Hi, we have a room with a heavily textured walls. I have tried to find out what it’s called, but the closest thing that looks like is the slapbrush. It kind of looks like if someone where to lay on compound and then put a piece of paper on it and pull it off.
It’s hideous and it’s also been painted over many times, the current one appears to be some type of eggshell or semi gloss. We want to skim coat it but I’m not sure how to best prep the wall. It’s impossible to sand this texture.
Is there a primer or something I can apply to it directly?
Also, we were originally planning on just tearing out the wall and putting up fresh drywall but found out the walls are not drywall currently, they are rock lath and plaster and a massive pain in the butt to remove, so that is not an option we are interested in.
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My experience with skim coating painted walls are from many years of remodeling professionally. One thing I can assure you is many results are not the same.
Bucket mud notoriously will bubble when skimmed over paint, there’s no place for the water to go except out into the room. Evaporation will leave a bunch of tiny holes.
Much the same (tho less I.m.o.) with bagged compound. Why? btsom.
However, you can scrape off the high points of the bubbles (leaving more holes) and with each succeeding coat the bubbling will lessen.
And, you’ve got all those texture highs and lows to deal with…..
What about laying over the existing wall with 1/4” drywall? Glue and screw. Would the texture be low enough for that? There’s 3/8” as well.
You could give the first a shot and fall back on new board if necessary.
I’ve also used the coating (Plasterweld) when skimming has peeled off (delaminated) in spots over plaster walls. Don’t know if that would be a possible first step for you.
Hopefully someone else comes by with the magic bullet for you.
Best of luck.
why can't you sand it? Just takes a lot of effort. You'll probably want to knock it down some even if you're skimming it.
bucket mud does bubble but you can press the bubbles out of it as you apply it, at least to a degree. or you can sand them off and fill like calvin said. a guy that goes by vancouver carpenter has a bunch of youtube videos showing how to skim walls. I just just did this but it sounds like my walls were nowhere as bad as yours.
removing rock lathe plaster isn't that bad either. can't remember what my trick was for it but it's probably just getting an edge and worrying the nails loose on as big a piece as you can. also i just happen to know that dropping a 2x down a flight of stairs and into a rock lathe plaster wall loosens it nicely. you're probably better off skimming though: if it's in good shape it's pretty nice stuff.
what's this texture? can you post a picture? Do you know if it's part of the top plaster coat or if it was applied afterward and might chip off?
I had exactly the same finish on my house when I bought it many years ago.
Yes, that texture is hideous. For those that don't know, think exaggerated stucco, but inside your home where you can get scraped bloody by it just walking down the hall!
Yes, it can be knocked down somewhat before skimming, but test for lead before you try that. You don't want to sand it because that really won't get you anywhere and you're still going to need to skim it no matter what. Paint scraper/grinders were the ticket for me, but YMMV. Again, you're not trying to get a smooth wall at this point, just knocking down the biggest spikes so that you won't have to apply an inch of mud to fill the valleys.