Blending Old and New Texture

[StuartT]

I am remodeling several rooms in my house. About 30% of the sheetrock has been removed and the walls and doorways reconfigured. The rooms were originally spray textured a light orange peel, then latex painted. As I tape and mud the seams from old work to new, I am wondering how successful I will be trying to spray new texture (hopper gun and compressor) and blend into the old work. The thought of scraping down all the old walls and ceilings and starting from scratch is not very appealing.

Anyone has success with this?

[Lakee911]

Try mixing drywall compound with your primer and rolling it on to see if you can duplicate the build up of all that paint that gives you that texture. Experiment.

Or sand down the existing walls (be careful if it could be lead paint) to make them smooth.

[jimbo]

Texture is just a technique. MATCHING texture is an artform. A good guy can do it so you can't tell the difference. You should set up some scraps of drywall in the garage, and practice on it till you can sort of get the look you want.

[gizza job]

in my experience you can never patch things up 100% it always seems to wave at you when you have finished. can you get a plasterer in to skim over all the walls to make them smooth? or is this just a british thing?

[StuartT]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I get the waving, but what's a british thing????

[hj]

Matching the texture depends on the gun, air pressure, material consistency, and technique. Once you get good enough with a paint spray gun that you can paint a car door black at one side and white at the other and no one can tell when the color changes, then you will be able to texture your wall and blend in any discrepencies so no one will notice. Or smooth texture the entire wall and the apply the orange peel texture over the entire surface from corner to corner.

[jadnashua]

Textured walls seems to be a regional thing...many places like the smooth walls, so no, it is not a British thing to have smooth plastered walls!

[StuartT]

Well, I am going to find out tomorrow. I have the pantry, which was expanded by consuming an adjoining bathroom, ready to shoot as soon as I primer it today. I skimmed some additional finish mud out a couple of feet and taper sanded that to the new wallboard for a wide blending area.

Now, can I shoot it properly? If not, I'll have plenty of mud ready to skim it out full span and re-shoot. Being the pantry also makes this the ideal practice area before moving into the bedrooms and new bath.

I'll post what happens, unless I really blow it and can't bring myself to take responsibility.....

[StuartT]

It took a lot of thinning of the texture (pre-mixed) and playing with the air pressure and nozzle size, but i was definitely successful in blending the light orange peel between the old and new wallboard. You can still slightly see the difference if you inspect up close, but with a fresh coat of latex paint now on top, you would never notice unless someone pointed it out.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. The trick that worked best, which was a blend of several of your thoughts, was skimming on a coat of finish mud over the old texture as it meets the new work, sanding to a taper (20" or so) and feathering the spray in this area to blend the old and the new. Learn something everyday.

Stuart