Knock Down Ceilings?
I'm finishing a basement for a buddy and his wife wants "knock down ceilings". They have them in the upstairs and it looks like the ceilings were sprayed and the run over with a trowel or it was scraped after the spray dried. Does anyone want to share ideas on how this is done?
I'm not quite sure how it's done but I've heard it also called whipping the ceiling. Good luck,
Andrew
I've seen "knock-down" applied with a hopper/sprayer hooked up to a compressor. Thinned-down joint (topping) compound is put into the "hopper," which is attached to a spray gun, which shoots the compound onto the walls. After waiting a few minutes for the compound to partially dry, you take a 12 or 14 inch taping knife and flatten the compound.
It's actually pretty simple (definition of simple: something I can do) if you have the equipment.
Tracy
I would check your local home depot or lowes, they usually have pamphlets that will explain the process and make is sound easy too
check with the guys at the paint counter 8-)
Knock downs come in all shapes and sizes. You can spray the texture from a hopper and then let it dry to where it is not shiny anymore on the surface and then use a knockdown blade (long wide) to drag across the texture and knock the texture down. You would not thin the texture for this beyond the normal. In fact a little thicker and a larger hole works best.
YOu can also use a board or a drywall hawk with plastic on it and then spread your mud over that and "daub" the ceiling with it and then use the same process to knock it down.
YOu can use a 12" knife but it is a little small and will leave more lines to be sanded later. I use a 20" knockdown blade from www.fantastictools.com
Good Luck!
PS really really easy to do
[addsig]
I live in a very dry climate and the mud sets up pretty fast. So, for me it works best as a two man operation: one to spray the texture on the walls, the other to "knock it down" . I recommend using the same texture pattern on the ceilings and walls. Practice on a piece of scrap dry-wall first.
The Hopper is $75 at home depot.
You can buy a bag of dry mix there too.
You need a compressor to spray it. 20-30 PSI
jspaeth - I am doing a knockdown texture in a rehab going. When I say "i am doing" I mean me myself is doing it!
I plan on renting one of the texture machines from home depot for $50 for the day.
The house is only about 1,500 sq ft. Do you think it is possible to do a knock down on the cielings and an orange peel on the the walls, hopefully on the same day? Or would I be stretching it?
Here is some information that may or may not be useful in this situation.
Many times in municipalities when a fire occurs the insurance company is required to leave a deposit or escrow amount with the city in case the house needs to be demolished.
If so I would structure my offer so that the amount left in escrow for demolition passsed through to me.
Frequently the landowner is unaware of these sums..
I generally look at how I am financing, apart from the realtor fee 3% is standard if your using soft money (conventional financing) Otherwise 1k at close for title usually covers it. On the sale end get anyone to list it cheap and figure 1k for title and 3% for buyers agent fees plus whatever you are able to list it for ($415 here).
[addsig]
stock pro,
You only mentioned 1k for title but what about transfer tax ( which is 2% in pa), Home insurance to cover the time you plan to hold, recording fees, appraisal, upfront taxes.(Although you may get a portion of that back) and a few other things that will have to be paid outside of closing