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DIY Wall Texture in a Can

Wall texture patches without a compressor or mud hopper
February 05, 2024

In this video, Crispy Vine, the professional patch man, will show you how to get an expert wall texture using drywall materials available at the Home Improvement store.

Hey, I'm Chris Vine. Last week, we showed you how to do the final coat on a patch, and today I'm going to show you how to spray texture. He begins showing us how to polish the third and final coat of drywall compound. We applied that coat in the last video, but now he's using a sponge with no messy sanding to polish it off. Here, I'm feathering the edges to avoid telegraphing the outline of our patch. Remember, the finish was topping compound, not hot mud. The topping compound sands easily, but the sponge doesn't create dust and leaves a better transition.

An alternative to spray-on wall texture

Alright, so typically, just to do a spray of the texture professionally, I would use this hopper, the compressor, and the air hose to connect the two. But today, I'm going to show you the alternative to this. Homax wall texture can be purchased at any home improvement store. I prefer Homax wall texture because it applies an even coating and it's thick enough to knock down, which we must match on this wall.

So they have a heavy setting here and it can move to fine. I prefer the heavy, especially for this medium knockdown that we're going to apply to this wall. It's kind of like a paint can; you just gotta give it a good shake. We can give it a good shake; you can hear the thing inside there. We'll spray the edges first and then fill in the middle.

Knock down the wall texture

So while this sets up for a little bit here, I'm going to tell you about this tool. This is a knockdown knife that typically can be found at a drywall store. It applies a very light touch to the surface. This avoids any edging that an actual hard knife can create. Once it sets up a little so it's hard enough to tool, we'll use the knockdown knife to get the pattern we want.

The soft blade skates over the texture lightly without scraping it off. If you don't want to buy an 18-in acrylic knockdown knife like Chris is using, find a wide plastic drywall knife at the paint store. The softer, the better, and gently sweep over the texture to avoid flattening or scraping it off.

A final note, Chris recommends you prime the patch area and then paint the whole wall to avoid flashing. That's when the patch area has a telltale sheen that says there was once a hole, and now it's a patch.

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