Skimming with a roller?

[staylong]

HI

I have just finishing stripping a couple of rooms and contemplating skimming the ceilings. I know most people leave it to the experts and I may just do that, but I thought I would have a look around the net to see if there are any new products that make the job easier for the 'novice'. Anyway I came on this link http://www.i-boards.com/bnp/wc/messages.asp?MsgID=12083&ThreadID=1602 and it made me wonder if what I was reading can be correct.

Has anyone ever tried putting a skim on with a roller and then smoothing off like these guys are talking about.

Just curious.

 

[AdamW]

Hmmmm, well... have thought about this (not an expert).

Artex is usually brushed on and then rollered (if going for that particular effect, anyway!). So, plaster of a similar consistency could be applied in such a way.

I am not sure a roller would let you lay enough plaster on the wall to give a decent skim though. Perhaps you should experiment, a cheapo paint roller is only a couple of quid so try it with an unused piece of plasterboard and let us know what happens!

It is interesting that the forum you linked to had a mention of spraying on plaster: 2 years ago my dad mentioned this to me so I tried to hire a plaster sprayer from every tool shop I could find in the Yellow Pages. No luck. It seems they are used in big construction projects but not in smaller ones over here.

When plastering as a novice (as I have tried twice) is a bit hit and miss. First load I did a year back came out great. Then I tried to do a bathroom ceiling a month or two back. Not good. The thing is you might find yourself flattening and patching little bits of it for the next week to get a decent finish. A plasterer will (should ) put a perfect finish on in a couple of hours!