Drywall Finishing

[brians_224]

Thanks for your time.

I've finished hanging the drywall in my basement. Now I want to texture it.

What can you tell me about adding a sand texture to my new walls?

Roll on vs spray
drying time
any products better than others?

Thanks again!

[BeanAnimal]

Get a texture gun... it will save you ton of time and with a bit of practice, it will come out much more even than rolling it. I don't like "sand" in finishes... but some folks do.

the sherwin williams faux finishes are awesome... but VERY expensive and have a very low coverage. I just did my home theater in "soft suede" even at contractors prices, I have $500 in paint.

A friend just did his entire basement with a texture gun and knocked it down with a trowel as it was drying.... very nice looking and he spent very little.

We did my brothers ceiling with a texture roller and a paint/joint compound mixture. It came out ok... but he was not real consistannt with the roller.

Bean

[Keelay]

Texturing is very easy to do. I bought my texture gun from home depot. $65. I borrowed a compressor from a neighbor. 5 Gallons of joint compound is around $11.

Just water it down to about pancake batter consistency and play around with it. Place a test sheet of drywall up and spray it down until you get the particle size and coverage you want. I used a 10" taping trowel to knock it down after letting it dry for about 5-10 min.

The texture will dry faster over the joints(on top of dried joint compound) than the drywall paper.

Once it turns white it's dry enough to paint.

Worst case is you just scrape it off and start over.

I helped my wifes uncle texture a good portion of our house. It was the first time I've seen it done. He got tied up and couldn't help me finish. I thought it looked pretty easy, and didn't want to wait till he was available again so I finished it myself. I think I did a better job (IMO at least) than he did. That was my first time.

- Kyle

[lakee911]

Like Keelay mentioned, it will dry faster over your joints. If you skim the whole wall with joint compound first it may help with that. You might also beable to seal the wall with shellac or maybe (?) latex to prevent that.

I like the sprayed on and knocked down look myself if you have to texture. I prefer smooth if possible though--just takes more work

[hllywd]

SAND FINISH!!!:eek1: :eek2: :eek1:

YTIKES!!! That's too retro for me....

I gotta go with Beananimal on this one, if you have to have a texture it's pretty easy to spray some mud on with a gun let it sit for a while and go over it with a plastic trowel or "squeegee" to "knock" it down. My whole house (except for the parts I finished) is sand finished and I HATE it.
The d-wall will need to be painted first because you don't cover it all with the spray. I've used colored base coats and tinted muds for different effects or you can always paint over the finished knock down.

Tim

[brians_224]

Thanks for all of your posts!

Our home is a 90 year old cape cod. The first and second floors all have sand texture finishes. We feel we should match our basement to the rest of the house.

[natron]

just add(some) sand to your mud then do a skip trowel application.