How do you disguise hideous wall textures?

Question

We recently purchased a home that has the highest profile of texture I have EVER seen! The home has about 4 different textures in it and it will cost a fortune to have someone skim coat them. Anyone have any great ideas?

Janet Pizaro · Answer

Are you interested in covering them with a wood of some kind,painting over them,tiling? Maybe posting some pictures would also help.

The Garden Frog with C Renee · Answer

I am going to be the bearer of bad news here- the previous owners textured the walls for reason. It could be as simple as they had to repair a lot of holes or they are hiding something. You could do one room at a time and scrape off the texture because I am guessing they just used joint compound and gobbed it on. If you have patience and energy to watch videos you could learn to fix the walls. It will take time but once you learn on one room then it should be easy peasy. By the way, for someone to skim coat they will want to take off the teture especially if it is that bad. good luck

MN Mom · Answer

Hmmm there's probably a reason there are such textured walks like cracks etc. underneath. Depending on what you like, you could put up bead board in areas or just try and live with it. Maybe painting it the colors you like would help.

CKimball · Answer

This begs the question. Why did you buy the house if you despise textured walls?
It's going to be horrific to fix. 
Best to hire it out to a pro.

Elaine Simmons · Answer

It really is hard to tell without a picture. You might try the brown paper treatment. I did this about 12 years ago on a bathroom that was heavily textured and it was one of my best projects.

Liz · Answer

A favorite restaurant of ours is located in an old building and each room has multi textures. They cleverly used painting techniques over the textures and the walls were beautiful. For example, they used a base color paint and then applied a slightly darker glaze over it. It gave it beautiful depth and dimension. You can look up this technique online for specific directions. If you can't live with it, you can apply textured, paintable wallpaper. They even have realistic bead board wallpaper.

Jacalyn · Answer

I don't know where your house is, but in Florida, most houses are constructed of cement block.  Houses, such as mine, which was built in the early 1980's, all have textured walls.  Paint the walls the color(s) you like , or do what we did - hang up a lot of artwork and other decorations.  The texture will fade into the background.  Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your new home.

Kaye · Answer

Would love to see pics !

Zebbie Hardy · Answer

AmericanClay.com depending on how much you want to put into it. I haven't looked into price I do know that they say anyone can do it.

Randa · Answer

Textured walls can be scraped off. Just get a wide putty knife and begin scraping. It's a messy job, but the mess can be shop vacuumed and then repaint. If there is a little texture left it may look like and 'orange peel' texture and I love the look of that. If you don't, take a wet sponge and smooth it out.

Diane Nuckolls · Answer

use different paint techniques and paint over the walls. you can also scrap this off with a putty knife if you are will to go the extra mile.

Nancy Denick · Answer

Skim coating is not difficult, it just takes practice and time. Hubby and I did a 1600 sq. ft. house in AZ. Just remember to put on very thin coats sanding between coats so you can see where you need more. Make sure each coat is completely dry. And get a sanding block with a long handle (like you'd put on a paint roller). Watch lots of youtube videos and observe the pro's techniques.

Francesca · Answer

Another alternative could be to use a grass cloth type wallpaper or other kind of textured paper. The texture would hide any slight unevenness. Grass cloth comes in a variety of colors and textured paper can be painted. Another alternative would be boards of some kind. It also possible to have drywall put over the existing wall,where it is first framed out,but I believe this is quite expensive. Good luck!

B. Enne · Answer

It is best to not scrape anything, without checking if it contains asbestos first. My house was built in the 80's and I was told to have it checked, since stuccos and textures were one of the last things to have asbestos in them. You can usually have a sample tested easily. I did it before scraping my ceilings. If you still have the product laying around in the basement or garage, you could check online or on the bag or container.

Randa · Answer

I suggested a wide putty knife cuz I couldn't think of drywall knife.  Either will work if you are careful!

Sue Sanders · Answer

My popcorn ceilings have the small shredded foam to give the texture and I climb a ladder and hold a large dust pan with one hand and scrape with a trowel with the other hand. Hardly any mess. This still leaves a little texture to the ceiling which I like. If you want it smooth you have to spray small areas with water and wait a minute or two then scrape with the trowel removing the sprayed on plaster. I too have too much texture in one of my bathrooms and I will knock off some of the too high sculpturing with a trowel before I sand lightly to repaint. I just rescently learned how to do the flat texturing and cant wait to do my long hallway. Once you see the method done you will have no problems.

C · Answer

Possibly get a quote for all new drywall? You can save money by tearing it out yourself & just pay for new drywall. I had one house that was faster/cheaper/easier to just do all new drywall ;-)
 Another option {if you like it} is to plank or beadboard the walls {although you might still need to do some wall smoothing first

Duv310660 · Answer

Beadboard your ceiling, either after taking texture off or over the top.

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