Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> Gary wrote:
>> That last comment makes no sense. Please explain.
>> About scraping off drywall mud and ignorance of painter's putty.
>
> Where the cabinets and countertop didn't quite meet the wall, they
> filled the gap with crack filler rather than a little painter's putty.
>
> The silver lining was that they used drying mud and not setting mud,
> so water softens it up.

Ok. Thanks for explaining.
That's an odd way to fill those gaps but you are lucky they did that.

What you call "drying mud" is just premixed drywall mud and will stay
wet for a long time with a cover. That's what is used on drywall. Water
will soften it even years later.

The "setting mud" is more like a plaster of paris thing. Mix the dry
powder then add water and it starts hardening quickly. This is commonly
used on quick repairs/patches. Water won't soften that.

Normally, that gap between counters and cabinets are filled with
caulking. That would have been hard to remove.

Painter's putty is only for filling joint cracks and nail holes on
woodwork. Woodwork only. It will bleed through wall paint.


>
> I had a similar experience in removing the popcorn texture from the
> living room ceiling. Nobody had ever painted it, so a garden sprayer
> full of water made it come down slick as a whistle. The texture
> was sprayed right onto old (probably oil-based) paint, so the ceiling
> didn't absorb the water.

Probably sprayed onto a primer paint. Messy job to remove it though.

I was never asked to remove a ceiling texture but several times I had to
paint one and retain the texture. Also a messy job unless you spray it.