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I’m thinking about redecorating my bedroom. It’s not very big, it’s surface area is 25.5m squared roughly.

The walls in my room are currently painted and are sort of textured as they have little bumps all over it. I want to get rid of this so I can have a smooth finish before repainting it, but I’m not entirely sure what I should do.

After carrying out some research, I found that I can apply a joint compound by carrying out the necessary steps to get rid of the bumps and apparently I can paint on top of it to if I apply a primer after. The only thing is, my walls are quite hollow and according to my sources, that means my plaster is blown.

I guess I have a few questions:

  1. Will plaster do the same think as a joint compound in the sense that it’ll smoothen out my wall and cover the bumps? If yes, how do I prepare my already painted wall for it + Can I paint on top of it?

  2. Will a joint compound make my walls less hollow in the way that plaster would?

  3. Is it a bad idea to apply a joint compound to my wall (to remove bumps), then apply plaster (to make my walls less hollow), and then paint them?

  4. What tools/equipment do I actually need to plaster/apply joint compound to my wall?

  5. What products do I need and what processes do I need to go through in order to do everything I need to do before repainting?

If you couldn’t tell, I’m not very experienced in the building and house decor industry. However, hiring someone is not an option and I want this to be a personal project of mine and I simply can’t afford it.

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  • You can do what you want first what is the base material sheetrock or plaster since you say hollow and blown this is a different method of interior finishing than I know. If sheet rock I would sand and use a topping joint compound (very easy to sand smothe) the little bumps are actually sprayed on joint compound and a small hand sander would take the paint off just be cautious not to dig into the paper after sanding get a wide mud knife +12" and finish coat with topping compound smoothe finishes are the toughest to make look good bright lights at angles help show divots and bumps. Continued
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Nov 18, 2017 at 16:41
  • Continued Plaster I am much more cautious with because it tends to crack, usually plaster is not finished with orange peal (little bumps) but more of a "stomp" or pattern, first light at an angle and see how smothe the wall is if you see large wavy areas it may be easier to add a layer of sheetrock, if the wall is not bad rough the surface with a corse grit sand paper and start filling the low areas again you need a very wide trowel or mud knife I would use plaster or joint compound for the base here but NOT topping compound once everything is close to smothe then switch to a topping compound.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Nov 18, 2017 at 16:53
  • Thank you, but I still don’t understand which I need to do in order to make the walls less hollow as well as get rid of the bumps... I don’t actually know what type of wall it is either but if feels thin almost like there’s no brick behind it if that helps. I just want to know whether I should apply jointing compound, plaster, or both (and which order) to get rid of the bumps and make the walls less hollow. Then I want to know what I need to do after to prepare the wall for painting
    – Destiny
    Commented Nov 18, 2017 at 17:48
  • I'm not following "hollow" and "blown". What's the actual problem?
    – isherwood
    Commented Nov 19, 2017 at 3:17

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Two long for a comment so added as a second answer: a photo of the walls in question would be helpful, I am used to working in 1900's and newer homes with these type the walls have a 1/2" to 3/4" of plaster or sheetrock the only way to make them sound less hollow is to have them filled with insulation. If you want to get a solid brick or stone wall sound an overlay sheeting may help like a faux brick wall , the only problem with these is I could always see the seams. To get rid of the bumps it depends on what type of wall it is but both start with sanding as I outlined sheetrock would use a finer grade of sand paper compared to plaster. Joint compound can be used in both cases for a base coat to get things close but a super flat finish would require topping compound much finer and easier sanding.

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