Ballwin House Painters Ballwin, MO

Several choices for texture coat removal in St. Louis

"My 2,200-square-foot house has a horrible texture coat all over it. I'm thinking about having the texture coat removed, and then painting the house. But I can't find anyone to remove the texture coat. One contractor said it couldn't be sandblasted because that would damage the underlying wood. Help!"

- Susan Riess, Angie's List member

Chris Coco, owner of highly rated Coco & Sons Painting & Home Improvement in St. Louis, says the cost of removing the texture coat depends on the texture.

"If it's a sand texture, you can just take a scraper and it will get rid of a lot of the texture. Once you get the sand out, it's a smooth surface you can coat over," he says.

A rough, blotchy surface can be costly because "this type of job is done on a time and material basis," Coco says. "There's no good way to estimate a job like this because you don't know how extensive removal and repair will be."

Another aspect of removing texture coat that you need to consider is the possibility of lead.

"The whole lead thing is getting to be a problem," Coco says. "Everyone has to go the school to know how to deal with lead paint.

"It's best to just encapsulate all surfaces before 1978. Even using lead safe practices, you wouldn't want to disturb it."

Coco says if the texture coat is already a heavy material like plaster or stucco, laminating the surface with stucco should be easy because a lot of the normal prep work associated with a traditional stucco job would not be needed.

"We do a lot of jobs like this," Coco says. "It all comes down to time and material, and if she's willing to pay for it."