I've built homes in the multi-million dollar price range with Level 4. Careful lighting, occasional accent walls, no dark glossy paints and it was fine.

But, of course, it all depends on the drywallers' skill. If this is a tract home, not a custom build, you may be out of luck.

It’s a custom build, but my builder is a dinosaur. Builds a solid house, but some of his techniques, vendors, processes, etc. can be extremely antiquated.

So what is a level 4 finish to be exact? How does the process differ from a level 5?

No skim coat.

However, I did skim certain areas that would get closer visual scrutiny, such as curved walls around curving staircases.

Lighting and colours are absolutely important. The lighter and flatter the paint, the more forgiving the surface. Also, carefully adjust lighting. The more indirect, the better.

(As a picky licensed builder, I chose the trades, something that you may not have control over.)

So what is a level 4 finish to be exact? How does the process differ from a level 5?

Google GA-214-10e-

You will find a document explaining the various levels.

here in the NE, smooth is standard, but I gather that in the SW they're used to a texture, which is easier and more forgiving for the contractor. personally, I'd pay the upcharge now so that you won't have to work around it a zillion times later, but if you can't stomach that, get the most uniform texture type that you can, and plan to have plasterers visit every time you have to do anything inside a wall.

We just built in Florida, and everybody uses texture down here. We saw the beautiful job that the drywallers did and ended up just having them do the lightest texture possible. So we have a very lightly textured wall, it fades into the backround and you will probably never think about it.

Textured walls have become the norm it seems in the US and IMO becuase really good drywall finishers are scarce apparently . I live in Canada and smooth finish is the morm I do not know what the difference between 4 and 5 but IMO paying for a smooth wall is worth every penny.

The upper Midwest is one of those areas in the US where textured walls are not standard and as acm suggests I wouldn't want them for the simple reason that seamlessly repairing them in the future will be a challenge. If you plan to stay in your house long enough you will eventually need to repair the walls either from nail pops, the occasional crack, when you move your art and wall hung devices around, etc.

Before I paid the upcharge for a smooth finish I would want to see the work in his other houses - if it is an investment then you are going to have high expectations so you want to make sure they will be met

Nine months ago we built a 3700 sf one story modern/trantransitional home in the Texas hill country. We have what is called a light trowel finish, and we like it very much. Visitors have commented that they like it as well, but that they had never seen this type of finish before.

Talk to the builder a little more. As mentioned below, there may be local options when moving from a machine applied finish to hand troweled. A home can be machine textured in a day, while it takes a crew of 3-5 a week to hand texture a home your size once the walls are taped, topped, skimmed and sanded.

Labor was so scarce during December we had a single finisher working for a month on a project while his teammates left for holidays and were out w Covid.

We use a lot of imperfect smooth finishes, which are hand applied and pretty standard in the California custom home market. When moving into perfect smooth finishes, we add liquid drywall prep coatings before hand applied smooth coatings. Lots of sanding each layer to get us something beyond the level 5 spec. Used it in my office & everyone wants until they see a price.

Upper midwest smooth drywall is a level 4 finish, not level 5 in most houses. I had never seen modern texture finishes until I spent time in California as a new grad (decades ago!). In this area some vintage houses have various plaster texture finishes like the sand finish original to my house.  Good drywall mud guys are hard to find at any time so must be even worse in the current tight labor market.

Mark1993 would you mind sharing some close up photos of your finish? How much of a up charge did your builder charge you?

We are in NJ. i dont think i have ever seen anything other than a smooth finish drywall and smooth ceilings here. I would gladly pay the upcharge.

What Mark called trowel finish would, I think, be called imperfect smooth in my area. I am very happy with it in my remodeled home. It looks good and is much more forgiving than a textured finish.

Any photos Susan?

I moved from NY where level 5 finish is standard to FL where they've never even heard of a smooth wall. I thought i'd hate my light orange peel texture but truth is now that it's done, I don't even notice it. If the crew was not expert at level 5 finishes, I'd be leary to ask them to do it.

Smooth walls are the norm here in Kentucky and also in Middle TN, where I previously lived. The only upcharge here is for smooth ceilings. On my 3400ish sf house that was completed last year, the upcharge was $1,750 so it was DEFINITELY worth it to use to have smooth ceilings. The drywall finished my builder used was phenomenal. His painter, unfortunately, was NOT and used rollers with too much nap, leaving many of our walls with a very, very slight almost orange-peel like texture. It bothered me immensely at first, but now I don't even notice it.

We just recently finished our 32 year old 2-story, 3600 sf home renovation project-changed all our walls from a rough finish to very smooth finish- definately giving our home a more transitional modern look. it was quite an undertaking & costly, but ultimately we’re very happy with the results.