Greater Lansing
Ceiling texture & texture matching
Most people come to this page with a patch, not a ceiling — the hole got fixed properly and it still shows, because the texture around it does not match. Here is how matching actually works, when a repair is going to be visible, and why the paint matters more than the mud.
What is actually wrong
Most people arrive here with a patch rather than a ceiling. The hole got fixed, the board went in flat, the joint got taped properly — and it still screams, because the texture around it does not match. A structurally perfect repair with the wrong texture over it looks worse than the damage did, and that is the job this page is about.
Texture is not a product you buy in a shade. It is a technique: how thick the mud is, what tip is on the gun, how far back the sprayer stands, how long it sets before the knife comes through, and how hard the person pushed. Orange peel, knockdown, splatter, stomp, skip trowel and hand-troweled finishes are each a different set of those decisions, and two ceilings with the same name on them can look nothing alike. Matching means reading what the original installer did and repeating it, which is why it is practiced on a board before it goes anywhere near your ceiling.
The other half of this work is texture you actually want: a new ceiling that needs finishing, a scraped ceiling going back to something other than flat, or a tired plane where re-texturing the whole thing is cheaper and better than chasing patches around it.
And there is a third answer people are rarely offered: stop matching and go smooth. Skimming a plane to a flat Level 5 removes the matching problem entirely rather than solving it, and on a small ceiling it is sometimes the cheaper end of the conversation.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- A matched patch can be invisible in ordinary light and still show in raking light. New texture and old texture are different ages of the same material, and low sun across a ceiling finds the edge. We will tell you where it will show before starting rather than after — if that is not acceptable, the answer is to re-texture the whole plane, and we would rather say so while you still have the choice.
- Matching the texture is not matching the finish. New texture takes paint differently from texture that has been up for fifteen years, so a patch that matches perfectly in bare mud can still read as a pale shape once it is painted. On a painted ceiling, expect the whole plane to need repainting corner to corner — not the patch, the plane. Anybody who tells you a spot-paint will disappear is guessing.
- Priming and painting are a separate line here and are not assumed. Making good means ready for paint.
- No structural ceiling work, no lowering or raising a ceiling, and no new recessed lighting. Moving or adding circuits is licensed-electrician scope.
- Textured plaster and real lath-and-plaster ceilings are not drywall and do not behave like it. We will look, and sometimes the honest answer is a plasterer.
- On a house built before about the mid-eighties, texture that is being scraped or sanded back gets sampled first — see the popcorn ceiling page for what that involves and what the result changes.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Match an existing texture over a repair — knockdown, orange peel, splatter, stomp and crow’s foot, skip trowel and hand-troweled finishes.
Sample it on a board first, held up against your ceiling in the light that room actually gets, before anything is sprayed onto the real thing.
Spray or trowel new texture on a fresh ceiling or wall, to the pattern and heaviness you pick rather than the one that is easiest.
Re-texture a whole plane where matching a patch is not worth it — frequently the better answer on a small ceiling, and often the cheaper one.
Skim to a flat Level 4 or Level 5 finish instead, where you would rather lose the texture than match it.
Feather new texture into old across a break rather than stopping it at a hard line, so the transition is not a rectangle on the ceiling.
Mask and contain properly. Spray texture travels, and it dries wherever it lands.
Say plainly, before starting, where the repair is going to be visible and in what light — see below, because this is the part that decides whether you are happy.
This work sits inside General Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
Patch-match or whole plane. These are two different jobs and the small one is not always the cheaper one once the paint is counted.
Which texture it is. Orange peel is forgiving. A heavy knockdown is forgiving. A light skip trowel or a hand-troweled finish carries the installer’s own hand in it and is the hardest thing on this list to repeat.
How many separate repairs there are and how far apart. Six patches on one ceiling is nearer to a re-texture than to six small jobs.
Whether the surrounding texture is painted, and how long ago. This drives more disappointment than anything else on the page.
Area and height. A flat eight-foot ceiling is worked from a bench; a stairwell or a two-story entry is staging, and staging is time.
Whether the plane is going back to texture or going flat, and to what finish level.
Occupied or empty, and how much has to be masked before a gun comes out.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Photograph the ceiling twice: once with the room lights on, and once in daylight from a low angle so the light rakes across it. The second photograph is the one that shows what the texture actually is.
- Put a tape measure or a credit card in the shot. Texture scale is impossible to judge from a photograph without something known next to it.
- Look in the basement or the garage for leftover ceiling paint. If the original is still around, the paint half of this gets much easier.
- Do not use an aerosol texture can on it. They are one pattern at one pressure, they do not match, and the overspray leaves a halo that then has to be sanded off before the real repair can start.
- If the damage came from a leak, find and fix the leak first. Texture over a ceiling that is still getting wet comes back off.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
Can you match my existing ceiling texture?
Usually, and the way to find out is a sample board rather than a promise. Texture is a technique rather than a product — the mud consistency, the spray tip, the distance, the set time before the knife and the pressure of the hand all change the result, so matching means reading what the original installer did and repeating it. Orange peel and heavy knockdown are forgiving. A light skip trowel or a hand-troweled finish carries somebody’s own hand in it and is much harder. We practice it on a board, hold it against your ceiling in the light that room actually gets, and show you before anything is sprayed on the real thing.
Will the repair be invisible?
In ordinary light, usually. In raking light, often not, and you should hear that before the work rather than after. New texture and old texture are different ages of the same material and low sun across a wide plane finds the edge between them. Where that matters — a ceiling with a big window down one side, a hallway that gets afternoon sun — the honest answer is to re-texture the whole plane rather than chase an invisible patch, and that is a choice worth having while it is still a choice.
Do I have to repaint the whole ceiling after a texture repair?
On a painted ceiling, nearly always, and this disappoints more people than anything else about this job. New texture is porous in a different way from texture that has been painted and sitting for fifteen years, so it takes the roller differently — a patch that matches perfectly in bare mud can still read as a pale shape once it is coated. Paint also fades and yellows across a plane, so even the original tin will not match itself after a few years. Budget for the ceiling corner to corner, not for the patch.
What kinds of ceiling texture do you do?
Knockdown, orange peel, splatter, stomp and crow’s foot, skip trowel and hand-troweled finishes, either sprayed or applied by hand depending on which one it is. We also go the other way and skim a plane flat to a Level 4 or Level 5 finish, which is worth considering — removing the matching problem is sometimes cheaper than solving it, especially on a small ceiling.
Is it cheaper to patch the texture or re-texture the whole ceiling?
Not as obvious as it sounds. A single patch on a forgiving texture is clearly cheaper. Six patches scattered over one ceiling is nearer to a re-texture already, and once you count repainting the whole plane — which a patch on a painted ceiling needs anyway — the gap narrows a long way. We price both when both are sensible, and say which one we would pick.
What does ceiling texture work cost?
There is no rate card. It is set by whether it is a patch-match or a whole plane, which texture it is and how hard that one is to repeat, how many separate repairs there are and how far apart, the area and the height, and whether the plane is going back to texture or going flat. Send photographs — one with the lights on and one in low raking daylight, with a tape measure in shot — and somebody comes out, looks, and puts a fixed price in writing. Coming out to do that is not charged for.
Do you work in Lansing, Haslett, East Lansing, Okemos and Holt?
Yes — Greater Lansing and the towns around it, which is where almost all of this company’s work is.
Send us the ceiling
Two photographs — one with the lights on, one in low daylight with a tape measure in shot — and we can usually tell you what texture it is before anyone drives out. Then somebody comes and looks, and you get a fixed price in writing. Coming out is free, and there is no trip charge.