smooth texture over heavy knock down texture

cgrisrancho

hi guys,
my name is chris and i need some help. me and my wife recently purchased a house.built 79. the seller had the whole house retuxtured {heavy knockdown}and paitned one color.
i would like to smooth out all the walls in the house.
im going to start in a small bathroom area to see how it comes out befor doing any other walls.
what is the best way to go from knockdown to smooth.
any and all info would be great thanks

joecaption

Good luck, try that one small room and come back with how it comes out.
Sand off any really high places before trying to skim coat.

DrHicks

You are wise to start in a small room. Honestly, the best way to go from knockdown to smooth is probably to start over with new drywall.

joecaption

Or go over it with 1/4 drywall for far less mess.

ToolSeeker

To go over with 1/4" drywall is a bad idea that means all your plugs are off, all your switches are off, all your doors and windows are off, your base board has to be removed and reinstalled, if you have a medicine cabinet it will be off, so as you see that opens a whole can of worms, I can go on. Get a sanding pole and a box of 80 grit sanding SCREENS not paper. It's just drywall mud, after you get thru the paint it's not hard to sand.

drywallfinisher

since you're going over paint be sure and use an all purpose mud.
_using a heavy roller nap
_thin your mud 1 part water 3 parts usg green lid and roll out a 5 ft x 5 ft section onto your ceiling or wall.
_use a 10" drywall knife and pull that section back off into a pan(s)
_repeat
_keep repeating until smooth........switch to a lighter weight mud in the process. If your mud starts getting dirty (grit) start throwing it out and using clean mud....very important.
there's also a floating method you could use that's not too hard to figure out.
after your first coat
_using a 10" drywall knife run your mud out in a straight line..a few inches out of the angle.....like you are bedding in a seam but not. cut your edges until your lap marks meet in the middle then pull smooth... treat your wall as if you had a series of seams every 12 inches. pull the full length of the wall ceiling...
let dry and then repeat the process but stepped over to where you are filling in the area between the last series.
after that coat
_roll out the entire surface again than pull the mud back off. Skimmed


hope this helps, I've seen some unforgiving knockdowns

this is mine
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n..._6218701_n.jpg