Wall Texture

This is just an update on the dining room progress, which I am really happy about. It took two days for the skim coat to dry in the corner on the outside wall without any insulation in the bay. I debated about cutting the drywall out and adding some insulation but decided not to. It goes against my nature so I still have twinges of regret when I think about it. I find it very hard to leave a mistake uncorrected.

Thursday afternoon I sanded the walls and yesterday I sprayed the texture. I have to say this is the fastest I have ever completed such a task. It took me many days between trips to complete the bedroom. once the skim coat is on it must be sanded. Sanding drywall joints and patches is a laborious and messy job. The dust is extreemly fine and seems to find it's way into every place in the house from one end to the other. I decided to try mechanical sanding this time. I hooked the shop vac to the dust port on my random orbital sander and with 80 grit paper sanded all three walls in about an hour or so. The really cool thing is that there was no dust! The vac did a superb job. I can't believe it has taken me this long to figure this out!

There are a couple of good reasons actually. One is that the vacume adapter for my sander really didn't fit well(thanks to Porter Cable)It just occurred to me that wrapping a single layer of duct tape(the handy-man's secret weapon) around the port on the sander would hold the adapter in place. It did! I tried electrical tape in the past and the results were not acceptable.

The second and biggest reason is my recent discovery of bags for the shop vac! I don't know how long they have been around, but they turn a good tool into a fantastic system. Why didn't someone tell me about these things years ago. The dust filter on a shop vac clogs with dust pretty quickly(duh)when you vaccum up any kind of fine particles. Dry wall dust is especially bad clogs the filter very quickly. Once the filter is clogged the suction is reduced substantially. The bags are fantastic. All the dust is contained in the bag and the filter stays clean. I'm telling you this is really fantastic.