Patelai Knockdown Texture Sponge Drywall Wall Patch Ceiling Texture Sponge Home Decor for Repair DIY Painting Ceiling(2 Pieces,13 x 15 x 6 cm)

Okay, not going to bury the lede, these things did an outstanding job. I had to repair a huge water leak in a bathroom ceiling, I lost half the room's ceiling so I replaced the drywall and had to try to match the existing knockdown texture on the other half of the ceiling. I used these sponges and the result is just seamless, nobody could tell there was ever a repair done. So they're good sponges and they get a five-star review for the results.But you also gotta know a couple of things. First, what you get is not what you think you're getting. You don't get a fluffy squishy sponge, instead you get something that looks like a nasty old McDonald's Happy Meal hamburger that's been vacuum-sealed in a NASA space meal pouch. It's a little tiny flat squished thing that would absolutely not pass any "is this a sponge?" test.Second, you gotta inflate it. They say leave it in a pan of water for a little while. Screw that, I left one in a pan of water and it took like TWO DAYS to fully fluff up. If you don't have two days to wait, submerge it in water and work it, squeeze it, roll it, smush it, etc, until it finally becomes a small half-dome shape. It'll get about as big as your palm, flat on one side and rounded on the other, and probably smaller than you were expecting. Don't sweat it, it's all good; once you get to that point you've got what you need.Then start the texturing job. Thin down some all-purpose joint compound in a drywall pan, and let it "set up" for about 10 minutes or so. Then smush the flat side of the sponge into it, then sqlorch it onto the ceiling, press it in, and then yank the sponge away quickly. You're trying to "draw out" the compound to stick out away from the ceiling, making little stalagtites. Do that for a while, I think I probably did it in about a 3' x 3' area before knocking it down with a rubber-edged knockdown knife. If it looks good and matches up, then go on to the next 3x3 area. If it looks bad, you can just re-sqlorch it and try again until you get it the way you want.It's a long tedious process, but the end result I got is absolutely fantastic. If you want to see a video, I watched Paul Peck's youtube drywall channel on matching knockdown texture and it tells you everything you need to know.

Ease of use

I've never had to use wall spackle on anything in my life until recently and while looking up some other things I needed for the project I came across these as a useful tool for quickly applying a texture coating to whatever surface you're working on. You just fluff up the vacuum sealed sponges and they come out about 4-5 times the size they were in the vacuum sealing but it takes a LONG time doing that by air alone and even submerging the tightly-packed sponges won't yield visible results for probably over an hour. I had to soak mine while pinching it in various places to find any obvious folding at all 😵 but once shaped and fully fluffed they cover about 6 inches in an egg or oval-ish shape along the surface. All you do after that is use the flat side of it to gently press the spackle against the wall or ceiling. It's very tiring on the arms but comes out okay and helps cover up cracks or missed spots easier once discovered. You can also use them for different texturing patterns like swirls or squiggly lines.

Used to do texture on drywall. This was the first time I did texture and it worked!I was happy with the sponges and texture on my wall.

best for decorative plaster. using it for venetian plaster and it is best I think

I thought it would be worth a try to patch up some Sheetrock texture. It works well enough for a knockdown texture but for my orange peel texture it was not too good. If you don’t have a heavy orange peel texture it works well. The price is so low it’s definitely worth a try.

This texturing sponge worked perfectly. Our walls are textured and after we filled in the holes with that product, we used this sponge so that it would blend in. Highly recommend.

2 shrink wrapped sponges, one finally expanded after 24-36 hours, the other still a smashed pancake after 48 hours (and it's smaller than expected like other said). Tried using the one that did expand and it didn't work well to dab the mud in a way that could be knocked down for the knock down texture look. It laid down too much mud and only barely left tiny points when pulling the sponge away. Basically it would either leave too much mud or not enough mud. Nothing like what I've seen in videos of other people using texture sponges. After letting it set for a few minutes and knocking it down with a knockdown knife, there are very wide smooth areas in many spots because the mud was too uniformly laid down. Maybe if it had only a tiny blob of mud on the sponge and I separated the blobs by a couple inches, it might have worked? ...but then I would have had to do several applications/layers to get the overall knockdown look. Bottom line, didn't work well at all. Maybe a bigger sponge with bigger holes would do the trick.