Texturing a Wall

[lostman]

Have any of you done this?

I removed wallpaper from one wall in one of the kid's rooms, intending to texure that wall and paint the room. When I removed the wallpaper, it took of some of the cardboard cover on the wallboard in places.

Now I know I could never get the texture to match exactly, but I wanted it to at least look better than it did. The kid at Home Depot told me to use joint compound (thinned with some water) and a roller and roll it on the wall. The texture on the other 3 walls is a smooth, bumpy kind of texture - not "sandy". He said that should take care of it.

Did that, and it looked - well not so great - but giving it the benefit of the doubt, I painted the wall thinking it would look better. WRONG!!! It looks like elephant dung!

A trip back to Home Depot for some sand paper to erase this mistake on the drywall, and more joint compound, to try to fix this abomination. Different guy at Home Depot said I first have to use joint compound to smooth out the wall and fill in the spots where the wallboard was pulled away. Then he told me to lightly sand and just use a thick nap roller and just put on another coat of paint, that the paint would create the texture on its own.

It doesn't sound right and I am a bit leery of trying it again only to have it look like more elephant dung or worse!

Anyone? Thanks!

 

[BigWill]

If the drywall has delaminated, that must be addressed before any texturing. I suggest spraying shellac on those areas, and letting it dry. This will "seal" those spots.

Sounds like you were going for "orange peel" texture. Needs to be sprayed on. The roller thing doesn't work for ****.

Sounds like you screwed it up. I suggest calling a drywaller. Shouldn't cost more than a couple hundred to fix.

It's important to know that the wall needs to be "bladed down" after texture, and prior to paint. That is, let the texture dry, and scrape it lightly to knock off all the loose excess mud.

 

[hellbunny]

I'm doing the wallpaper removal thing in my kitchen and the steps that seem to be recommended everywhere are:

Strip wallpaper
Sand rough spots
Seal/prime with a drywall sealer (Zinsser Gardz, Killz, etc.)
Smooth with joint compound
Lightly sand
Spot seal/prime again
Apply your texture and/or paint... You're on your own here though. I'm going to try just painting.

BTW: the ******* that wallpaper directly onto drywall should be tortured severely.

 

[lostman]

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[hornhooper]

I have seen contracts cut out the drywall and replace it with new drywall. Then they tape the new piece to the old drywall and nail it down on the studs. After this I believe you could texture. Hope that helps.

 

[hornskill]

If there is no hole in the wall, then you don't need to replace anything. Use a joint knife instead of a roller to apply joint compound. Then sand over with soaked sponge or drywall sponge per directions.
Not real clear with your texture situation, but if its a relatively modern paint/texture, then it may be a variation of orange peel. Homax makes a spray can that can match 3 textures with nozzle attachmts~10 bucks. If its old, then it probably once was "sandy" and due to coats of paint/time is smoother. If this is the case then the second home depot worker's advice sounds apporpriate. If its then too smooth, you'll have to mix texture with paint trial and error to the right consistency- won't be perfect.
Then paint and your golden.

 

[lostman]

OK -thanks to the responses I am a lot more hopeful this morning that I was last night. I am going to try to fix this today myself before calling in my neighbor. Going through your responses here is my plan:

1) Got some drywall sandpaper (looks kinda like a screen) and will sand the wall down a bit.
2) Got a big bucket of joint compound and will fill in areas where there are "holes" from wallpaper tearing the drywall.
***Here - do I need to do the whole wall or just the holes as the kid at HD instructed?
3) Now here is where I am really fuzzy - I have a 3/4" nap roller - the kid at HD said to use that with the paint and just roll the paint on thick and it should have some texture to it. He said just do not go back over once you have rolled, but could do a second coat later with a smaller nap.

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[TX_HORNS]

Maybe others have had a better experince, but I've tried the Homax spray can texture and had pretty ****** results. I tried their larger sprayer and it worked pretty well, but the **** in the aerosol can is too thin and runny, so it just didn't look right.

 

[Reborn_Horn]

I have to second hellbunny's list and I generally use the joint compound with water to create my texture. I rent a hopper and combine with an air compressor to shoot the texture on the walls.....this will likely get the closest to that orange peel look and feel.

 

[OrangeHair]

Here's your easiest solution. Retexture the whole wall. Ideally retexture the whole room.

Obviously you do need to repair the locations where the paper was ripped off. Just fill those with joint compound until they are flush with the rest of the wall. Sand if needed. Not sure if you need to seal the wall due to glue residue.

In my experience texturing walls you can thin joint compound with water and use a roller. I've also heard of mixing in a little paint (might save you a coat if it's a dark color, paint might need to be water soluable). Obviously the amount of thinning you do will have an effect on the final texture. More water leaves a softer texture. Little water leaves a sandy texture. Different rollers, etc. You'll have to do a bit of trial and error. Whatever you do, just keep doing it until that whole wall is fairly uniform. Put on a second or third coat of texture until at least that one wall is uniform.

Nobody will notice that the texture on one wall is slightly different from the other 3, especially when painted and furnished.

 

[lostman]

Thanks to all for your help!!! Next time I will know exactly what to do from the beginning! Between the info here and info I got from a different guy at Home Dept, the wall looks 100 times better than it did yesterday and it cost me less than $20. ($10 for a 5 gal bucket of joint compound, and $3 for another roller)

I sanded the wall to get off a lot of the first attempt, and since I had one coat of paint already on, no need to seal. Patched up the "holes" evening things out. Then put a new coat of texture on. The thing that made a difference was the roller. The first guy said it did not matter what roller I used, and since we have several here at home, I did not buy a new one. The other guy suggested one with the largest nap - a really fluffy one. Also left the joint compound a little thicker than before, more like sour cream consistency instead of thick pancake batter.

Rolled on a new layer of texture, and even though the original texture is more like rounded, soft orange peel, and the new texture is like "peaky" orange peel, it does not look much different at all. The peaks are little peaks instead of large like meringue.

So I now know how to do this correctly and have about half a bucket of joint compound left! Don't hink I'll tackle another wall any time soon though.

Thanks again all!

 

[BigWill]

Wipe down the (in)sides of the bucket with a wet sponge, and pour an inch of water on top of the mud and it will last a while.