Tape and Mud help

[bottomdweller]

Cliffy, I did knock down in my garage and it looks great.

But all I do is park the cars in there. I have a seperate work shop. If you do a lot of working in the garage the knock down or orange peel will collect all the dust eventually making it look dirty and will be a PAIN to clean. Something to think about. Go with a good paint so you can wash it.

[Shack]

Good point bottomdweller!

I knew something would come of having knock down in your garage. I was figuring it would just get rubbed off from things hitting it. I never thought about dust and dirt. I would love to see a finished knock down or orange peel garage. This thread has peeked my intrest in the area.

Now, you have to primer paint the walls anyways before texturing. I would get a good grade white primer, put three good even coats on (you have to this, to help stop the absorption of the texture into the rock if you do orange peel or knock down), then step back and take a good look at the walls before you do any texturing. You may just like it.

I am sure it will be the same if you texture the walls, but after you primer with white, it brightens the garage up 10 fold.

The other thing cliffy you would have to think about, would be the ceiling. Would you spray texture with a popcorn finish or bring the knock down or orange peel up on the ceiling?

[cliffy]

I thought I would stick with the orange peel on the ceiling as well. I thought about the dust and dirt issue and that is why I wanted just a light orange peel. I dont do much in my garage besides hang out and tinker so I wont be kicking up too much dirt or dust. I am going to do some type of bumper..across the area where I park so I wont be smacking the wall with my drivers door.

Don't most people mix the primer right into the texture and shoot it that way? I could have swore I heard people talking about doing this.....

Thanks

Cliffy

[beaverlakeman]

you want the texture to absorb into the rock. Prime after the texture is dry. i have read this thread and there are alot of things i would do differently but i am not one to judge anyone else's ways. As for the butt joints i would definately do differently, first coat use a 10 inch knife, right up the center of the tape and then one on each side of the mud makeing it aprox 30 inches right away. feather the 2 sides and slip the middle till you leave "railroad tracks" when dry, sand and repeat the same way with 12 inch knife. Its very hard to explain unless you know drywall. another note, i never use a 6 inch knife except for wiping the tape at start. the angles come out really nice with a 5" knife. everything else is 10 and 12 inch. 14+ inch knives with get you more trouble than what they are worth, much harder to control and dont look any better than a 10 and 12 inch.

I am pretty free this weekend, if you want me to come over and look at it and give you some pointers in person i would be happy too, oh, yes it is free. lol im just bored with this weather. waiting to go smelting tonight or tomorrow night.

like i said, everyone has their own ways in which works for them. i have been doing drywall for a long time and i have tried many different ways and have found the way that works best for "me" .

but if you want me to help ya out or what ever, let me know.

Jeremy

[cliffy]

Hey, if you want to drive from Duluth to Moorhead to look at my tape/mud job, by all means, come on downnnnnnnnnn.

Feel free to give me as much advise as possible, I am open to any comments or suggestions....as I said before, this is my first time doing this sort of thing and I want to get better at it. I have two bedrooms and a bath in my basement that I will be doing this winter.

The butt joints are what gave me the most trouble...I have used a 12 inch knife and made them much wider now...so I think they will blend in much better. I did the same for the other joints just to give it some uniformity. I know that I put more time into this project than other probably would....but like I said before, this is a learning opportunity for me.

Also, as I said before, my hat is off to you and those that do this sort of thing for a living and make it looks so easy. The word "Craftsman" comes to mind.

[beaverlakeman]

i have actually done alot of work in fargo moorhead. lived there for 3 years. i was partners with a buddy of mine with our own comp. but then i moved back to good old duluth. his name is Dave hatchard and one of the best tapers i have ever seen i learned alot of what i know from him. i think he has like 15+ years of doing this. ill call him and see if he will help you out with advice if you want. im sure he will, a super nice guy. hard to understand sometimes lol he was from newyork. but let me know if you want me to call him.

[cliffy]

From Moorhead to Duluth...that must have been a change of scenery! Duluth happens to be one of my favorite places to visit....hard to believe Moorhead is in the same state as a city like Duluth.

Thank you for the offer but I think I am good at this point. I will keep you in mind if I have another tape/mud meltdown this winter when working on the basement. Again, thanks for the info and offer. Take care

Cliffy

[beaverlakeman]

not a problem. any time.. my email is mutey78 at msn dot com < sometimes im not on here for a while at a time. easy to get ahold of me through email.. take care yourself

[Shack]

Beaverlakeman,

Really? I am not going to pretend to be a knock down no it all, because I am not. I did how ever dig deep into it, when I was going to (possibly) to it to my ceiling in my basement.

What I was told from a couple different sources, was you want to minimize the absorption into the rock for uniform consistency and even, slow drying. Plus if you are a first time do it your selfer, doing the primer first makes the final step easier. It can hide lightly coated area’s or small missed area’s. After the primer coat has been done, then you still would mix some paint into the texture, before applied. I was also told, painting after the texture has been applied, can be tough and also hard on the finished knock down.

I will tell ya though, when I was asking around, I got a different story from everyone I talked to who has experience with knock down. I guess it does come down to what works best for you.

I know this is not on topic, but on my ceiling acoustic popcorn I did down stairs, I did three coats of white primer and did not mix any paint into the texture. It came out great.

Thanks for sharing, good info!

[beaverlakeman]

i guess i have never had a problem with spraying it first prime after. if you prime before you texture and there are dust patches that you have missed which most people dont even bother with, then your going to have that spot where prime dont stick right to the wall and when you texture over that your adding weight and alot of moisture. thats the spot that is going to chip off and or crack! then you got yourself a problem with trying to match that little spot to the rest of the wall.

texture first and spray after, the prime has alot more to "hold" on to. when the mud"texture" absorbs into the rock when drying you have the whole wall holding that texture and prime ontop of that gives you the seal and strength to eliminate the chipping,peeling, or cracking.

as for consistancy, what absorbs into the rock, there isnt a man alive that can walk through and say consistancy isnt the same. no texture is the same, thats why its texture. spray a wall and find 2 splats of mud that are identical and your on to something.

I am not saying that who you talked to is wrong. I am not saying i am right. This is only my personal experience and i take alot of pride in the work i do, and finished product has never been an issue. I will fix anything i do for upto 3 years. dont think i have ever been called back past 6 months, so i am happy and confident in the way i do things.

[Nutty Fisherman]

Got a question for the pro's. If the walls are 8 feet high would it be ok to hang the sheet rock up and down instead of on it's sides? I would think if it was done this way there wouldn't be any but seams to mud over. If not why? I have done a room this way and it seemed easier.

Thanks

[beaverlakeman]

sure that would be ok. but the reason residential is hung horizontal is for strength. staggering the butt joints after being taped is alot stronger and prone to cracking than vertical. when your house shifts after ground thaw, vertical hung job are much more prone to cracking cause there is no strength !

but yes, you can hang it anyway you want but highly recomended to go horizontal. hope that helps.

[Nutty Fisherman]

thanks Yes it did

[Neighbor_guy]

The other thing to remember is the human eye can find a vertical line much easyer than a horizontal one. I tell everyone to hang it horizontal. I charge much more when you hang it vertical because it makes my job harder.

I also texure first and paint second. On a popcorn ceiling step 1 is prime, but with all other textures (other than venician plaster) the primer is second.

[TProGuy]

When texturing or doing knock-down on a ceiling, how picky do you have to be with the sanding of the mudding that has been done? Obviously, if you were just doing a smooth, painted ceiling, you would want to have it as smooth as possible...but can you get away with just doing light sanding with a fine sanding screen, to remove the bigger ridges and bumps, and then apply the knowck-down?

[sparcebag]

A light texture may still show through,a skip trowel, orange peel or heavier knock down would be OK

[Neighbor_guy]

On a ceiling with popcorn or knock down, I just nock off the ridges and bumps with my blade. No sanding neccessary. Knock down needs to be a little cleaner, but I just scrape the ridges and hit the spots with a little mud before texture.

Dust is your downfall when texturing. So I avoid sanding because of it.

[TProGuy]

It's pretty clean...like I said before, I hit the entire ceiling with a fine sanding screen. I then took a damp sponge to the entire thing to pick up the dust. Sounds like I should be good to go!

Thanks for the help!

[cliffy]

UPDATE:

I finished the tape/mud paint job on my garage last weekend. As some of you may remember, I was once hot to have my walls textured. Well, we had a change in plans due to my schedule and funds. I skipped the texture and went with just paint.

It turned out "ok" but I can still see some of my seems. I spent a lot of time trying to get everything as level/smooth and clean as possible but it still showed through the paint. The walls came out pretty darn good but the ceiling has a few spots of "what the h$##".

For example: you can clearly see the seem on the ceiling running past my fish house lift thingy....but the walls look pretty good.

Here is another view...not too bad.

This was my first time doing this sort of thing...and I learned a lot.

Just my two cents...

[sparcebag]

Oh well live & learn looks OK for a garage.Wish my garage was that empty & clean!!

[TProGuy]

For a garage, I would say it looks darn good! I have my fingers crossed that i can say the same thing about my basement!

[reddog]

Looks good cliffy,

Looks like you got a good handle on the butt joints, but maybe missed a coat on that one flat.

Either way, it looks good enough for a garage, at least from Iowa, it does.

[cliffy]

Thanks. It was my first time doing this sort of thing. I learned a lot...and probably could do a much better job if I were to do a do-over....but its just a garage..so a good place to learn.

Here are a couple more pics...my little work bench hide away area....

Here is my "work bench" that my friend built me.....well it started out as a work bench and just turned into a twelve foot counter top and storage....it works.