Rough walls need painting

[Limon]

I have some walls here that need painting, but they have a very rough texture. Not like textured paint - it's more like there are thousands of little spots of paint missing all over the walls. All I can figured is the walls were papered once and bits of the paint came off when it was removed.

What's the best way of smoothing them out? I thought about sanding it all done, but a relative suggested going over all the walls with a thin layer of joint compound would be faster. I've never worked with joint compound, so I have no idea what would work best. Any suggestions?

[Ozarks Tom]

Your relative is right. Joint compound on a 10" trowell, coming back with a sanding screen on a pole, will smooth them out fast.

[tinknal]

It was probably textured using "knockdown". Spray texture is sprayed on and a trowel is used to knock it flat. It's great for hiding minor imperfections in the wall.

[agmantoo]

Get some basic latex white paint....think cheap water base. Mix some drywall filler in with the paint and then use a roller to "paint on" a thin layer. Once this drys use a stick sander and sand the whole area. Repeat this until the smoothness of the wall meets your expectation then apply the final paint. The finished surface will look great.

[meanwhile]

We have smeared joint compound all over a wall before but left it rough for a textured look. I guess you could smooth it out too. Might be easier to leave the texture though.

[Limon]

This texture is bad. It might be okay if it were even, but it's not. There are places that almost look gouged. You can see different colors from previous paint jobs under it, so that's why I don't think it was done deliberately. Or it was done a really long time ago and none of the previous painters were able to cover it well!

agmantoo, that sounds interesting. I won't be staying here much longer, so I don't want to put that much work into this project. About how much filler do you add to a gallon?

Ozarks Tom, do you have any guesstimates on how much a container will cover?

[greg_n_ga]

Another layer of "thin" dry wall may be a option being it sounds like you are lookin at a lot of labor to fix whats there !!

[frankva]

Originally Posted by Limon

agmantoo, that sounds interesting. I won't be staying here much longer, so I don't want to put that much work into this project. A

1 live with it.

2 textured paint

3 your color paint 1/2" roller

[Steve in PA]

Paintable wall covering? It's basically wallpaper that you can paint. Good for smoothing out small imperfections.