We did this and it was ... easier than I expected. But dusty and dirty as all heck.

We got 2 random orbital sanders that have the velcro-on sanding disks. We started with a medium (100-ish) grit and just sanded the whole wall surface. It makes a HUGE mess and you will have clouds of dust in places you never thought possible (like inside an armoire on the other side of the house, this stuff travels). But ... use the dust collection bags & just accept that you will vacc up a lot of dust. And wear a mask - if your house is old enough to have lead paint then get a respirator rated for this (about $30 at home improvement stores and MUCH cheaper than lead poisoning).

It was tedious & I spent more time on a ladder than I wanted to - but after it was done we said, "Why the hell did we live here for 7 years before we did this???"

Oh, and we had 2 sanders because it just goes faster with 2 people working on it. But 1 person & 1 sander (or 2 people who can share 1 sander) works as well.

-Pam

You might consider lightly roughing up the paint by hand, just to etch the paint, and skim coating over the entire surface. Dpendent on how heavy the texture will dictate how many coats. typically one skim coat with touching up in problem areas for lighter textures, more with heavier. Way less messy.

There are several ways to minimize that dust problem.

Hang plastic to cover doorways.

Cover the heating/cooling ducts---remember to cover the cold air return grill.

Put a box fan so it blows outside in a window. If there is a window on another wall, put a fan blowing in.

And, buy and use replaceable filter masks---the kind that have a flexible face cover and filters that connect to or are contained inside the mask body. Do NOT rely on the cheaper paper type masks

Ya glad you mentioned orbital sander, that is what another person told me. We are not moved in yet so atleast we have that going for us.

Did you change grits through out the removal?

Yes i plan on using a respirator type mask...thanks for the suggestions.

I was trying to avoid skim coating, i don't know if i'm capable of doing a skim coat job, but then again have never tried, i figured sanding was better bet?

Curious to see how long it takes!

Thanks,

I don't remember changing grits (it's been a couple of years). The little scratches you could leave are pretty light and after 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint, they disappear.

I'm going to contradict sierraeast about the skim coating ... I am a firm believer that there are very few people on this earth who can skim coat as a DIY. I am NOT one of them. When I've watched the pro's do it, I can see why. And when I've looked at homes where someone DIYed it ... well it looks awful. Even with flat finish paint.

If you can sand the sand off, do that. We tried scraping it with a 4" blade and while it works ... it's slow and harder on the body (shoulders and neck will HATE you the next day). We only resorted to the scraper when we got to places that the sander would not fit, like between trim and the corner of a room.

You will be SO HAPPY you did this. Honest. The sand seems to catch every dust particle and when you get it off the walls it looks so much cleaner.

"I'm going to contradict sierraeast about the skim coating"

That's true, skimcoating should be done by a pro(s). A good finisher can skim coat with little or no sanding. Sometimes it's worth getting estimates because it can save you money in the long run hiring a pro vs taking the time, buying supplies for a one time project, costly diy mistakes, etc.

Well i guess it isn't just sanded paint. Its actually textered plaster. I tried sanding it down with 40 grit paper and no luck.

I guess my next option is skim coating it? Just worried about where my new drywall will meet the older plaster that I won't be able to have the same texture?

Thanks,

Yikes - textured plaster ... yeah, I think your only option is skim coating (or tearing out the walls & hanging new sheet rock ... did you want to upgrade the electrical & insulation maybe?)

Just kidding ... I think!

Remember that skim coating will have the effect of burying the edges of the window trim unless you pull it off, add jamb extensions, and put it back on top of the new surface.

Tye same for doors and any other trimmed on the walls.

With a shallow texture it is not to bad, with deeper textures it starts to look very bad.

The skimming is as thick as the highest point in the texture.

This is why tearing off and installing a new surface can be less work.

Only a few of the 'drywall finishers' seem to be aware that using a plasterer's trowel really speed covering large areas.
The only trowel they see much of a slightly bowed trowel for finishing drywall seams.