Bigger mistakes, mistakes with pronounced edges, will be easier to scrape off. Coat 2īegin the second coat by scraping the blatant imperfections/mistakes you have made in the first coat off the ceiling with a drywall knife.
It's second coat that yields all the results. The wall will look rough after the first coat. Imperfections created by errand trowel strokes will be numerous. This coat is relatively hard to level, because it is the thickest. It needs to cover the entire ceiling and fill in the big defects in the ceiling. Even someone who has never worked with drywall can achieve a perfect result with patience and tenacity. Professionals with years of experience can do better. Application/TechniqueĪs a first-timer you have to prepare to apply at least 2 coats over the entire ceiling, sand once, and fix defects a couple of times. Don't try to skim coat a surface like this without doing the prep work. Walls with any sort of sheen will have to be either stripped, sanded, or covered with a bonding agent. Who is to say that that 20 year old layer of primer 5 levels down will hold another 20 years. The walls in older homes have been painted dozens of times. While the skim coat will adhere to the flat paint just fine, you are taking a risk that some other layer below the surface will fail. Clean all surfaces thoroughly with TSP and water. Painted walls with flat paint can be coated directly. All you have to do is make sure the area is mostly dust free. These tools really do work.īare drywall or other joint compound are the ideal surface for applying a skim coat. A powered drywall sander such as the Porter-Cable 7800 produces the fastest and cleanest results. For large areas it is more important to go through the different grits of sanding paper.
Skim coat joint compound plus#
Plus they make for great facebook pictures.įor sanding a pole sander with sanding screens will provide the necessary leverage. Stilts significantly simply the operation. Otherwise you'll have to climb up and down a ladder all day long. If you are doing the entire house, consider renting stilts. You'll need a mud pan to store the joint compound and to clean the knife regularly.īeing able to reach the ceiling without having to use a ladder is a big advantage. Use a 12" knife to cut-in the edges just enough to get the trowel going. Either way, you'll get the job done.Ī long drywall knifeworks better than the trowel around the edges of the ceiling. That frees up the second hand during the application process. You can skip the hawk and apply mud to your trowel straight out of the bucket with a small drywall knife. The hawk keeps joint compound ready in one hand, while the other is finishing the ceiling with the trowel. Trowels are usually paired up with a hawk. Professionals sometimes use longer models, which require more dexterity to use. A 12" to 18" trowel is a good choice for the first timer. Applying the compound with this tools is significantly faster than using a drywall knife. The ToolsĪ plasterer's trowel is the best tool for applying and smoothing the joint compound away from the edges. That way you know that your skim coat will stay on the ceiling for decades. Whichever joint compound you choose, make sure it's recommended usage includes skim coats. Special types of skim coat compounds are available for tough jobs. For example, top-coat joint compound may not adhere to paint well enough to be used for a skim coat, but it's much easier to sand when used as a top coat over other types of joint compound.Īll-purpose joint compound, which is available at every home center, can be used for skim coating. Different types of compound excel at different tasks. Choosing joint compoundĪs mentioned before, a skim coat is done with joint compound rated for this application. As long as these differences are not discernible with the naked eye they do not diminish the quality of the skim coat. The thickness of the skim coat will vary slightly due to the inconsistencies in the application. Any thickness in excess of that requirement does not yield any benefits. The skim coat only needs to be think enough to cover the drywall. A skim coats is the final step necessary to achieve a level 5 drywall finish, the highest level of finish available. It is smooth and hides all imperfections in the drywall beneath it. What is a skim coatĪ skim coat is a very thin layer of drywall joint compound that covers an entire ceiling or wall.
Skim coat joint compound upgrade#
I decided to do the work and upgrade to a modern flat ceiling.Īfter taking down the popcorn my task was to apply a skim coat across the entire ceiling.
This look must have been very appealing to someone living in the 60ies, but it's not the look I want. My house has popcorn ceilings all throughout.
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