I am looking to buy a house that has, for lack of a better word, textured plaster walls. <br>The finish is sort of like small pebbles rather than flat like the plaster I am use to. They are in good condition but I don't like the surface finish. The finish is uniform as opposed to that fake stucco looking stuff. <br>The only recourse is to either replaster or to plaster over the existing surface. <br>Does anyone have any idea, or comments, as to what this is. Is there a name for this type of finish? <br>As it stands it would be impossible to paper the walls. <br>Oh well. <br>Thanks for any help <br> <br>

My house has this on all of the ceilings. I was told that this is called a "sandcast" finish. Look was achieved by throwing (i.e. casting) sand onto the finish coat of plaster while it was still wet, which allowed the sand to stick once the plaster was dry. Not sure why this finish was used - since it is somewhat similar to modern cottage cheese ceiling, maybe it was an early form of an acoustical ceiling. Now that I know it was original to the house, I like it much more and will try to save it. <br> <br>

My three season porch has it and the old farmhouse I grew up in has this. The pebbles are bigger than the sand finish. I'd say, just live with it, it's an old house. <br> <br> <br>

We had asimilar sand-like finish on the bedroom, kitchen and hall walls in our old home. It wasn't pebble-like, more like fine sandpaper. We papered right over it and it wasn't really noticeable, except on dark wallpaper. <br>We also had beautiful stucco textured walls in our dining and living rooms. Not the fake looking stuff, either. Right before we moved I found out it was called Swedish plaster and very few plaster craftsman are able to do it anymore. It would also be very hard to repair cracks properly. It isn't somethng you would paper over, but with the right paint, you wouldn't need to. It was really gorgeous. I really miss that texture in the house we're in now. <br> <br>

I have what I think you are describing in a hallway and one bedroom in my house. I suspect that this was the original finish and the other rooms were recoated/replastered at some time (one room with some type of material that paint refuses to stick to - but thats another story). <br> <br>In researching my situation, I was told about a paper (Sherwin Williams, Meards, HD sell it) that will go over textured walls as a cover before wallpapering. They say you can paint over it too.....but I guess I'd have my doubts about that. Wallpapering, I'd see no problem. <br> <br>

I have both the textured plaster and the cover up material in my house. It was applied at least a few decades ago, and now the edges around all doors, windows, and baseboards are pulling away. Also, because the corner where the wall and ceiling meet were not perfectly straight it looks wavy because they didn't do a good job of cutting off the wall paper straight. Good luck <br> <br>

The first and second floor rooms in my house have the same finish on the walls with the exception of the dining room above the wood panels. I remember reading about the finish, but don't recall what it is called. <br>When the final coat of plaster is done, sand is somehow imbeded into the finish. Lucky for me, I don't care for wallpaper ;&gt; <br> <br> <br>

You've stumped me! I've seen a lot of houses with textured plaster and a stucco-like finish (more pointy than pebbly), but nothing that look like you have described. It sounds to me like you would have to recoat the plaster if you want to paper the walls. If the texturing is actually mixed into the plaster, you're going to have a bear of a time trying to even it out any other way (i.e., scraping or sanding it down). Good luck! <br> <br>

I have a similar wall finish in our 1911 house. <br> <br>We just had a platerer who duplicated the finish after a <br>wall heater was removed He adds sand to the plaster <br>(30 grit). <br> <br>But he also said to just experiment with other additives <br>and grits. Try adding them to joint compound or mixing <br>your own plaster with sand. <br> <br> <br>