Walls and Ceilings - Making smooth surface of textured/sand ceilings

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wvdthree
11-19-03, 07:54 AM
Hello,
I live in a 60's rambler and have textured ceilings thru most of the main level. The basement has popcorn texture but that's for another day!!!

The main floor ceilings appear to have had sand mixed in with the paint at the time of painting. I know with popcorn texture you can scrape this off but this sand texture seems pretty firmly embedded in the paint. Is my only solution to skim coat the ceiling and if so what product does one use for skim coating. Lastly,given average size rooms,what is the chance of some one who has not done this sort of finishing getting an even,uniform ceiling surface and what time is required. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.


Regards,
wvdthree


coops28
11-19-03, 10:30 AM
You can scape the sand down some but, your right, its in the paint and pretty tough. Even if you decide to go with another texture you will have to do some skimming. I use Plus 3 lightweight joint compound. It is sold at all home improvement stores. You might want to thin it out a little with some water. If you have never done any skimming before it is pretty hard. You will have to build up the surface with 3 seperate coats to get it smooth. You should definitely try it out and see how it goes.