On Apr 19, 4:22*pm, CoolWebs wrote:
My girlfriend and I are considering painting some rooms in my house,
but we want it to look professional. Here are some of the problems we
have:

There are various different textures, repairs, patches in the walls.
In order to get the most consistent look, should I use an orbital
sander on all of the wall area or try to add texture to repaired/
sanded areas to get them to match the surrounding texture? Please give
any and all advice. Thanks.

Everybody knows that any kind of sanding creates huge volumes of dust.
But hardly anyone is aware that there are highly effective dust
trapping tools in the market. The professional tools are fairly
priced, but there is one outstanding rig that is a bargain for what it
will do. Amazon and others sell the Magna Sand which goes between the
included sanding pad and a shop vac. The sanding pad is held to the
wall by the vacuum, making the sanding chore much easier. The dust is
pulled through the sanding screen and trapped in the water filled
Magna Sand pail. At the end of the day you have a couple gallons of
water and many pounds of slurry. The slurry, if you are using regular
drywall mud, is essentially pure gypsum, and if your have a nasty clay
soil, perfect for improving your garden.
The only negative is the foam produced by some kinds of drywall mix.
The easy solution for this is a squirt of Pam cooking spray. I have
used a Magna Sand for many years and saved many hours of cleanup and
been able to do a much better job, particularly ceiling drywall work.
With a Magna Sand you could skim coat and sand flat your most of your
worst walls in a weekend. With drop cloths and plastic, the place
would not be a mess after completion.

Joe