Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler DIY Ceiling Texture?

To make a long story short, I had a friend do the mudding in my complex little hallway in the basement. It had a curved wall, and 2 archways that required alot of detail for mudding that I just didn't have the expertise to do.

The job ended very badly. He initially quoted me in the beggining a "flat" rate for the whole basement. It took him 1 1/2 months to do and in the end he wanted more money for his labour because he underestimated the amount of time it would take for the job. On top of that I also spend over $100 on additional supplies that he didn't even inform me of until the very last day he was here. I told him I had no problem giving him the extra money but i would put it on his next stipple job. He was not in favour of this.

Needless to say he phoned me after he left the house after sanding and words were exchanged.

Getting to the point...have any of you done your own spray on stipple? I have been looking it up on the internet and it doesn't seem that complicated...what are your thoughts?

-Hutz

I had a crew of 3-4 guys come in and mudded/taped/textered all the ceilings/walls in most of our basement. They were in/out in 5 days. Sorry for your problems. Anyway, the ceiling texture is what professionals call a "knock down" texture. I think they just spray a heavy coat on, and then use a large tool to scrape it off.

The only parts of the basement I am getting textured is the Hallway and the Den room. The bathroom and the Theatre room will both be flat on the roof. I want the theatre to be flat because that way It will be easier to paint.

Although, it would be ALOT easier to just mud the cracks on the roof, sand out smooth, and apply the texture in the theatre room (the rest of the basement is already roofed, mudded and sanded).

I have seen pics of your basement with the ceiling textured and painted. Was the "knock down" easy to paint?

So your not going to have any texture on the ceiling, just completely flat? Or are you saying your going to use flat paint. Most people do use flat paint for ceilings. As long as you use a thicker nap roller, it is very easy to paint a textured ceiling. Also, having a texture covers up any imperfections like seems and screws.

>>> Also, having a texture covers up any imperfections like seems and screws.

Randy if that's the case, why I probably should have textured all four walls in our TV/music room whenever I built it. One thing I did learn while constructing the room ... 'Ol Rick ain't going to give up on the day job any time soon, I can tell you that for a fact!

>>So your not going to have any texture on the ceiling, just completely flat?

This is what alot of people do in dedicated theatre rooms i hear...

The only problem I can forsee is when/if we sell our house, a flat/non-textured ceiling painted black/dark blue green will be a turnoff for sure.

If at least if the roof is textured they will know that all they have to do is paint it white.

I believe I can achieve the knock down look DIY. I will probably do this next month. I'll rent a hopper and compressor and do the ceilings in my basement.

Texture is the easiest part of the process. It’s pretty hard to screw it up whereas taping is a down right pain in the ass, especially if you are going flat with a semi-gloss paint.

The hardest part about spraying texture is getting the mud to spray a pattern that you like. This is done by mixing dry texture with water to get a runny consistency, but not too runny. – does that make sense? When I do this I dump the powder in a 5 gallon bucket and add water while mixing. I add a little bit at a time until the mud is light enough to run off a trowel without clumps. In other words, it should just run off the trowel in a thick, but steady stream and not drop off the trowel.

Then you have to set the air pressure on your compressor and the spray gun. Air pressure should be as low as you can get it (usually around 20 PSI). You don’t want to blast it, because when it hits the walls or ceiling, it will splatter and flatten. But if you don’t have enough pressure, the drops will be too big. Depending on the size of drops you want, the gun will have several holes on a rotating plate of different sizes. The larger the hole, the bigger the drop. You just rotate the plate to where the hole size you want is in front of the nozzle.

Then you mask off everything you don’t want overspray to get on, and don’t be bashful with the masking. This crap will go everywhere. You will want to put up plastic in the doorways that lead to other areas of your house too, or you will be cleaning up dust for months.

The fun part is spraying. Just point and shoot. It won’t take you long to figure this out. The trick to this is to get a consistent amount of texture wherever you shoot. I start in a corner and shoot back and forth keeping the gun perpendicular to the target. If you sweep too much in an arch, the drops will not hit directly, but will sort of hit at an angle and they will not be round, but oval. You want round drops.

After you spray a wall, let it dry for about 30 minutes to the point where the drops can get knocked down and not flattened. You do this with a 12” or larger trowel and knock the drops down with light pressure. Or, you could just let it dry completely and knock down the high parts later. It really depends on the look you want.

Before you spray your walls, practice on a sheet of rock. Play with the mud mixture, air pressure and gun settings. Also experiment with drying time to see just how much of a knockdown you want.

I know that all sounds sorta complicated, but it really isn’t. Once you start, you’ll be surprised at how fast you will figure it out.

You can either buy a gun at Home Depot for about $70 and use your own compressor, or rent one from a tool rental shop. If you rent them, they will usually rent you the gun and a HVLP air compressor.

Do you do a first coat of very fine mud spraying first? Let that dry 100%, then do a larger nozzel on top of the already first layer? I have read this is a good way of doing it...

And also, i have read that you can just use regular all purpose mud compound and mix it with water to thin it down to a pancake like mix.

Do you HAVE to use the powder mix with water?

I would also have to tape/mud/sand all the joints prior to spraying to create an even surface. So either way I'll be taping! I used the mesh tape in the rest of the theatre room, so I am sure it will work great again.

In my previous house, I needed to re-texture the ceiling in my bedroom after I removed the much-loathed acoustic popcorn. The ceiling that was exposed after removing the popcorn was uneven enough that painting alone was not enough. I ended up buying some Sand texture paint. It's a thick paint pre-mixed with sand. I applied it to the ceiling with a loop texture roller (see image on top right), then knocked the peaks with a wide drywall trowel.

Despite being my first time doing texturing, the results were pretty professional and completely hid the ceiling defects.

You don't have any pics do you? If I can avoid renting a compressor and spray gun, I would love to do so.