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My neighbor told me to stop using a putty knife for spackle...
I was patching up some drywall holes in my hallway and my neighbor saw me using a putty knife to spread the spackle. He said I needed a 6 inch drywall knife because the putty knife makes it too thin and you end up with bubbles. I switched to the drywall knife and it smoothed out way better on the second coat. Has anyone else found a tool swap that made a big difference for small repairs?
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piper_reed21d ago
Grabbed a 4 inch roller instead of a brush for the texture coat, totally smoothed out the mess.
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danielhenderson20d ago
Three coats of Kilz Restoration primer before you even touched the texture coat would have saved you a lot of grief. That primer is thicker than mud and bonds to anything, including the messiest texture jobs. I use it on every remodel where the old paint is fighting me, and it never fails to give me a flat, even base to work with. Plus it covers stains better than anything else I've found (and I've tried a bunch of them). Your roller trick is solid though, especially if you were working with a heavy nap to push the texture around instead of just soaking it up.
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olivia_bailey7d ago
Well, that putty knife story hit close to home. I spent a solid hour trying to spread spackle with a butter knife once before my wife pointed out the error. It was a real mess. And @danielhenderson, I read your primer advice a few months back and it honestly saved me on a bathroom ceiling that had seen better days. I think the biggest lightbulb moment for me was switching from those foam brushes to a cheap angled brush for cutting in around trim. It made the line between the wall and woodwork look like I actually knew what I was doing, which is a rare feeling around my house.
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