If You Want Smooth Walls, You’ve Gotta Put Up With a Little Dust

The walls in this house had a pretty heavy texture, which I wanted to smooth before hanging their wallpaper. This involves skim floating the walls with joint compound (commonly referred to as mud). Do a search on those terms here to learn more about this process.

Once the mud is dry, I sand it smooth. This makes a dust – and the thicker the wall texture, the more the dust. Here you see what has accumulated on the floor after sanding.

Don’t worry – I bring in my Shop Vac and clean all the dust up.

Tags: joint compound, mud, shop vac, skim floating, smooth, textured, wallpaper, walls