The textured walls of Pittsburgh (Lawrenceville: houses, buy, asbestos)

[theta_sigma]

In my recent house hunt, I think I've pretty much been inside every house in Pittsburgh. And about 90% of them have textured walls (ranging from mild "orange peel" to aggressive "cake frosting"). I have been told that people do this to hide flaws in the original plaster. I, personally, think it is the most egregious travesty you could ever possibly inflict on a home. I'd rather see a crack in the plaster than this stuff. At least you can hang a picture over the crack.

I don't want to jinx it, but this summer I may be in possession of a home that falls on the "aggressive cake frosting" end of the wall texture spectrum (and evidence seems to indicate this stuff was applied fairly recently).

Does anyone have any experience with the possibility of removing this crap? I would be willing to pay well into the four figures, I hate it that much. But is it even possible? The internet seems undecided, and also refuses to quantify "it would cost a lot of money." One person's "a lot of money" is another person's "drop in the bucket" so that's not a very helpful metric.

[Pitt Chick]

Some can be sanded down. Some need to have sheet rock over top.

In my house, the texture was the wall finisher's signature. People - who are in the know - know who did my walls by how they look. It is subtle and easy to wash, but distinctive.

[mbw5100]

Buy a shop-vac and start sanding.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by mbw5100

Buy a shop-vac and start sanding.

Maybe see if it has lead paint on it first.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

My new Lawrenceville home also has textured walls in a few of the rooms. My painter flat out said "not worth it" when I asked about getting rid of them. The texture on these walls is subtle enough that I think they will be fine with more neutral coloring, but man do I hate it.

[theta_sigma]

Definitely something that you can do to downplay them is to use the flattest paint you can find. Right now, the house in question in this post has been painted with HIGH GLOSS paint over the texture. It's... not good.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

I think darker/bolder colors also show because the paint tends to be thicker on the ridges in the texture, highlighting it.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Maybe see if it has lead paint on it first.

Or asbestos.

[eschaton]

My two houses both lacked any sort of textured element to the plaster, although the plasterer tried to get us to do "Swirls" to hide the wall imperfections on our house in Lawrenceville.

In general, I've found that internal walls in houses tend to settle more, and have worse issues with cracking. We hid the wall imperfections on one by using a paint that had sand in it. it made the room look like a dining area at Mad Mex, but otherwise worked nicely. That might be a bit too textured for you however.

[norcider]

I remember a friend's house had the "cake icing" textured walls. We were wrestling and I fell into the wall face first, cut my lip really good.