Painting over a sponge painted wall

Snowdog

Hello all,
While I am not new to painting I am new to the new techniques of painting. My wife and I are closing on our first house next month. Our problem is the present owners painted the living room a light pink base with a dark pink sponge technique. Looking at the walls they are no large ridges but I can see a slight height difference in the paints and am worried about these patterns showing through after priming and painting. Has anyone painted over walls with this treatment and was there a noticable pattern if you didn't sand? I would rather not sand if possible but want to do this painting once and not have to worry for many years.

Thanks

chrisn

Sand off the ridges, prime and paint.

sirwired

Paint does a horrible job of hiding texture defects. I would not try to "get away" with not smoothing if I were in your place.

There are three options:
1) Sanding. Use of a "drywall screen" could work here.
2) Skim coating with an extremely thin coat of joint compound; which is then sanded and primed.
3) Hi-build primer, which is then sanded.

SirWired

Snowdog

Thanks guys, I definately don't want to take to much of a shortcut. I'll sand then prime and paint. I was going to use the drywall screen as I thought it would last longer than sandpaper.