Texture coat sucks!

[pishta]

Painting my house this week flat white with black trim and the PO had a heavy gray texture coat put on it eons ago. This isn't the shot 'small curd" cottage cheese stucco, this is the 1/8 inch tall globular skim coat stuff that is tinted a color and applied with some sort of trowel or something. Well the "Doesn't peel, crack, chip or fade" advertising line is all bunk. It was faded to just short of white, there were square inches of it gone at the base of the house (exposing the nice small curd easy to paint stucco!) and hairline cracks everwhere. So I bought 10 gallons of exterior flat latex paint ($53 a gallon at Dunn Edwards, but my neighbor has an account so I got it for $23!) to start on a 1300 square foot house with many windows and a 2 car garage door that didnt get painted so the area wasn't that big to start. This texture coat increases the surface area of the house probably 2 fold so I was out of paint rounding the 3rd corner and the whole backyard side still needs to get sprayed! I even primered the original finish with 5 gallons but the primer was clear so I couldnt really get a sense of coverage. Bought 2 more gallons today to touch up the 'striping' that I can see now in the direct sunlight with a 3/8 nap roller. What a PITA, I cleaned and gave the sprayer back to my maintenance man neighbor so Ill be rolling the rest. Very difficult to paint a light color as the nooks and crannies of this crap makes it look dark in sections on how the sun is hitting it. F this stuff! NEVER DO IT IF YOU PLAN ON REPAINTING IN THE FUTURE! Unless you can get paint for $5 a gallon and love painting....with 3 coats shot from different angles.

 

[pishta]

Nope...rolling is a waste of time on old stuff...Guess Ill have to spray it again. Using the cheap white in the back. But hey, I save $4000 bucks on a pro job.

 

[ChrisRomello]

I was a painter for several years and would come across this sort of thing all the time. One guy would spray the snot out of the walls with a gun while someone went behind him with the bushiest mop of a roller skin we could get our hands on. 2 coats like that and it comes out great!

 

[dano]

3/8 nap, you need a 3/4 or more. Tall texture needs thicker fuzz.

 

[pishta]

I painted the trim on the touched up front with flat black and it looks 100% better now, the very minor striping I can see (cause I did it) is minimized by the presence of a darker color right next to it. I told my wide it looks like a lighthouse now as all the windows are flat black trimmed. What do you all think of a dull red front door? When did house paint get so expensive? I remember a gallon being like 8 bucks...or did I?

 

[64DartGTinAZ]

There was a building in downtown Fullerton (Elks club, maybe? I think NW corner of Harbor and Chapman-ish, but it's been a long time)...it had gotten the 'color coat' stucco replacement - never have to paint again in the late 70s - it was peeling off in sheets - pretty sure they let it go, but let everyone know who did the work as a public service for several years

 

[volaredon]

Yeah I am doing some house painting myself lately, only on the inside instead of outside.
Trying to figure out what to do with the popcorn texture in the family room ceiling because I hate it. I've been here in the house since 98 it was a past owner thing. Impossible to clean, and rough as He11.
I want to scrape all the snot off of it and make it smooth then coat it with a plain satin or semi gloss white (I definitely don't want flat ceiling paint) but what can I do short of ripping out the drywall and starting from scratch? I'm glad it's only 1 room that looks this way. I've always hated the look of textured ceilings well before I ever moved here.

 

[pishta]

My in-laws got theirs scraped and its as smooth as a babies butt now. I think it just scrapes off with a wide putty knife? I bet the service included a lot of sheeting and a huge vetilator to evacuate the dust thats involved.

 

[6PakBee]

My in-laws got theirs scraped and its as smooth as a babies butt now. I think it just scrapes off with a wide putty knife? I bet the service included a lot of sheeting and a huge vetilator to evacuate the dust thats involved.

If the texture has never been primed or primed and painted, it'll scrape off fairly easily. If not, well, then it's harder. At least that's been my experience on three homes in my town that I've helped work on.