To skim or not to skim ...

[saveasteading]

9 hours ago, Iceverge said:

 

If some prat comes to my office/pumphouse however and does that with their torch,

The same one that looks behind radiators to see if you painted there?

 

On the steading we used a local pair of jointers , surprisingly  available. The work is superb. I suggested that they could reduce the quality ( and high cost) in one area because there was no need for perfection on a high vaulted ceiling. They weren't interested and I understand that. But with diy you could take a view on it.

They used that knauf ready-mixed as above. We're OK for storage bins for a while.

[Crofter]

I had to skim a few areas in my own house- chimney breasts and other bits of that size. Used 'easy sand' plaster, and sanded off the worst bumps with mesh. Bloody messy but it did the job. I'd call the final result 'acceptable'...

[scottishjohn]

On 14/05/2024 at 22:47, Mike said:

Skim every time for me; it provides a better quality surface.

 

With jointed plasterboard it's virtually always possible to detect the joints when the light is in the wrong direction.

skim coat will be approx 3mm by the time its polished etc and you will find a reasonable plasterer easier than one that will do a good taping job

 how you going to make corners right wih taping --the croner strips will be about 2.3mm up stand --

als o inthe staes they have 16ft long plaster board --so not many joints to  

 my builder was teling me yesterday it has tkaen 96 bags of plaster so far ,but it is 400sq ms

Edited May 16 by scottishjohn

[Crofter]

41 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

 you will find a reasonable plasterer easier than one that will do a good taping job

 

I think that is location dependent.

[Galileo]

The only thing that gets plastered in Shetland are the locals, every where I've been it's T&J plasterboard. Coming from down Sooth I've only ever seen that "drywall" done before on Yank YouTube videos before moving up here, hopefully that's as far as their methods go, nothing sets me off more than Yank window reveal treatments.

Edited May 16 by Galileo

[BotusBuild]

I would love to try and do the skimming, but having just ordered 4 pallets of plasterboard (and that is not the final total)  I think I will be calling someone in to do it especially as 260m² of that plasterboard is on the ceilings - there ain't no way I'm going there especially with my shoulders now in the state they are from the build so far.

[saveasteading]

22 minutes ago, BotusBuild said:

calling someone in to do it 

The professionals all use a hopper applicator which makes that part look relatively easy, ie as opposed to applying by trowel.

Ahhh. A flat box seems to be the term.

For £300 they must be quite sophisticated and worth having.

[Omnibuswoman]

On 16/05/2024 at 12:31, BotusBuild said:

I would love to try and do the skimming, but having just ordered 4 pallets of plasterboard (and that is not the final total)  I think I will be calling someone in to do it especially as 260m² of that plasterboard is on the ceilings - there ain't no way I'm going there especially with my shoulders now in the state they are from the build so far.

I have also been thinking about whether or not to make a crack at plastering or trying to learn T&J, to save money on this part of the build, but I just don’t think I have the strength or stamina, and I don’t want the walls to look crap 🤦‍♀️ 

 

[AliG]

Our house is skimmed at enormous cost.

 

My parent's house is T&J.

 

The T&J is a better finish in my opinion. The skim is much more prone to cracks appearing through expansion and contraction between seasons. Sometimes random hairline cracks appear in our walls, that look like stress cracks in glass. There are no joins under these cracks, simply plaster is very very rigid and prone to cracking. Skimming badly done leaves a whole wall a mess, we needed multiple areas replastered, at least with T&J the wall should be fine between the joins.

 

However, I have lived in a developer built house where you could see all the joins in the taped ceilings, so it does have to be done well. We had a leak above one room and the decorator who repaired the ceiling did it immaculately and it became by far the best ceiling in the house.

 

 

[joe90]

My build was skimmed and the decorator said he had never seen a new build with so few cracks (none).

[Crofter]

One thing I really like about a full skim is that it's pretty easy to repair, e.g. if you need to move a socket and fill the old hole. Getting a seamless join between the filler and the plaster is dead easy, whereas on bare plasterboard the paper/filler join almost always remains visible.

[DanielJ]

I would defo skim it. I did mine and am only a novice diyer, but with practice, and a good trowel I did a reasonable job.  If you are doing it yourself make sure you joint tape the boards together and allow 10 days to dry then mist coat it.  Good luck!