Painting - textured ceiling

When finishing sheetrock to be blown, is it necessary to finish it as smooth as if it was going to be painted?

I finish out sheetrock the same everytime, whether it is getting just paint or is being textured. I learned from my mistakes in the past about trying shortcuts and it is a bigger pain to go back and fix an undesirable spot in texture than it is to do it right the first time around.

I have seen people when blowing on the acoustic type popcorn texture apply only one bed of mud on the tape, instead of two, and when looking straight up at it, it looked ok but, when standing at one end of the room looking across the ceiling you could see the "waves" or dips where the joints are, especially if there are windows in the room. The same with sanding smooth, at least run over the ceiling with a pole sander and knock down the ridges and ripples and quikly touch up any gouges and scratches.

If you are doing some kind of splatter or splatter and drag then it will need to be finished out better than for acoustic.

I say do it right, why wait untlil the texture is on to find out it won't fly!

trying shortcuts

Heheh, its not about shortcuts. It is about my skill at finishing sheetrock. A friend saw some of my work at my house and wants me to do his sister's sheetrock and blow her ceilings. I told him the results might be unpredictable. I think I tend to sqeeze the mudbed out when applying the tape (sometimes). He seems to think I did a pretty good job here at home. "At home" is the key phrase here. I am the one that has to look at the imperfections.

P.S. Do you prime new sheetrock before blowing it? A friend blew a ceiling for me, an old previously blown one, and it did not seem to want to stick in some places. I suggested he prime it, then blow it. Did better. Also, do you ever tint the texture solution with paint? We did, and it turned out, hmm, so-so. Seems to me the trick to that would be the kind of paint you try to tint with and thoroughly mixing it.

Tx for response

I see, well blown acoustic or poly will hide minor imperfections, do sand and touch up the mud to your satisfaction, remember what you said, you will be the one looking at it.

Sqeezing the mud out from under the tape will not effect it as much as not enough mud before you embed the tape in it (unless you are really sqeezing the mud out and overworking it) you want the tape to at least lay inside the factory bevel of the rock or even with the surface (uneveness of the rock may prevent this however) When applying the mud for tape, any bubbles, missed spots or to thin of a layer of mud can cause blisters, bubbles, lifted edges or peeling of the tape, you want a thin even layer before embedding the tape, I would say at least 1/16 inch thick or little more, no less. To thin of a layer can cause the sheetrock to soak the moisture out of the mud before you get the tape on it.

You do want to prime or paint the ceiling prior to texturing, only for acoustic/poly texture, it will even the pourosity of the sheetrock and allow you to not see through the texture. You can also add paint for extra strength and tinted paint will add a little color. You were right about priming existing older texture prior to spraying more, it does strengthen it plus it seals any stains that could have absorbed in the ceiling.