rwhite, This finish looks great for a garage! How is this, "very light "orange peel" texture" applied and what tools are used? Are joints taped and mudded with one coat first? Is the mud sanded before applying the texture? Is there a description of this technique anywhere?
Thanks John, I did the taping / mudding / texturing myself, so since I'm not a drywall professional, I don't really know how to describe it in the correct technical terms standard to the drywall industry, but, I will try.
There are basically two passes with mud, one pass to bed and bury the paper tape, with a standard 6" knife, and then after that is dry, knock down any big ridges or protrusions w/sanding pad, and then do a second pass with a 12" knife over all the joints to smooth it out (since the first pass shrinks back quite a bit when it dries).
I thin the mud more for the second pass to get more of a smooth "flow-out" with the 12" knife. Since I was doing this on weekends and after work, etc, I had plenty of time to let things dry in between.
I then went around using the sanding pad, I use the type that screws onto a broom handle (with the black grit screen 80 grit pad on it) just to knock down the fine ridges, etc from the overlapping knife passes.
Then I went in again here and there with a "third" pass, just correcting any little anomalies, as I found them. (I'm sure a drywall pro could do it in two passes, not me, I'm not that good). Then one more once-over with the sander. At this point I was sure that any residual anomalies in the surface would be eliminated by the texture.
I shot the texture using the "Wall-Board" brand hopper gun I had bought, many projects ago, from Home Depot. HD also sells the texture material (it comes dry and you mix w/water). You will need a paddle mixer and a good strong AC-powered drill to drive it - not a battery drill) ....I thinned the texture material mix to about the consistency of thin pancake batter. Getting the viscosity right is actually pretty simple:
You test the viscosity of the mixed material by dipping most of your index finger straight down into the mixed material and when you withdraw the finger, it should take no more and no less than about one second for the material to drip from the end of your finger tip.
Thin with more water (or add more dry material) to get to the ideal viscosity.
An old timer drywall guy taught me this, and although it's not super-scientific, it seems to work just fine.
I use 30 PSI at the hopper gun and use the medium sized orifice tip (hopper gun comes with three tip inserts).
Do a couple of spray tests on some scrap drywall to get your technique down, and you should be good to go.
Don't be alarmed if you see some random texture bits of material here and there on the wall which are higher in profile than the surrounding material. This is normal. After you have let the texture dry a day or so, you very gently go over the dried surface with your 12" knife, at a shallow angle to the wall surface, "knocking down" any little high bits of material, creating a uniform surface. (This is why this process is sometimes called "knockdown texture"...
By varying your gun settings, the amount of material applied, and spray technique, you can go from a "very light orange peel" (which is what I did), all the way up to a "heavy knockdown". I wanted a very light texture, because I did not want so much texture on the wall, that it would actually hold dust/dirt.
It is important to note that the texture material is NOT drywall mud. when dry, it is a much softer material that knocks off the wall quite easily; it only becomes "strong" when it is primed/painted.
There are some more pictures taken during the texturing process, at the link in my sig, below.
Hope that helps,
Rob
