Finish out Garage.. Prep walls and paint.

[NocalFJ60]

I want to finish out the two car garage soon. The builder put up the drywall and sealed the seams and that is it.

Should I texture the walls and ceiling? Rent a spray gun to do it? Anyone heard of some good options?

 

[splitshot]

A light skip trowel job should do, but if I were to do it over again, I'd hire someone else to do it.
I'm sure they could not only do a better job than I, but in probably 1/4 of the time & with 1/2 of the mess.
Then use a gun to prime and paint.

 

[rjcruiser]

Rather than messing with fixing the seams, paint and all that mess...an easy option for the walls is white peg board. You can by 4x8 sheets at the local big box home improvement store for around $10-12 a sheet. Buy some 3/8" plywood and fir into 1/2" strips to tac into the studs. Then with a brad nailer, nail the peg board into the firing strips. Also, try to put the strips in the middle of the pegs running up and down so that they won't interfere with your pegs.

I've done this in my garage and it gives a real clean uniform appearance. Also, I can hang anything anywhere and it keeps stuff off of the floor. Get 1/4" pegs, not 1/8" , and lastly, search online for pegs...they are much cheaper there than the local stores.

 

[archie]

I would reccommend using a roller. Half the work is actually cleaning up and cleaning up is more with spray gun.You'll have to thin the paint formula down and spray multiple coats. Spraying is great if you got alot of uneven surfaces and corners.
With a roller you could just use a clean plastic bag to store the roller while the first coat dries. Put plastic food wrap on rolling pan.This prevents the paint from drying. When finished with the second coat,throw away the roller. No cleaning out the spray gun and taping up windows and doors.

 

[NocalFJ60]

Yeah I was going to use a roller for a paint but meant a texture sprayer or whatever they are called to texture the walls.

 

[archie]

I vote no to textured walls. Mainly because it's harder to clean/scrub. Sawdust, soot,etc... will tend to adhere/hang to it. Harder to install/attach things on the wall that would be better on a level surface. The uneven surface can scratch finished surfaces, ex. glass,door panel bumped against it,other body work,etc.... A little harder to paint an uneven surface to get every nook and cranny.
The up side is that you could quickly patch holes without finishing it with additional coats of compound.It would be a little more durable surface.

 

[Brentbba]

My house is 20 years old. Original builder had put a very light texture spray on an left it at that. I've primed the walls - 4 gallons of primer for walls and ceiling in a 3 car garage and one wall is pegboard! The light texture and bare wallboard just sucked up the primer. I've yet to put the finish coat of paint on. Hoping to do it with 2 gallons now that there's a good primer down on the walls. Brush and roller for application.

In your place, I'd probably rent a spray tex gun to put some light texture to the walls.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

I vote no to textured walls. Mainly because it's harder to clean/scrub. Sawdust, soot,etc... will tend to adhere/hang to it. Harder to install/attach things on the wall that would be better on a level surface. The uneven surface can scratch finished surfaces, ex. glass,door panel bumped against it,other body work,etc.... A little harder to paint an uneven surface to get every nook and cranny.
The up side is that you could quickly patch holes without finishing it with additional coats of compound.It would be a little more durable surface.

I think you are referring to a different product, or technique than what we left coaster refer to as textured.

Guys around these parts also call it a 'knockdown finish' (cause that's what you do w/ the trowel after spraying on the texture).
I have that stuff everywhere in the house, garage, etc.
It's very simple to spray on, so much so that that's where must folks make the mistake of over complicating it. Like my 1st project. It's easy to spray too much, to trowel too much and so on. W/ this job, less is better in most cases.

A guy could rent the gun and airless sprayer for a day and get it done. Rent it Sat afternoon, so you don't have to return it till Monday, assuming it works out that way.

Get an extra sheet of drywall to practice technique on, cause it's easy to foul up, as mentioned. Good thing is, if ya do foul up a small area, just immediately scrape it right back off the wall.

Personally, I'm stubbornly DIY, so that's where this advice is coming from. YMMV

 

[archie]

I never had textured walls. What are the other advantages of it?

 

[rjcruiser]

I never had textured walls. What are the other advantages of it?

It just hides the drywall imperfections...similarly to the popcorn on your ceilings.

 

[rjcruiser]

It just hides the drywall imperfections...similarly to the popcorn on your ceilings.

One more thing I forgot to add...keeps the wife from putting up some ugly wall paper too

 

[Wile E Coyote]

It just hides the drywall imperfections...similarly to the popcorn on your ceilings.

Similar, but the biggest differences are that the texture dries hard, is painted over, and has less roughness to it than the old popcorn ceilings. It doesn't flake off, trap dust, and other undesirable stuff. It really just adds a small amt of visual interest to an otherwise flat wall. If it hides anything, it would be very small defects at best. Bad tape lines, for one example will still be glaringly obvious.