Expert: Tony Gallagher - 2/9/2009

Question
QUESTION: We recently bought our first home and it has a very tiny bathroom on the main floor that we are wanting to update.  However the previous owners put some kind of texture on the lower half of the walls and it seems to have been painted over several times.  It kind of appears that they did this to cover up the remenent markings of tile that they removed.  I have never seen texture like this.  It is thousands of small sharp little points; like they put the compound on the wall then patted it until sharp little peaks formed.  It is  horrible in a small bathroom where you are constantly touching the walls.  How do we get this off of the walls?  I don't think that putting up new wall board is an option because of the shower surround.

ANSWER: Mari,

I am sorry I know this problem well, and there is no 'miracle' answer
Unfortunately the only way to remove these sort of textures is by steam stripper. The chemicals you can buy are effective, you need to supponify (soften) the texture then scrape off, this will cause the least damage to the substrate.


Hope this helps.

Regards,

Tony.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick response.  Is there a particular brand that is most successful?  And where to I find it?

Answer
Mari,
I have misled you when I read my answer again I appear to have missed off the phrase NOT THAT before effective.  So I really can't recommend a suitable product as I don't think they work, sorry for that error.

I will try to be clearer this time, I would personally hire a wallpaper steam stripper and soften the textured paint meter by meter and remove with a wallpaper stripper (not a sharp tool).

If there is small areas left after stripping use a very fine wet and dry sandpaper about 240 grade to leave a nice smooth finish for repainting.

Regards,

Tony.