Types of Texture

Hand drywall is made from cement and sand mixed into a paste. It’s then pressed into molds using heavy wood blocks or, in more modern tractors, PVC panels. After the panels are stamped with the appropriate pattern, they are placed under an air compressor. The air compressor compresses them so that when they’re taken out and removed from the mold, they’re actually quite strong and have much texture to them already.

Various types of drywall textures can be made using different techniques with the same wall mud. Depending on how much or how little of the drywall mud you apply to your wood block and how hard you push it against the surface, you can get different textures and finishes. Most drywall texture is produced by manual and electric types of texture guns. Manual texture guns use trigger pulls to fire the shotgun up and down, creating one large splatter of mud against the wall. The splatters build up the texture until they’ve made enough to usually cover either a vast area or a moderate amount of wall surface. Electric texture guns have their triggers and operate very fast, firing blasts of mud into the air that land on their surface in various patterns.