To skim coat or not?
I am having two light fixtures installed in my living room and one in my bedroom. The skim coating is putting me significantly over my renovation budget. My contractor said that I could skip the skim coating and it would look “ok, but not perfect” in the spaces where the wall was broken into. I’m…
I am having two light fixtures installed in my living room and one in my bedroom. The skim coating is putting me significantly over my renovation budget. My contractor said that I could skip the skim coating and it would look “ok, but not perfect” in the spaces where the wall was broken into. I’m having trouble deciding whether to spend the money to skim coat because I don’t know what the difference would look like. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Any advice on skim coating concrete ceiling of my so-called-soft loft condo? It’s rough, uneven, showing seam lines and even the pattern of the plywood they used before drying. My condo is less than 800 sf but would it be too expensive ? -H
Thanks- this is very helpful!
The ceilings are approximately ten feet high. I believe the electrician would go up the wall in two places in the living/dining room and one place in the bedroom and then over to the light fixture (center of the room, three to ten feet over, depending on the room).
The wall areas will be or could be covered partially by paintings or furniture. But not entirely.
don’t bother, use flat paint. Depending on the location and the way the light hits the wall/ceiling, it will either bug the hell out of you or you won’t notice, but you have to live there to know for sure. Chances are you are going to want to change the color in a year or two anyway as you settle in and re-think the space. You can have it done at that point if it still bothers you.
If this is for your ceiling the obviousness of the lack of skim coating depends on the height – how far away is the ceiling?
If it’s 15′ you probably won’t notice unless you use a really glossy paint that reflects more light and highlights the different textures.
I didn’t skim coat on my very low ceilings and I can tell the difference but it doesn’t bug me enough to fix it just yet. I didn’t do it on very tall ceilings and I never noticed it. I see it on the low ceilings when I look at the ceilings at an angle, not straight up.
What is skim coating?
I could be wrong but if you have larger areas that need patching and you don’t do a skim coat covering, its going to be very obvious when repainted because of the “flashing” effect.
Are these areas going to be covered by paintings or furniture? If so, then its probably fine to just do a patch.
Having said all that about skim coating. In your situation, patching a few holes for new light fixtures and skim coating those areas should not be such a big expense. I would think you’re getting higher estimates than you imagined because it will still take a few trips to your apartment between coats, sanding & priming.
Skim coating is expensive because it takes a great deal of time & skill to look perfect. It takes many layered coats to look great. Often there is a great amount of surface area to be covered too. This takes much more time than most people would think. Many contractors ( like myself ) would rather just patch damaged plaster or use sheetrock. Often this looks fine but many of my clients like the polished look of plaster. If you don’t want the added expense of skim coating at this time, put it off. You could always do it later.
In my opinion, Skim coating is WAY OVER ESTIMATED! and OVER PRICED. just have it patched up. it will look fine!