How do I match this texture? What are the exact steps needed?
Ceiling – How to match this ceiling texture
ceilingtexture
Related Solutions
That is in fact a "sand finish", your intuition was right.
Now depending on the age of the house it could be sand added to the plaster, added to the mud, or a "sand finish" paint. The last is your best hope of matching, as you would drywall it all smooth then simply use brushstrokes to recreate the pattern. There are premixed sand paints amazingly enough.
When I've seen this done with wallboard mud, they have a mixer on site to stir every so often (the sand settles slower than blueberries). A quick google search reveals a number of pros complaining about how hard sand finishes are to match. Practice practice practice, on some scrap drywall.
Using a piece you cut off the ceiling for repair, try to figure out what layer the sand was added at (plaster, top coating on drywall, paint).
This is created by a crow's foot texture brush. The brush looks like this:
To see how it's used, refer to HOW TO TEXTURE (OR RETEXTURE) CEILINGS written by Mallory Danks.
Best Answer
Are you sure it's not wallpaper? (sorry had to confirm). Otherwise the only thing I've seen like that was done with a textured roller (probably basket weave looking at the image) and thinned down drywall joint compound.
This image came from www.all-wall.com
NOTE: matching any 'wet' pattern exactly is difficult as the exact consistency of the original mud affects the depth of the pattern, as indeed does how hard the original person pressed/moved the roller. I would suggest practicing on some scrap drywall first. Try different consistencies of mud and/or pressure until you are confident you can achieve a reasonable match. Or, you can go over the whole area with the new pattern.