Whether to skim coat or not and referrals
Hello. We live in an 1870s brownstone and need to repaint our living room. It’s quite big, 13 by 22 feet plus 11 feet tall walls. We didn’t skim coat when we first moved in and there are some ripples and textures to the wall. I know skim coating generally looks much cleaner and nicer. But one painter I talked to didn’t want to take the job bc he said skim coating makes a huge mess with sanding etc, and it’s best not to do it when people are living there. We were hoping to have the painting done when we are away for a week in late April. Any experiences skim coating you can share and referrals for painting crews? Thanks!
pitythefool
in General Discussion 3 years and 2 months ago
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18 replies
stevecym | 3 years and 2 months ago
Ok. I assume that this person is a top shelf pro by what you have said about them. And just so you know, when done right spraying offers the best finish. I suspect he is doing this so it looks good. Smooth like an auto finish. Cars and furniture and cabinets are sprayed, btw. Moldings that are ordered pre finished or preprimed are sprayed. That is why the finish is so uniform.
But there are people in this world who spray because it is faster to do than rolling and when they spray the interiors of houses, they make a mess.
So long as this person is in the former group, you will be pleased. I do believe this person is going to do a good job.
pitythefool | 3 years and 2 months ago
Thanks all for your input. Super helpful! Followed the consensus and went with the plasterer we know who is going to skim coat and then spray the paint? He says it comes out looking great. It is a great investment in the house I think, not just cosmetically but also to preserve it. Want to be a good steward since it’s from 1870.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 2 months ago
colonial, would you post the name of your contractor here?
also, to the “ripples and textures” that i saw mentioned. we had that here on some walls that had no other physical damage (no cracks and no missing plaster). a lot of “ripples and textures” come from people who use high nap rollers. we see this in houses where owners paint themselves and just wanted to get the job done. landlords do it as well in rentals. they use the high nap rollers because they hold a lot of paint and can race through the job. they also make a mess of the walls.
with the ripples and textures, they are very easy to skim coat and require little sanding or sponging (when done right). i did it here in the room i am sitting in and recall that i sanded off the high spots (ripples) a little before i began. i might have sanded the textures a little as well, but be aware, latex paint does not sand well and if there is lead in the older paint (which may be old lead base paint), you will have other issues so do not direct a contractor to sand these things down without knowing what is there (assume there is lead there; if the walls are pre 1970’s there is lead in there). After taking some of the higher spots off with sand paper, i took a wide knife and drywall compound and went over these walls with a super thin coat. just enough to cover the texture. the walls are still fine 16 years later.
the approach i mention above will only work with walls that are not missing plaster and otherwise have no physical damage. if your walls are in that sort of condition and need no other plaster work (the coat/mesh/coat/coat) a good painter can do this. i mean a really good painter (a trained tradesperson, not the kind of “painters” we have running around the city today). if you have damage (unkeyed plaster, missing plaster), you need a plaster person. finding a good painter today is nearly impossible because all of the shoddy painters have run the good ones out of business. you would have better luck playing lotto.
colonialrevival | 3 years and 2 months ago
We had our whole house skimmed in the early months of the pandemic and got a nice deal from a respected plasterer who needed to make up for a few months of lost income. Even if we didn’t get a deal on it, it is worth the investment, and the quality of your paint job will be vastly improved as a result. Like all home things, there is mess, and it is invasive.
Good luck.
Guest User | 3 years and 2 months ago
I think skim coating would make a huge difference, but you could paint it yourself afterwards and save a lot of money.
cate | 3 years and 2 months ago
Does 10K include the painting? You might have a hard time finding someone to do all of this for less who also will do it right. Even a few years ago you could pay $3K for a room not including the ceiling.
stevecym | 3 years and 2 months ago
The 3 step process with the mesh is a bit of work. They sound super experienced though and you know this person and their work. If you trust this person in your house, that might be worth the difference between their quote and the next persons.
If that person sponges like cate is suggesting, all the more better.
cate | 3 years and 2 months ago
OP, the plaster person who described the process and repaired your ceiling certainly sounds like he knows what he is doing and is reliable. 10K is not out of line, though it is probably on the high end of the range (this bid does not include the ceiling or the painting, right?) Whether or not you can find people to do it the right way for less and to do it now who are available, I am not sure. Maybe. (We recently had work done by someone we have used in the past and costs had tripled but also the focus of his work had changed.) You could certainly interview a few and see what they say. Unlikely they will do both plastering and painting.
ceci | 3 years and 2 months ago
It seems you’ve done the research and now its up to you to decide the next step….. I feel any money spent to improve your home is money well spent.
pitythefool | 3 years and 2 months ago
Thanks for all these responses. I got an estimate from a plaster person who does one base layer, then mesh, then two more layers, then painting. It’s quite a lot of money. Like 10k for a large double parlor, 13 by 22 with walls that are 11 feet high. Does that seem in a normal range. He did the plaster repair when our ceiling fell down and I know he does top notch work that will last for decades, but trying to balance the $ and the quality. It seems most other contractors either do painting or plastering but not both, which means more coordination, two different scaffolding setups, etc.
cate | 3 years and 2 months ago
Also, “ripples and textures” may or may not be an original finish or the result of patching over the years. If it’s really deep, skim coating to a smooth level may create other issues.
cate | 3 years and 2 months ago
Talk to some plaster experts (not drywall and not painters who don’t also do plaster). They should not be doing any sanding whatsoever except with a wet sponge. There are also a lot of procedures they have to follow for success, and they have to know what they are doing or they will ruin your plaster. It is a big, messy undertaking. You have to seal the the room off from the rest of the house, but dust will nonetheless seep out. Won’t you have to be there to supervise, let them in and out, and keep an eye on your things? If the room doesn’t definitely need it, you might be better off without it. It is also somewhat costly. About the same as painting.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 2 months ago
for those reading what i wrote about those of us who object to wet sanding: i do have a portable multi filter hepa dust collection system for sanding wood when i work on doors.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 2 months ago
op, i do have a painter who is a professional and he is very particular. he used to have a crew and the crew was pretty good themselves. but this person is now on his own and most of his work is done on the east side of manhattan (read that along with him being particular, he is pricey). if people think they might want to talk to someone like this, i could post his name. if he is going to do something, it will get done right (the old fashioned way). understand what that means though and i have never posted his name because i do not want him running around giving out prices that people are not prepared to pay.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 2 months ago
wet sanding is how they want us to do a lot of things today. for safety reasons. some of us do not like it for other reasons that may not be justifiable in the modern health conscious world.
i did not run lead tests on my walls, i just assumed it was there anyway and OP if anyone is going to work on or skim coat your walls it is ever possible that there will be high spots they hit – if the surface is uneven – where they take old paint off. this can release old lead paint dust.
there are special sanders for walls that attach to dust collection systems that can capture quite a bit of it. the sanders themselves are big and round, designed to smooth out large areas. i do believe festool now makes one. there are others. they are worth considering and most contractors who do this all the time will probably have such a system.
Rick | 3 years and 2 months ago
Wet sanding has always worked for me. No dust! Perhaps it takes more time but well worth the trouble.
andriywww1990 | 3 years and 2 months ago
because of what you say about the mess, i did everything that had to be done to the first floor walls here – and they all needed work (replace missing plaster and full skim) – before we moved in. it was a disaster. unless an entire wall needs it, it might be possible to spot work the issues and sometimes this can lead to a massive improvement.
On the second floor of this hour, i spot treated the worst areas, taped cracks and replastered places damaged by a leak. now, every time we repaint these rooms, I spend a little time (a day before i plan to paint) working on spots and that can make a big difference. i also tend to focus LESS on spots that are hidden behind a bookcase or desk or dresser. In 14 years of being here, and now 3 repaintings in each room later (including the first go around when we moved in) the walls look almost perfect.
not so long ago, in my lifetime, we had professional painters. before they began any job they inspected the walls, filled damage, taped and finished cracks, and sanded rough spots (they lightly sanded the trim as well, and they dusted it off). every wall they were doing had some kind of repair work on it. every wall. and as these were drying, they were cutting in the walls with a brush. the cost of this repair work was not immense and it was built in to the job as a matter of course. now a days, the painters we have lack dedication to their trade. no one is trying to do any next job better than the last one. it is fast money, get in, recoat paint before it has dried properly, get it done, get paid, get out. hopefully you have someone who is dedicated to what they do but if they are pushing back against skim coating and it really needs to be done, i question their commitment to their trade.
a week in april may not be enough time to do this if you must skim coat. but if you can post some photographs of the walls, take some shots at angles to show the damage and circle the damage on the photo editor and perhaps some of us on here who have been through can help you decide if you MUST skim coat or if you can do it piecemeal. i will know very quickly because i used to do a lot of this and have done all the walls in this house. we might also be able to tell if the issue is the painter and his simple willingness to do more than run a brush and roller around like a first grader.
ceci | 3 years and 2 months ago
Definitely skim coat for a great look!! Look up in the forum search under skim coat and u will find recommendations for companies in this forum!!!