Hot mud for hand texture?

I wouldn't use hot mud for a skip trowel hand texture. :no:
1) Inconsistency- The hot mud is constantly changing as time goes.
2) The hot mud will probably take longer to completely dry then all purpose mud. Ap is an air dry and hot mud takes a chemical reaction to set. But even though the hot mud is set up, it doesn't mean it's completely dry and ready for paint.

My vote is for USG all purpose joint compound for a skip trowel texture. If want to speed up the drying time, put a fan on it. :thumbsup:

90% of all my work is hand texture. Either skip trowel or Santa Fe and we always use USG green top. I use a power aid bottle with the top cut off and add four and a half cups of water to each box of mud. I do this to keep every bucket of texture consistent. Texturing with hot mud would be a nightmare! Add some heat and a dan and the texture will dry pretty fast!

CrpntrFrk said:

I agree with what Paul said. Although USG does make a powder mix for texture that I have found to work well skipping and it dries a little faster.

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That would work too. Never used the powder texture mix for skip trowel before. But I like to use it when I'm spraying knockdown, especially on ceilings.

A lot of times when the skip trowel conversation comes up on here. The definition of skip trowel is regional and what skip trowel is to one area is knockdown to another.

Do you guys put sand in your skip trowel?

Sir Mixalot said:

That would work too. Never used the powder texture mix for skip trowel before. But I like to use it when I'm spraying knockdown, especially on ceilings. A lot of times when the skip trowel conversation comes up on here. The definition of skip trowel is regional and what skip trowel is to one area is knockdown to another. Do you guys put sand in your skip trowel?

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We put sand in the skip only if specified. It was much more popular back in the 70's and 80's

Sir Mixalot said:

Do you guys put sand in your skip trowel?

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I have only added sand a couple times but never for an entire texture job. Mostly when patching.

Skip was the first texture taught to me and there are a ton of variations.

Californiadecks said:

Our skips out here have become hardly a skip at all, it's more like smooth wall with a skip every two or three feet or so. Seems like there was a time when skip trowel looked a lot like leopard spots or tiger stripes. Over the ages that has gotten less and less skips.

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The more smooth version we call a Santa Fe. It can go from what your talking about to maybe fifty percent smooth and fifty percent skip. I call the really smooth with hardly any voids a "holy smooth wall"
A regular skip trowel is basically what you are talking about with lots of dots and/or striping. We go from a tiny micro dot skip all the way up to a large purina checkerboard skip.

This pretty much answered my question. I used topping last night and it was so much less stressful than it would have been with hot mud. Just chill and texture.

Skip trowel was the first texture I was taught as well. Most likely because we didn't have a hopper on sight, and it fit in with the old house we were doing. My version is pretty heavy, more of a plop, push, swipe with large coverage and less misses. For my wife last night I hit it with the trowel after it started to set up to smooth it down a bit and catch less dust later.

I did notice last night that one box to the next was a bit inconsistent. Or maybe my arm was just wearing out towards the end. Tonight, I'll add a bit of water to thin it down.

Some Santa Fe hand texture with about 40% skip in it.

Mountain Man said:

Some Santa Fe hand texture with about 40% skip in it.

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Nice texture MM that's a good look. It all boils down to preference. I don't like it too wild, but yours is just about right, IMO. Go into some Mexican Restaurants and the texture is so heavy you could lose some meat if you brushed up against it.

I hear ya!! All my textures for the most part are really smooth. I three step the texture when putting it on. First apply a couple pans of mud then give it a bit of a smear and then when it sets up to the right consistency , I hit it with the knife one more time smoothing it out and freeing it up of any tool or lap marks. And even though it's very smooth at this point I brush it down with the sanding pole.

Here's mine. Remember, I ain't no drywall guy. Oh, and please ignore the ratty lid. :whistling