I bought a house that is almost 30 years old in which the drywall was finished with a veneer coat of plaster. The plaster is trowlled on quite thick – and then swirlled into a recurring pattern about 6″ or so in diameter. The height of the raised portions vary but can be as much as a 1/8″ high in places, but 1/16′ is probably about average.
I would like to sand this down to a smooth finish – before I repaint. Is this a reasonable approach? Or would it be easier to float-out the entire wall (which I may have to do anyway)? Floating out that much would make the transistion to the existing base and door trim funky…perhaps.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
It also has the spray-on pocorn texture on the ceilings which I detest….
Thanks in advance for your help.
Replies
You're undoubtedly correct in thinking that skim coating the walls will create a somewhat funky transition to the base and door moldings.
But sanding all of the walls down to the wallboard is going to be undelievably dusty, dirty work. You'll have plaster dust *everywhere*. You'd have to move out to do the work, and I wouldn't even think of leaving a piano, for instance, in the house while this was going on.
I'd rethink the skim coating and if you'd be unhappy with the base and door moldings, perhaps you could take them off and re-install them (over the skim coat)?
If you need to get the popcorn ceiling down (assuming it's not asbestos based ... which unfortunately is probably the case here) I've got a simple trick. Get a garden sprayer and fill it with water. Cover the floor and every piece of furniture with plastic tarp material. Take a 12 inch wallboard knife and, after you've sprayed an area to get it moist, simply scrape the popcorn off. You should be able to catch most of it in a bucket. You'll quickly figure out how much water to spray on to get the stuff moist enough. This doesn't raise much dust and is very, very quick.
John
I would first prime walls if they have any sheen. Then you would want to skim the wall with a 12" knife, do not float much. The trim was most likely applied after plaster finishing/ texturing, so it should not mess with the trim if you make sure you get your knife tight up against it when you skim. Plaster is impossible to sand once painted, so don't even try it unless with a belt sander. I would probably use my 12" flooring scraper, at a low angle, to remove the popcorn and finish it up with my pole sander.
Rent a drywall sander thats attached to a vaccum. It goes pretty fast and is virtually dust free. Only problem you may have is finding someone that rents these machines but its worth letting your fingers do the walking....its a whole lot faster then a skim coat and it'll get you what you "really" are after.
Be a wall
Namaste
andy
"Attachment is the strongest block to realization"
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
You've got good advice on the walls, but if you want to do the ceilings too, there is an alternative to wetting it down.
I recently removed ~750 sq. ft of popcorn and skimcoated the ceilings. But after trying water, I decide there had to be a way to do it that wasn't so messy.
I used the Handyman's secret weapon to attach a 4-inch floor scraper to one section of shop vacuum extension pipe with the narrow floor tool attached. After a little experimenting, I got them arranged so that 99 percent of the popcorn would be sucked into the vacuum.
I used the Shop Vac brand drywall bags to eliminate dust.
I know that a pro with stilts and in empty house could have done it faster by wetting it down, but my tool let me do it in the evenings by simply moving the furniture around. If I was working over furniture, I just covered it with a drop cloth.
It worked like a charm.
K
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"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self righteous sixteen-year-olds posessing infinite amounts of free time." - Neil Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
Thanks Ken for the tip - I'm afraid I don't know what "a secret weapon" might be....?
Amatuer
Duct Tape..... LOL
"That's a reference to one of the Midwest's favorite Public TV shows, "The Red Green Show." It also happens to be a Canadian import, but us flatlanders don't mind at all.
See http://www.redgreen.com/
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K-
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"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be -- or to be indistinguishable from -- self righteous sixteen-year-olds posessing infinite amounts of free time." - Neil Stephenson, Cryptonomicon