skim coat or simply retexture


  #1  
Old 08-30-08, 07:33 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: FL
Posts: 2
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
skim coat or simply retexture

My wife and I just bought our first house. It's a wonderful feeling but there is some work that needs to be done to the place. One thing that is really bugging me is the *very* poor orange peel that is on nearly every wall in the house. It looks like someone took a spray can of the stuff and left lines of texture on the walls. It isn't even at all.
Reading the posts hear I orginally got the idea that I would just skim coat the walls but I'm wondering if I could just apply a new texture over what's currently there and it blend in. There is paint but it's a flat paint and I'm under the impression that will hold texture without needing to be sanded.

I'm not sure if I want to go with orange peel again. I like the look of knock down but I've always seen that on ceilings...not sure how it looks on a wall. My first thought was to make it all smooth but my wife may have other plans.

Just looking for some help.
 
  #2  
Old 08-30-08, 04:28 PM
M
Forum Topic Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: USA - N.E.Tn
Posts: 45,659
Received 835 Upvotes on 732 Posts
Welcome to the forums and congratulations on becoming homeowners!

Sometimes new texture will hide what's wrong with the old texture but not always. It is better to start with a slick wall. I've painted quite a few homes that had knock down on the walls. Usually knock down on walls isn't as heavy as what you typically see on ceilings.

Joint compound will adhere to flat wall paint but it's always a good idea to scuff sand the paint first.
 
  #3  
Old 09-01-08, 07:20 PM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: FL
Posts: 2
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Alright so we skimmed one wall and it turned out alright. Then I got the crazy idea that since I had to do a lot of sanding that I might as well sand the texture off instead of skim coating...that wasn't quite as easy as I thought it was going to be.
Long story short and after some testing we have sanded all of the walls enough to knock off the high spots and rough up the surface. Over the next few days we are going to do a skim on the walls and then follow with a few coats of rolled on joint compound. We tested it on a couple of spots and it filled everything in nicely and left a texture we were happy with.
I figure I could roll a few coats of texture until everything was smooth and that would be easier than skimming on about 3 coats and then rolling. Rolling is MUCH easier to get right than skimming.
If I'm missing anything let me know but so far our test spots look good. I suspect our more difficult areas will be corners and window sills.
We'll follow up with a good primer and then paint.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: