Do You Have to Scrape Textured Walls Before Floating?

The Old Texture

• The existing wall texture was most likely applied with wet joint compound in a pattern made to resemble stucco or knockdown plaster. However, if your home is older than 1980 and the texture looks like popcorn -- stop. Although uncommon, this type of texture can contain asbestos, and removing it creates a serious health hazard. If you’re not sure whether you have asbestos wall texture, call your local building authority and find out about asbestos testing and remediation in your community.

Preparation for Floating

• Scraping is tedious and, in most cases, not necessary. Instead, rent a hand-held random orbital sander with an attached dust bag from a construction rental store. Attach a medium-grit sanding disc and sand the walls lightly to remove the old paint and knock off the high parts of the texture pattern. It’s not essential that you sand off all of the old texture as long as you remove the old paint, which will prevent the new skim coat from adhering well. Even with a dust bag attached, you’ll need protective eye wear and a respirator mask for this job.

The Floating Process

• Once the old paint and the bulk of the old texture are gone, you can float the walls. This entails using a large paint roller to apply thinned drywall compound evenly and then troweling it smooth. Since drywall compound dries quickly, you’ll have to work in sections, starting at the edge of a wall and rolling a 3-foot area from ceiling to floor then floating with a wide drywall trowel to level the mixture. After the first coat dries, sand it smooth and apply additional coats to build up the new wall surface.

Alternate Methods

• Although floating isn’t physically demanding, it can be tough to get the walls smooth enough to paint without seeing bumps and bulges. An alternate method is to install new 3/8-inch drywall panels over the old textured walls. If you’re paying a contractor to smooth the walls, his labor charge to float the walls may be as much or more than the cost to install new drywall. In addition, new drywall may also be the best solution for covering asbestos-type wall texture.