How To Repair Orange Peel Texture On Walls

Orange Peel Drywall Texture

During the 1980's and very early 1990's orange skin drywall texture was very common in new residential structure across the Southwest United States. During the 1990's and early on 2000's, hand textures such as militarist and trowel, skip trowel, or santa atomic number 26, became much more popular. Now you very rarely meet orange skin texture used in new construction in the Southwest Us, however it seems to have made a resurgence in other parts of the country. Orange peel texture is often found in hotels or big commercial buildings. Spray knockdown texture is slightly more mutual than orange skin even in those types of buildings.

Is it Orange Peel Texture or Knockdown?

Some people error knockdown for orange peel texture. How can yous tell the divergence? Both orangish pare texture and knockdown are sprayed using like equipment. Withal, every bit described beneath, orangish peel is thinner and left to dry out immediately after existence sprayed. Knockdown, on the other paw is, smoothed slightly, or "knocked-down", with a large flat knife shortly afterward being sprayed. The globules of mud with knockdown are larger than orangish pare and spread out across the surface. Orange peel covers the entire surface of drywall with a sparse layer and so the underlying drywall does non testify through. With knockdown however, very small areas of exposed drywall are visible between the globules of sprayed drywall mud.

How to Employ Orange Skin Texture

Picture of orange peel texture on drywall Orangish peel texture is very similar to Spray/splatter knockdown. Texture mud is pumped through a long hose to a special spray nozzle. Running parallel to the mud hose is a high pressure air line. In the spray nozzle the air and mud combine causing texture mud to splatter into thousands of small droplets. These droplets of drywall mud state on walls and gradually merge to course a consistent thin layer of mud beyond the surface. Equally the texture mud dries, it resembles the peel of an orange, thus the name.

When spraying orangish peel texture, the tip is smaller than what is used for knockdown and the air pressure level is slightly higher. This makes the aerosol of mud exiting the nozzle smaller than knockdown texture, assuasive them to merge into a uniform film rather than remaining every bit individual globules.

The most hard challenge of spraying orange skin texture is keeping information technology consistent beyond the entire surface. Spraying an even orange peel texture is in many ways more difficult than spraying knockdown. The technique required is similar to spraying paint on walls. Still, when spraying pigment with an airless sprayer, you ordinarily also back ringlet the surface to smooth out any uneven areas. With orangish peel texture, you do not have this option since the texture must be left to dry in identify.

Photo of orange peel drywall texture After information technology has been sprayed, orangish skin texture is left to dry as is. Because of this, information technology is slightly quicker to use than knockdown. This is likely a big reason it is more than common in hotels and large commercial applications where reducing labor costs is increasingly important. After it has thoroughly stale , information technology tin can be primed and painted every bit normal.

Orangish Skin Spray Equipment

Spray Texture Rigs

Spray rigs are used by the professionals for the largest of jobs. For case, when spraying orange peel in hotels, hospitals, or other large commercial buildings, it is necessary to use a large spray rig with a capacity of 200 or more than gallons. This blazon of spray rig is commonly mounted on a trailer with a gas powered motor and air compressor. The texture mud used comes in powdered class and is mixed in the hopper similar to the way mortar mixers work.

Portable texture sprayers

Portable sprayers with tanks that can hold between 5 and 10 gallons of texture are useful for smaller projects where you need to spray at least a few rooms. Graco® makes several different models of sprayer with different size tanks and motors. These sprayers are a good selection for professionals, even as a supplement to a large spray rig. These smaller sprayers are great when yous don't desire to fire up the big trailer mounted sprayer for a simple patch or pocket-sized project.

Hand held spray hoppers

Photo of a knockdown hopper used to spray small knockdown texture patches

Hoppers are lightweight and easy to operate. They can be used by practise information technology yourself homeowners to repair small patches. Since the mud is gravity fed to the nozzle rather than pumped under pressure, information technology is difficult to become the same texture effect as with larger sprayers or spray rigs. Some professionals take establish success spraying orange peel with a hopper past using very thin mud.

Spray texture in a can

Homax® sells drywall texture spray cans that work just like virtually aerosol cans. You lot can buy them specifically for knockdown or orange pare texture. Though they are convenient for small patches or repairs, information technology is very hard if not impossible to friction match the original texture using this method. If used, they are primarily for small patches. You should always examination the texture on a scrap slice of drywall before spraying the patch.

Soft bristle castor and paint stick

When it comes time to match texture on drywall repairs, most professionals simply pull out their small air compressor and hopper. Nevertheless, if the patch is very small, a few inches in diameter, you may exist able to match orange peel texture with a soft bristle castor and a paint stick. If you take e'er pulled your fingers across a wet toothbrush, you are familiar with how it splatters water in the contrary direction. Similarly, a soft bristle brush can exist used to splatter thin mud on a drywall patch. To do this, the mud must be very thin, near watery. The castor is then dipped in the mud and a modest stick tin can be used to pull the bristles toward y'all, in the opposite management of the patch. As the bristles spring dorsum into place, they splatter mud in the contrary direction.

Photo of a type of drywall orange peel texture Image of an orange peel drywall texture

Should it be used in new construction

Whether or not orangish peel texture should exist used in new construction depends on several factors. However, it is expert to remember that orange peel texture is very difficult to match. Similar all sprayed textures, the final product depends on the consistency of the mud, the ambience temperature and humidity levels, the air pressure level used, and of form the skill of the tradesman. It is almost impossible to recreate conditions exactly like they were when the original texture was applied. Though orange peel texture may be highly-seasoned for it's quickness of application and apparent power to cover underlying imperfections. The ease of matching this type of texture in the future should be given consideration. Especially in areas that get a lot of traffic or are subject area to updates and repairs.