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How to Apply Knock-Down Ceiling Texture: Choosing Your Materials
If you have acoustical or popcorn ceiling texture, remove it by spraying it with water, letting it soak in for a minute, and then carefully scraping it off with a drywall knife. Wear goggles and a cap. To minimize accidental gouging of the drywall, round off the corners of the knife with metal snips and remove burrs with a smooth-face file. If your ceiling texture has been painted, you won’t be able to scrape it clean. You may need to skim-coat the surface.
These are the three components you’ll use:
Joint
Compound
To make this project as easy as possible, use premixed
all-purpose joint compound. These buckets contain about 60 lbs. of
“mud” and are available at most home centers for $9 to $10 each.
Don’t use the lightweight premixed compounds—you’ll be paying
for a lot of air and the mix won’t be as “sticky” as the
all-purpose. It generally takes 1-1/2 to two full buckets of mud to texture the
walls and ceiling of an average size (12 x 12-ft.) room.
Goof-Proofing Tip:
File any sharp edges off
the blade mixer. Sharp edges will scrape little plastic curlicues off the side
of the bucket, bits that can clog the gun or wind up on the
wall.
Knockdown
Knives
Traditionally, knockdown textures were done with flat
trowels or wide steel taping knives. However, the trowel technique is hard to
master. A much better choice is to use one of the flexible Lexan knockdown
knives now available at drywall supply stores (see
Photo 5). These knives are 18 to 24 in. wide and
cost $15 to $18. If the drywall supply store doesn’t have them, call R.
J. Tool Co. at (800) 314-8665 or visit its Web site at
www.tapingtools.com.
Goof-Proofing Tip:
Don’t let the hopper
run dry. Keeping at least 4 in. of mix in the hopper helps maintain a
consistent flow.
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