# Help with texture



## asmith (Aug 11, 2010)

I did a patch job on an older apartment building, and am having no luck matching this texture exactly. Looks pretty simple but isn't turning out that way! I don't have much texture experience, can anyone offer any suggestions?

When I shrank the size to post these it really affected the visibility of the texture. I'm going to try tonight to get some better ones of the overall texture and will post as soon as I can. 

And if anyone REALLY wants to help, let me know and I can email the full size pics!


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## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

kinda looks like an areola


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## D's (Jan 15, 2009)

I shaved my nutsack once, kinda looked like that up close.

but seriously, hard to tell without scale but looks like a coarse sand, or small aggregate with many coats of paint. I got decent results doing patchwork with sand from a golf course bunker mixed with thin mud and applied with masonry brush.

good luck,
D's


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## Bevelation (Dec 20, 2008)

Looks like popcorn with 30 coats of paint.


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## Checkers (Jun 25, 2010)

I'll agree that it looks like sand mixed in with paint!


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## rhardman (Jul 7, 2009)

*I think its...*

It looks like a light dobber plaster texture with million coats of paint.

I ran across something similar once. The paint was some sort of industrial epoxy that other contractors had tried to skim over but it fell off. I ended up rolling a bonding agent (elmers glue) over it which held my skim coat and knockdown texture. The owners loved it as the knockdown updated their house.

You might want to approach it that way.

If you have to match the existing, email me ([email protected]) and we can give it a go. My first suggestion would be to buy a plasters float (green or white foam), mix up some hot mud (70% AP 30% Hot Mud) with 3 double hand fulls of river sand from HD and lightly dip and dab it onto some sheetrock scraps. The mixture won't set completely solid so before it totally dries, roll some very thin AP over the entire area. The trick will be getting the thin AP the right consistency. Too thin will leave sharp texture edges. Too thick will leave roller marks. Oh, also use a long knapp (sp?) roller.

"D's" answer looks pretty good too....* "got decent results doing patchwork with sand from a golf course bunker mixed with thin mud and applied with masonry brush."* 

Rick
If at all possible, always go corner to corner with an attempt at matching something. It's more difficult to detect an inconsistency that way.


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## asmith (Aug 11, 2010)

*Thanks*

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm pretty sure you're all right about the sand with a million coats of paint. The place is pretty old.

I can't seem to get it to show in these pics but the sand seems to be applied in a way that it isn't evenly spread across the wall, but maybe just dabbed on in places? Well anyway, the place is a rental so doesn't need to be perfect. Pretty good should be just fine. However I am starting to get a little obsessed with getting this to look right.

And thanks Rick, I'm going to try your suggestion and see how it goes.

Oh and I attached another pic but don't really think its much better.


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## DSJOHN (Apr 5, 2010)

Buy some sand stipple paint add some medium texture to it and some mud and paint all together until pancake batter consistency then apply --I agree with Rick--looks like plaster sand float texture and 100 coats of paint.


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## asmith (Aug 11, 2010)

*Thanks Everyone!*

Well, I tried just as Rick described and it worked like a charm. It looked absolutely perfect, can't thank you all enough for the great advice! Sorry that it took me forever to post this, I meant to attach the after pic but just can't seem to remember to download it off my camera.


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