How to Remove Texturing From Walls

Lay painter's plastic on the floor beneath the wall and tape it down with masking tape. Cover everything in the room you don't want dust on with painter's plastic and tape it in place. This includes all furniture and floor coverings.

Mix 1/2 cup of TSP powder with 1 gallon of hot water in a 2-gallon bucket. Stir the TSP and water together until the TSP powder has dissolved. Use a paint, stir-stick to do the mixing.

Soak and wring out a sponge in the TSP water solution and then apply it to the wall. Sponge the wall until it's plenty moist, but not to the point that the solution streaks down the wall. Allow it to sit on the wall for 20 minutes or until the paint has begun to soften.

Hold a 5-inch wide putty knife blade at about a 45-degree angle and begin scraping the painted texture off the wall. At this point the paint may be the only thing that comes off. It's okay, keep scraping until all paint has been removed. You have to get the paint off before you can soften the texture.

Fill a spray bottle with warm water and mist the exposed texture. Wait about 20 minutes for the water to absorb and then go to work scraping again. Scrape until all texture has been removed down to the underlying wallboard.

Allow the wall to dry for 24 hours after the texture has been removed and then sand the wall with a pole sander equipped with an open-screen 100-grit sandpaper. Move the pole sander back and forth from the top of the wall to the bottom of the wall to smooth away any remaining texture.