Good evening! Yes, I believe this is definitely a regional concern. I do smooth walls in Los Angeles all the time and never have any issue. When I work in other parts of the country, they do make a big deal about it. Yes, the time and labor to achieve this effect is more costly. It is much less expensive and labor intensive for them to do textured walls.

1. Yes, their reasoning is sound. Honestly, there will always be places they will have to touch up anyways. It is all part of the process. Yes, you will notice the imperfections more with smooth walls.

2. Absolutely NOT! You are building your dream home. You shouldn't have to pay for additional time and labor after the project is done to get your desired wall texture.

I hope this commentary has been helpful. Ask for what you really want. It is the only way you will be happy. Your request isn't unreasonable. Best of luck!

Are you sure that you want to work with this builder? It sounds as though he knows that his workmanship won't stand up to the look of smooth walls. That is a red flag to me.

I have never heard of anyone in my area using textured drywall. I have worked with builders, drywallers, painters and handymen and know that if someone wanted textured it would be a special request and would be thought of as odd. Must definitely be a regional thing for lack of experieced drywallers. We have a similar situation with masons.

I can't believe that there is no one in your area without experience in smooth dry walling. It's been the norm since its invention to replace plaster. Perhaps you should look for someone yourself that might work with your contractor to get what you want.

Thank you for all your helpful responses! For a bit more context, please know we are using one of those suburban builders that does large developments and you go to their showroom to pick out your tile, hardware, etc. Because they buy their components in bulk and have such a streamlined process they are able to keep costs down considerably. That being said, our particular builder is much less strict than many (a friend of mine couldn't even have a light fixture moved a few feet with her builder), their homes and neighborhoods are some of the best in the area, and I've been able to customize numerous things. In a perfect world I'd be building a million dollar home with full control over everything and a team who was happy to make my dreams come true but sadly that's not our reality.

These builders like to build fast using their own crews, so any change will slow them down. I think our smooth wall problem is a combination of them wanting to stay on track with time, being uncomfortable/inconvenienced doing a texture technique they don't usually do, in the context of builders in our area generally not doing smooth walls. I understand a part of this is that textured walls are easier and cover mistakes, but I don't think that necessarily means our builder/drywaller is sloppy and we should get a new one. They are just doing what everyone else does and what 90+% of people around here want because it's what they see everywhere.

Our concern is going higher in the company and we're hoping to talk to the construction manager today, although the possibility exists they just won't do it and that will be that. Hopefully they'll consider it when we let them know we really are willing to pay for it. I'll keep you posted!

Aaron,

When you do smooth walls on a new construction, what is your process? I've heard where they will just putty (?) the tape and nailed areas or the process of applying a thin layer of mud and then sanding it. Please excuse my ignorance if my summary is way off.

Which process would be easier for a drywalled not accustomed to doing smooth walls?

Drywall comes smooth. You screw it to the studs, mud the seams, sand, prime, and paint. I can't imagine any process that results in texture being easier, unless it's something that they spray on, thus bypassing the mudding and sanding steps, which can be labor intensive. If they spray, then it's clearly easier for them, but for sure any subsequent repair is incapable of matching that texture and will always stand out. I've fixed flat drywall myself to invisibility.

I'm in s California and smooth drywall is considered high end.

its more expensive because it take longer and drywall crew have to be highly skilled.

if your contractor will not do it hire a drywall company that can and will.

You Pros know your stuff, thanks for your helpful information!

Bourke - in your area for folks that aren't so high end, but aren't necessarily low end, what kind of drywall texture are they getting? Is it a lower end version of smooth? Textured? Our home will be one of the higher end in the area, but then again our area isn't necessarily a super wealthy part of the country.

in new england smooth is the standard high end or low end. i guess every drywall crew here knows how to do it. i think one of the most amazing things i learned at houzz was that at other places in the country smooth walls and ceilings arent standard.

Just went through a similar thing for our new build in Arizona. Our contractor told us that he hadn't seen smooth drywall finish in years and that texture was standard. Since my taste runs to minimalist-modern, I knew I would not be happy with texture. He was wonderful and had his drywall guys work with us to provide a smooth finish. It is a lot of extra work and came at a price, about $4,000 over the allowance. I would not have it any other way and am not at all concerned about dings. We do not routinely go about banging things into the walls. Prior to moving here, however, we had never had a home with wall texture. Agree, it is somewhat of a regional thing. Good luck, hope you get what you want.

acm - Yes, builders spray on the textured finishes.

In multi-family housing and middle to low income developments textured walls are very common. Think orange peel. I would bet that one will find more textured walls than smooth walls in most newer built homes that are being mass produced. Do-it-yourself folks use texture on walls frequently because it is easy. Who wants to sand! Also, textured walls frequently attempt to replicate lathe and plaster walls of years ago.

Need I not forget the textured finish that people despise ---- Popcorn Ceilings. Ha! Thanks to the fear of asbestos, those ceilings with or without asbestos have met their demise.

When I moved to CA I could not believe all the textured walls and tan paint. You would swear that no other color is sold.

Textured walls are a disaster and look dated. When the house is built it is an empty shell and they come in with huge set ups and spray the texture everywhere. It gets on everything in sight. They then trim and finish the house.

Yes, it makes their job easier as it hides their poor workmanship. It is actually more work as the seams and joints have to be sanded anyway. It makes zero sense besides their workers not being able to produce a smooth finished seam.

Bigger problem comes in when you have to repair even the smallest hole or damage. The texture never matches as it isn't being sprayed with the same equipment or product. It makes every repair visible.

As you can tell I hate textured walls and there is no reason in 2016 to actually build a house with textured walls. It is a dated process. Is he applying popcorns ceilings also?

A good, smooth drywall finish starts with the framing. All the material needs to be straight, and aligned so when drywall is applied, it is flat. This takes additional care and expense. The drywall needs to be installed taking care to maintain this flatness. Butt joints specifically need additional work so they are not visible. The process of taping and mudding the joints needs to be done with care, trying to keep the joints as flat as possible.

At this point, you could prime and paint, but to get the best finish, you would coat all the drywall with a product designed to provide a uniform surface. The raw drywall board surface is different from the areas coated with mud, and takes paint differently. This difference can telegraph through and be seen once painted. Again, more work, more time and money.

Applying texture via roller, spray or trowel adds enough irregularity to the wall that you don't notice the imperfections that would stand out on a smooth wall.

A smooth wall is often more difficult to touch up, often requiring an entire wall to be painted, rather than doing a touch up on a textured wall.

----

It would be a job to come in after the house is complete and smooth out the texture. You would need to skim coat the drywall, sand and repeat until smooth, but it may not be flat. Everything will need to be protected from the fine white dust.

The problem is that many builders are tired of dealing with ill-advised people who think it is a problem of poor workmanship. You can have a perfectly flat wall and still see all the seams due to the difference in texture and porosity between the drywall paper and taping mud. Then you come onto a forum with a bunch of misinformed, inexperienced people just looking for a witch hunt...

http://www.awci.org/cd/pdfs/9705_b.pdf

I'd rather see vague intimations of seams (which might get covered up with art anyway) than see a weird hole every place I had to repair after moving an electrical fixture or filling in after some other repair. No need to get snippy, Fred.

Don't know where the witch hunt thing came from Fred but I've been around for a long time and lived, flipped, worked, and been in many homes. I've seen beautiful workmanship with dry wallers and I've seen pathetic work with dry wallers. That all boils down to expertise and experience in my book. Finding skilled people in any area depends on whether these skills are being passed along. If they are not then contractors find easier methods for that reason or for the bottom line. Probably some of both

An update: spoke with our construction manager who was much more amenable to figuring this out than our builder and actually spoke to the builder on our behalf. We will be getting a bid from a different drywall crew that frequently does smooth walls for commercial builds. I'm hoping the bid (minus the cost we would save from not texturing, etc) won't be crazy high. Although as it will significantly change the look of our home we aren't afraid of paying so long as it's not exorbitant.

Thanks again for all of your input into this topic I knew very little about. I'm so grateful for the houzz community!

~Meg

Commercial work is usually smooth, so a commercial crew is a good idea.

Drywall has 2 sides that are tapered and 2 ends that are not. When you place the tapered edge against another tapered edge, you get a recess or shallow pocket for the tape and mud. This joint is easy to make flat. When you butt the ends together, there is no recess, so the tape and mud sits on top forming a hump.

In many areas it is common for one crew to hang, and another to finish the drywall. The installation needs to be quality too.

To eliminate the hump referred to above, I recommend the hangers use Buttboards or a similar product to help the finish crew obtain a flat surface.

In commercial work, the sheets of drywall are usually stood up, where in residential they are run horizontally. This eliminates most butt joints in commercial, plus they are almost always hung on steel studs which are nice a straight, making it easier to get a nice flat wall.

Keep us posted.

Late to the party, but...

While I am a custom home builder and have my opinions based on my experience, I am always learning as different technology and/or techniques come to my attention. I am currently in Arizona and found this thread investigating why textured wall appear to be the norm down here. Smooth finish is the norm back home and in my experience a preferred finish. Quality hand applied textured finishes are a premium finish. Spray texture is rarely seen other than low end builders and renovators. Here in AZ however, textured walls are the norm and suit the SouthWest style architecture well. It seems the spray texture tradesman here are very skilled at this style of finishing.

Drywall finishing is a trade that is, like almost all home building trades, easy to do, but hard to do well. There is no substitute for experience.

The internet is full of opinions and statements of personal experience, but light on factual information. Even the ‘pros’ on here spread misinformation and half truths. Either smooth or textured wall will look great when finished by an experienced tradesman. Both will not show joints and imperfections when properly prepared and finished and both will not hide them when not done well,