Renovation advice: product help, please!

Thorn

Thorn

Member


I have a house filled with (flat) textured walls. I have skimmed over them in three rooms, but it's a real chore and messier than I want to deal with in future projects.

I read recently about a heavy paper underliner that you can put over such walls, and over panelling and cinderblock, to smooth out the walls enough for wallpaper (and therefore adequately for paint, I presume). I hear it's relatively expensive, but after breathing in more plaster than I care to think about I'm willing to pay the price! I did a quick search of the websites of both Lowe's and Home Depot and came up empty.

Does anyone know about this stuff, and is it likely that these stores just don't have this product on their websites (not an unusual occurence, btw). The only other building supply center here is Sutherland's and their website doesn't deal directly with products anyway.

Help!
 
Thorn said:


I have a house filled with (flat) textured walls. I have skimmed over them in three rooms, but it's a real chore and messier than I want to deal with in future projects.

I read recently about a heavy paper underliner that you can put over such walls, and over panelling and cinderblock, to smooth out the walls enough for wallpaper (and therefore adequately for paint, I presume). I hear it's relatively expensive, but after breathing in more plaster than I care to think about I'm willing to pay the price! I did a quick search of the websites of both Lowe's and Home Depot and came up empty.

Does anyone know about this stuff, and is it likely that these stores just don't have this product on their websites (not an unusual occurence, btw). The only other building supply center here is Sutherland's and their website doesn't deal directly with products anyway.

Help!
Click to expand...

I found a few sites that may be of help. The first one shows how to paper over panelling.

[U]http://www.wikihow.com/Hang-Wall-Paper-over-Wood-Paneling[/U]

This site suggested you mud over the texture and then paint, but maybe that's what you did already.

[U]http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/advice/t-13207.html[/U]

I get this site via email and they have a lot of good tips for your home improvement projects. [URL="http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/[/URL]

Let us know what you find out. I'm always up for a good home improvement idea!
 
Thanks, guys! I did a brief check yesterday and found some info on the wall liner. It wasn't very complete, though, and didn't explain why the liner was hung horizontally -- presumably it's in anticipation of someone actually papering over it and too much vertical background wouldn't be good. The article I read didn't address taping over the joins; I assume that this should be done, or perhaps the joins are just mudded.

I've scraped off the popcorn ceilings, have more to go and it'll take a while as I really hate working over my head. I've tried both wet and dry approaches, and have found the dry, though a bit messier, to be preferable overall as it results generally in fewer gounges in the drywall. I use a scraper tool that encloses a 4" razor-type blade, easily removable, at the end.

I tried this, both wet and dry, on the walls with limited success. My belt sander really is not suitable for vertical work and I gave up on that approach relatively quickly. I saw on one episode of Color Splash (HGTV) that they used a disc sander to smooth out walls and I might go in that direction, despite the relative mess.

This time around I did what I could to roughen the surface of the texture, then applied joint compound over top. Then I sanded it smooth once it had dried. Some areas were hard to reach and the joint compound didn't go on as smoothly, neither was the sanding as successful. If there hadn't been so many cabinets I might have been tempted to just tear out the old drywall and install new. There is the problem that I've never done anything like that before and know it only on principle. That tends to leave out too many crucial gaps in procedure. I'm just sick of breathing in plaster dust despite the mask, and finding white dust all over the house despite my best efforts to contain it.

In two previous rooms plus the hallway, I did a neutral-toned faux finish that looks really great. I'm preparing in another room to do Venetian plaster, again in a neutral sort of tone; colors will come with the accessories. The room I'm finishing will be much fresher and brighter, and I just applied the first coat of primer on the walls yesterday. The cabinets have been done for weeks.

It's a good thing for me that my Dad taught me not to be afraid of tools!
 
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I feel your pain on the plaster dust. Its very fine and will clog most vacuum bags quickly. Shop Vac make a special drywall dust bag but I have no experience using it. When I plaster myself I position the vac outside and use a long hose to the work area. I hate the dust so much that I hire a pro to do it on all but the smallest (patch) jobs. Lots of guys do it so the prices are reasonable.

I've never heard of a liner product as you described. They do make very thin (1/4" or maybe 3/8") drywall board that I've used to cover cracked ceilings and such. You have to finish the screw holes and seams so it wouldn't save you any work whatsoever.

Wood paneling can be used to cover drywall, but that seems to be an expensive fix. I've seen folks paint old paneling and it didn't look bad, like I expected.

You might try calling a local tool rental place for advice on a special tool to use. Since they rent to pros all their tools will have dust pick up accessories to comply with OSHA rules. Just describe the project and let them suggest what tool to use. If it will help you get the major portion of the job done in a day then you'll save time and money in the long run.
 
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