. You may be able to rent such a machine at a place like Lowe's or Home Depot. The only thing is that you have to keep that texturing machine wand constantly moving or otherwise you will have too much texture build up in one spot. If you are going to do it yourself I'd practice on some cardboard first.

Another thing you'll want to watch is your lighting in the hall. Lighting can make a big difference in how easily you see the imperfections. You don't want lights that spread across wall, they will show the imperfections more. That is why you see so many builders going to recessed lighting in ceilings. With recessed lighting, the lighting doesn't spread across the ceiling and therefore doesn't show the imperfections in the ceiling as well. Since recessed lighting shines pretty much straight down, it can't spread across the wall either. When light spreads accross a wall or ceiling it shows shadows where there are recesses and bright spots where there are bumps and you see the imperfections more.

Answer 4

Most wall textures consist of Knock Down, or Orange Peel. If you want something 'fairly' smooth... not rough like stucco, I would recommend the Orange Peel texture. It's called that, because it literally looks like an orange peel... lots of smooth little bumps, no sharp edges. This is sprayed on with a hopper gun usually, and is the simplest of the two types of texture Ive mentioned to apply. You will actually spend more time getting ready to spray it on the walls, than actually spraying it, hehehehe.

The other type of texture, Knock Down... involves spraying also, but then you have to use a putty or taping knife, to swipe the surface, and flatten out the surface a bit. How thick your texture mixture is, how long you wait before using the knife, and what direction you use the knife, are all variables that will affect the outcome, and final look of the texture.

With either method, I would experiment on some large pieces of cardboard first, to get the look I wanted.

Oh, one more thing... if you have to do any repairs to the wall before applying texture, make sure you use a primer over the patch, BEFORE you apply the texture... otherwise, the texture will appear a different color over the patch, compared to the rest of the walls.

Have Fun!

Answer 5

If you feel you couldn't skim coat a wall with joint compound and repair the cracks with a self adhering fiberglass tape then I would suggest getting a wallpaper liner that you put up like wallpaper and then paint. This liner also comes with different textures and patterns. The knock down effect is a good idea but I wouldn't go with any other. I live in the northeast where we like our walls smooth, I also lived in the south where they texture in many ways and alot of times too heavy where you could get hurt and a real good dust collector, keep in mind and good luck

Answer 6

We have removed "popcorn" texture on most of our ceilings and applied a hand applied knockdown texture. Without a better description of your ceiling texture, hard to tell you how to match it. I use drywall compound for texture on walls, can rent equipment to apply an orange peel or various other textures. To keep a heavy texture technique a consistent height, you "knockdown" the high points with large scraper or drywall knife after a few hours dry time.

do a search on drywall texture, will get several sites with decent tips.

Answer 7

I dont have time for a long answer but I highly recommend the knockdown texture. It's fairly easy to do, except for the prep work (taping, hanging plastic) because it is very messy. But the end result is amazing. My 70 year old plaster walls looked like brand new drywall in one day!! It covers a word of sins.

Answer 8

What you're talking about is knockdown. It is a procedure of spraying compound on the walls, then "knocking" it down. It is the solution I used in my kitchen for the very same reason. I had a pro do the texture, and I did the prep. All I had to do was to patch the holes and fill in the cracks. He did his thing, and left. I primed and painted.

Answer 9

It's called "mud". You can buy it at lowes, home depot, or any lumber yard. You'll need a texture sprayer to spray the mud on the walls and a knock down knife approx. 12 inches long. It isn't as easy as these people claim, although it is messy.

Answer 10

In addition to the answers provided here, you could also consider applying wainscotting to the wall. The wainscotting (or beadboard) look is pretty popular and durable without giving you the look of panelling (like in old dungeon-like basements.)

Wainscotting can be purchased prefinished and is easy to install.