Advice needed for preparing wall for painting

Dissonance

We purchased a house that was built in 1907. I'm in the process of painting my son's bedroom. There was some horizontal molding about 4 feet high surrounding the room. I removed it and the paint below it is thicker than the paint above it, so there is a ridge. How do I remove the ridge so that the new paint will look smooth over it? Merely sanding will damage alter the plaster on the drywall. Also, the wall is slightly damaged in a few places. (See attached picture.) Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
D

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sdsester

The trim was chair rail and was typical in that era. The ridge is paint build up as paint was cut in up to it.

Are your walls drywall with plaster or more likely for that vintage home they are lath and plaster? No matter really.

You can try taking a VERY SHARP, narrow profile, draw type scraper to the ridge to see how much of it you can get off with it. You are probably going to end up having to sand though and then do the best you can to match or blend the texture that was above and below the chair rail.

Of course your other option would be to install new chair rail.

You can make small repairs like those shown with drywall compound. You might find that dry hot mud in 20 minute formula will work better than premix.

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Dissonance

Thanks for the prompt response.

I don't think they're the original walls, but they are drywall.

I will give this a try.

D

RWCustom

Blending/matching the existing wall texture will most likely be problematic. Normally, with a smooth wall I would do exactly what the post above said and carefully shave off as much of the ridge as possible and then feather what's left with a thin coat of drywall mud, etc. I've also found that a very sharp chisel works exceptionally well for knocking off a paint ridge like the one in the picture. Just make sure that you use both hands and use your "off" hand to stabalize/guide the chisel along so that it glides smoothly through the paint ridge without the risk of gouging or chunking out the underlying wall.

Getting the texture to blend is going to be the only major hurdle to overcome. If the old chair rail was damaged or just didn't suit your taste you could always go back with something more non-descript like maybe a 3/8" x 4" paint grade finger jointed moulding, which shouldn't be too terribly expensive. Cut to fit, level it, install it, caulk all edges, corners, gaps, etc. and you're ready to paint everything without having to worry about trying to match and blend that wall texture. Oh yeah, another thing that makes installation go a lot faster is to spend a couple of minutes zipping around the walls with a stud finder and a pencil. Put a mark right above or below where the new chair rail will go and when you paint everything later on it'll conceal any/all markings. I've noticed in older homes that wall studs aren't always where they should be in accordance with todays building codes, so taking a few seconds to make some marks might save you some headaches during installation.

Okay, I've rambled on long enough, time to get back to work, and good luck with your project! Let us know how things go for you.

ltd

you could tear out the walls down to the studs or run a palm sander over ridges ,if you dont have a palm sander use a sanding block . then skim over the ridge area with joint compound the skim will be about 10 inch skim . not to thick but a tight skim.let dry then hand sand ,this takes a skill but its doable. ,spot prime the skim with a good quility flat paint or a primer,as to build up the stipple on the smooth skim .let dry then apply 2 top coats of a quility paint in a washable flat or no more than a satin i think you will be pleased with the results

Brushjockey

Itd, the problem is that the wall is textured, not flat. Your solution is great for flat..

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ltd

whats that look like to you ? im thinking mabey a sand texture paint .

Brushjockey

yup. A hard one to reproduce. adding the sand into the paint doesn't match.

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