Should I Put A Spray Texture On My Renovated Plaster?

Spray texture involves the use of an air compressor, hose and an applicator of some sort, usually a pistol and hopper combo or a wand.

Most power tool rental places have small spray texture machines available for modest rates per hour or day. So if you are hankering to try your hand at spraying a texture, you can be set up and in business fairly easily.

Why would you want to spray instead of hand-apply texture?

One common reason is that you are trying to match existing texture elsewhere in the room or house. Another reason might be that you just like the looks of a spray texture. Or, a third rationale: you just don't like messing with a hand-applied texture. You've tried it and you just don't care for the results you are getting.

It's your house. You can do whatever you want. So . . . here are some guidelines to help you put on a decent looking spray texture, whether you choose an orange peel texture or a knockdown texture.

You can buy drywall texture compound in boxes of pre-mix, or as bags of powder. My preference is the bags of powder. Then I can mix my texture for either spraying or for a hand application.

If you choose to mix your own, it's a good idea to make it one day and use it the next. Letting the mix sit overnight gives it plenty of time to soak and smoothes out the mixture for ease of spraying, in my experience.

On the day you plan to spray, you can stir your mix again to get rid of remaining lumps. It will probably be a good idea, expecially if you are planning on an orange peel texture, to run your mix through a piece of window screen to eliminate all lumps.

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Some folks like to use a power mixer for their mud. I have my trusty mud stick (big "potato masher") to squash lumps against the bottom of the bucket. It also gets the heart beating a little faster - great aerobic exercise! I screen the texture mix and thin it as needed. Thinner for orange peel, thicker for knockdown.

If you use premix texture compound, you will have to thin it some just to get it to spray at all. Go easy on the water. You can always add more water, you can't thicken it once you over-thin it.

You are going to have to experiment to get the right air pressure, aperture size on the pistol (hopper setup), trigger setting and viscosity of the mud mix. Every machine I have ever used is a little different in how it handles the mix.

You don't want lots of air pressure. 25 to 45 pounds may be plenty. Too little pressure and your pistol won't open properly for air to flow, too much pressure and you'll be blasting texture all over the place with not much control. When doing orange peel especially, it's very easy to put it on way too thick and you have a royal mess.

You have a lot of control by using the trigger. You can preset the trigger on some machines or you can just be careful and not pull back too far. The harder you pull the trigger, the faster the stuff comes out, and in bigger dots.

You can spray texture a little and if you like what you see, go for it. If not, you can scrap off the fresh mud, move over and try something different. Some people spray with a regular routine, such as all horizontal strokes first and then back over it with vertical. I do random, starting with the ceiling and then the upper walls. Random movements of the gun, always keeping it moving quickly. It is very easy to get a pile up of texture in one place if you hesitate. Keep it moving.

You will discover that a lot of variation is possible. However, for your purposes, you are striving for consistency.

Orange peel texture can be somewhat spread out, or it can be dense. Your choice. If you are doing a knockdown texture, you can vary the size of the "islands" in the sea of texture by how large the blobs are that you spray on. You'll have to experiment.

For knockdown, you need to let it sit for a while before you knock it down. It has to reach a certain stiffness, otherwise it will flatten too much. It helps a lot if the underlying plaster surface is only repaired and not primed. Over primer, it is harder to get a uniform knockdown effect. It will want to flatten too much and in an irregular way. Putting on a spray texture to dress up your repaired plaster will take some practice, but with experimentation and caution, it is do-able. Have fun, and don't forget the masking of doors, windows, etc. Figure on a two or three foot overspray potential.