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Home Decorating

Are textured plaster walls a new trend?

13 years ago

Recently, I toured a spec home (location was in western VA) with textured plaster walls and ceilings. All the walls were a half moon swirl design and some of the ceilings, also with half moon swirls, had fancy designs in the center of the room.

The builder said they have gone back to plaster because they can't get really dry wood for framing and with drywall as the wood dries, the result is out of control nail pops. He said in the long run plaster is less trouble and as cheap for them as drywall, considering the nail pops.

Anybody else seeing this in new construction?

I don't care for the swirls, but I imagine the plaster could be finished smooth rather than textured.

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Comments (2)

tradewind_64
13 years ago
I doubt the builder is using plaster. It's probably good ol' joint compound. Plaster is one of the "master crafts" and it's quite expensive.

Pretty much all new construction I've seen in the past few years has textured walls and ceilings. Two homes I toured last year were ~2 millon...with popcorn ceilings and stippled walls. Wow. Just wow. Of course, the future owners may have requested the texture, who knows, but I guess I just wonder why someone who wanted to spend 2 million on a house wouldn't want better finishes, like a gorgeous smooth plaster!

Bluntly, builders love texture because it saves them money. Even without "nail pops". With a knockdown finish on walls and ceilings, there is less taping and oodles less sanding.

My inexpensively-but-well-built 1974 home had textured walls and ceilings (very 70's mediterranean pizza parlor). When the walls were ripped out for new sheetrock, I noticed that some seams had had no tape on them whatsoever. The texture had hidden this completely.

It's not just builders that love to sell textured surfaces; remodeling contractors do, too. At least mine :-D My contractor had bid on the scraping/smoothing of the the popcorn ceilings. When the ceilings were scraped and still rough, he then tried to talk me into a knockdown texture, telling me how much more "interesting" that would be than flat. Uh...no.
Kathleen McGuire
13 years ago
I know this texture has been in a lot of California homes for over twenty years. I'm not a fan really. Probably because I am an east coaster and use to no texture on walls or ceiling! Now I live in the midwest where stained trim is popular and knock down ceilings. Thankfully, I found a house with painted trim!
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