Skimming guidance required

[duvet77]

I'm going to be doing a small area of skimming, so I've scanned through a lot of threads and picked up some pointers but was wondering if someone could kindly do a quick list of the stages involved from first coat to polishing off or whatever the correct term is.

So far I understand that I apply the first coat at about 2mm and the second about 1mm but how long do i leave in between? Then it gets a bit confusing... wet trowel, dry trowel, wet trowel or some such thing!

If someone could explain each stage and how long to leave between each etc it would be much appreciated.

I've done a bit of patching with one coat plaster before and i just left it for 20 minutes or so then splashed it with water to polish it, but frankly it was crap so I want to try skimming.

Thanks guys.

 

[Richard C]

I'm going to be doing a small area of skimming, so I've scanned through a lot of threads and picked up some pointers but was wondering if someone could kindly do a quick list of the stages involved from first coat to polishing off or whatever the correct term is.

So far I understand that I apply the first coat at about 2mm and the second about 1mm but how long do i leave in between? Then it gets a bit confusing... wet trowel, dry trowel, wet trowel or some such thing!

If someone could explain each stage and how long to leave between each etc it would be much appreciated.

I've done a bit of patching with one coat plaster before and i just left it for 20 minutes or so then splashed it with water to polish it, but frankly it was rubbish so I want to try skimming.

Thanks guys.

Did you say you read the archive!
You’ve got the 2 coats right & I like to get the second (looser) coat on fairly soon after the first; there is no set time period between stages, it's variable depending on plaster quality, how you mixed it, how big the wall/ceiling is, how good/fast you are, what your plastering over, temperature & moisture. You just have to judge when & that’s the skilful bit but if you’re a novice, it’s probably irrelevant as you will almost certainly run out of time; but we’ve all been in that situation at some time!

Always keep the trowel dry (i.e don't use water) as long as you possibly can; you won’t need any water laying it on or for the initial levelling passes & too much water at any stage is bad news. I level off in stages, with a single vertical & horizontal pass of the trowel at each stage, literally a few minutes between each pass. It will get flatter & smoother with each pass but as it starts to go off you will need more pressure & need to damp down or the trowel will start pulling & you’ll end up with ridges & lumps; I only use ½ litre mist spray bottle as it puts on the minimum amount water necessary to keep the surface fluid & one re-fill will do a whole room! It will get to the stage where further towelling makes no appreciable difference & all you can do is leave it until it’s gone off. Give it a final polish once it’s gone off & aim for a smooth matt finish; you can hard polish the dodgy bits & some water here may help remove any light trowel marks but don’t over do it or you’ll end up with a dry powdery mess; best to leave it & use filler afterwards. Don’t overdo the polishing, you don’t want to see your face in it or the paint will have a job sticking to it!

Frankly if you didn’t succeed with one coat (which is truly dreadful stuff), I don’t hold out much hope you will with Multi-Finish, especially if it’s a big wall; experienced plasterers make it look easy but believe me it isn’t!

 

[duvet77]

Frankly if you didn’t succeed with one coat (which is truly dreadful stuff), I don’t hold out much hope you will with Multi-Finish, especially if it’s a big wall; experienced plasterers make it look easy but believe me it isn’t!

Thanks for you help, I'm going to get cracking in a minute.

i did alright with the one coat plaster... but the material itself doesn't seem to lend itself to getting a good smooth finish.

I'm only doing a small area and most of it is hidden behind a radiator anyway, so even if i don't do a great job, nobody will see it!

 

[SimonWraight]

DFon't forget to seal the wall with a pva/water mixture. Without that the suction is an amateurs worst enemy.

 

[roughcaster]

Duvet said,

I'm going to get cracking in a minute.

"Cracking" is one thing that you don't want when plastering

Roughcaster.

 

[duvet77]

Well I've done it and I don't know what all the fuss was about, it was easy!

Ok, so maybe it was a bit tricky but it didn't cost me much and it'll do since most of it is behind a radiator anyway.

Getting it on the wall and smooth is easy enough, but actually getting it flat was the hard part. When I fixed my radiator brackets to the wall it became apparent that the plaster wasn't particularly flat.

 

[joe-90]

When I fixed my radiator brackets to the wall it became apparent that the plaster wasn't particularly flat.

Now imagine that was a long wall with the light shining down it!

 

[duvet77]

Now imagine that was a long wall with the light shining down it!

there's no way i'd attempt a full wall. I only did this because I knew it wouldn't matter too much if it wasn't perfect.

It was a fun and messy learning experience though.