Residential Drywall & Stucco Services in Calgary
Residential Drywall & Stucco Services in Calgary
Texture does two things for your walls and ceilings. It adds character. And it hides the small imperfections that every drywall job leaves behind — hairline cracks at joints, slight ridges from taping, the occasional screw dimple that didn’t sit perfectly flush.
Most Calgary homes have some form of textured surface. Walk through any neighbourhood built in the ’80s or ’90s and you’ll find stipple ceilings and knockdown walls in nearly every house. Newer builds in communities like Seton or Livingston tend toward orange peel or smooth finishes. The texture your home needs depends on what’s already there, what era it was built in, and what look you’re going for.
We handle all of it — new texture application, matching existing patterns after drywall repairs, and full texture removal when you’re ready for a change.
Knockdown — This is our most requested texture in Calgary, and it has been for years. We spray joint compound through a hopper gun at around 25-30 PSI, let it set for ten to fifteen minutes (less if the furnace is running and the air is dry, which in Calgary is most of the year), then flatten the high spots with a knockdown knife. What you get is that mottled, slightly Mediterranean look with flat plateaus and shallow valleys. The key is timing. Knock it down too early and you smear it into mush. Wait too long and the knife drags and tears. Calgary’s low humidity actually works in your favour here — the compound firms up predictably.
Orange Peel — Sprayed on with a hopper gun at higher pressure than knockdown, using a thinner compound mix. No knife work after. The result is a uniform, lightly bumpy surface that looks like the skin of an orange. Builders love it because it’s fast and consistent over large areas. You’ll see it in most new construction going up in Calgary right now. It covers Level 4 taping and mudding work well and goes on quick.
Smooth Finish — No texture at all. Just flat, clean walls. Sounds simple. It isn’t. A smooth finish requires a Level 5 skim coat underneath, meaning the entire wall surface gets a thin layer of compound — not just the joints and screws. Every flaw shows under a smooth finish, especially in the raking light that pours through Calgary windows on winter afternoons. It costs more than textured finishes because of the extra prep, but it gives you that modern, clean look that’s popular in renovations right now.
Stipple / Popcorn Ceiling — The classic ceiling texture from the 1970s through early ’90s. Applied with a roller or sprayer using a thick, chunky compound. Many Calgary homeowners are removing it now — we’ll get to that below. But if you need a stipple ceiling matched in a specific room after a repair, we do that too.
Skip Trowel — Hand-applied with a curved knife in overlapping arcs. Creates that Old World, Mediterranean feel with visible trowel marks. It’s labour-intensive and takes a practitioner who’s comfortable working freehand across large surfaces. Not common in Calgary, but we see it in custom homes and feature walls.
Sand Texture — A fine, gritty finish sprayed on using a mixture of joint compound and silica sand (or a premixed sand texture product). Subtle. You feel it more than you see it. Good for ceilings where you want something other than flat white but don’t want the heaviness of stipple.
This is the hardest part of any patch or repair job. And honestly, it’s where a lot of drywallers fall short.
Here’s the problem. Your walls were textured ten, twenty, maybe forty years ago. The person who did it used a specific tool, a specific compound consistency, a specific spray distance and pressure. They might have used a product that isn’t even made anymore. Over the decades, that texture has been painted over multiple times, which softens the peaks and fills in the valleys slightly. Now you’ve patched a section of wall, and the fresh texture needs to blend with all of that history.
What we do is practice on scrap drywall first. We’ll cut a test piece, mix the compound to different consistencies, and spray or hand-apply samples until we dial in the right match. We adjust the nozzle size on the hopper gun, change the air pressure, vary the spray distance. Sometimes the match requires a specific drying time before we knock it down. Sometimes we need to thin the mud more than usual, or thicken it. It’s trial and error — but the trial happens on scrap board, not your wall.
Once the texture is on and dried, a coat of primer helps blend the sheen. Then paint. In most cases, you won’t be able to tell where the repair was. In some cases — particularly with very old or unusual textures — we’ll be upfront that a perfect match isn’t possible, and we’ll talk through your options before we start.
Popcorn ceiling removal is one of the most common calls we get. That stipple texture made sense in 1985. It doesn’t suit most homeowners anymore.
The process is straightforward but messy. We cover everything — floors, walls, fixtures — in plastic sheeting. Then we spray the ceiling with water to soften the texture compound. After about fifteen minutes of soaking, the stipple scrapes off with a wide drywall knife. What’s left underneath is the original drywall surface, which usually needs skim coating and sanding before it’s ready for paint.
The asbestos question. If your home was built before 1990, there’s a chance the ceiling texture contains asbestos fibres. It was a common additive. Before we scrape anything in a pre-1990 home, that texture needs to be tested. You can get a test kit from a local hardware store or hire an environmental testing company in Calgary. We won’t remove ceiling texture until we know it’s asbestos-free. If it does contain asbestos, you’ll need a certified abatement crew — that’s a different scope of work entirely, and we can point you to people we trust.
For non-asbestos ceilings, expect the removal and refinishing to take one to two days per room, depending on size and the condition of the drywall underneath.
In Calgary’s dry climate, most textures are ready for primer within 24 hours. Knockdown and orange peel dry faster — often within 12 hours. Heavier textures like stipple can take a full day or more. We always check with a hand test before priming. If the compound is cool to the touch, it’s still holding moisture.
Sometimes. If the existing texture is in good shape and firmly bonded to the wall, we can apply a new texture over top. But if the old texture is flaking, bubbling, or has been water damaged, it needs to come off first. Layering new texture over a failing surface just gives you a bigger problem down the road.
A smooth finish typically costs 30-50% more than a standard knockdown or orange peel texture. The extra cost comes from the Level 5 skim coat required underneath — it’s an additional full pass of compound and sanding over the entire surface. Textured finishes are more forgiving, which means the taping and mudding underneath doesn’t need to be as flawless.
Yes. Even for a single patch, we take the time to match the surrounding texture. We test the pattern on scrap board, dial in the compound consistency and spray settings, then apply it to the repair area. A patch with mismatched texture stands out worse than the damage it replaced. We’d rather spend an extra thirty minutes getting it right.
Whether you need fresh texture on new drywall, a match after a repair, or a full popcorn ceiling removal, we’ll walk you through the options and give you an honest quote. We handle residential drywall projects across Calgary — from single rooms to whole-home renovations.
Call RC Stucco and Drywall at (403) 969-0155 to book an estimate.
