ItвЂ™s an easy way to create flat and uniform surfaces on walls and ceilings so they can be painted or re-textured. Then itвЂ™s smoothed out by using a drywall knife or trowel. Skim coat, also known as a level-five drywall finish, is a thin coat of diluted joint compound that can be applied by hand, paint roller or spray rig. What is skim coat-Advantages And Disadvantages What is skim coat? I love the finished look of my smooth, wallpapered walls.AuthorпјљANT CONSTRUCTIONSгЂЂComefromпјљгЂЂCreatedateпјљ 15:46:14гЂЂHitsпјљ 1068 Once the walls are smoothed and sanded, youвЂ™re ready to paint or add wallpaper! These can all be carefully smoothed with some sandpaper. Once the skim coat has dried, examine it for major rough areas, or fallen globs of mud. I decided against skim coating the ceiling (IвЂ™m planning to add some wood planks eventually). I used the ladder to reach the tops of the walls. The joint compound is super easy to clean-up once itвЂ™s dry, because itвЂ™s basically dried powder. To skim coat around the tile and fixtures, I taped it all off as I would have had I been painting. I was able to start and finish the bathroom skim coat in about 4 hours. With the large knife and some efficient scraping, youвЂ™ll be able to make great time. DonвЂ™t worry, youвЂ™ll easily be able to smooth those out further as the coating dries, and even add more mud if you need to.ДЄs you finish spreading in one area, scoop another inch or so of mud and move onto the next area.

You can see that the compound can have bubbles in it, and you may notice some air bubbles forming as you spread the mud on the walls. You can see the difference between the skim-coated surface on the bottom of this shot, and the textured wall below. As it dries, the compound becomes harder to scrape, so the final swipes with the taping knife can create a fairly smooth surface without a bunch of seam lines. Work in about a 2-foot area by pulling the compound down and down, then back and forth in smooth motions until it begins to set a little bit. Scraping right on top of the existing texture, pulling the compound down the wall will start to fill the holes in the texture and create a smooth surface. YouвЂ™ll find that the long taping knife makes creating a smooth surface pretty simple. Once you have the mud in the pan, use the longer taping knife to scoop a couple inches of compound up, then with the mud facing the wall, simply spread in a smooth motion down the wall. The process of layering it onto the wall is also a little like smoothing peanut butter onto a piece of bread and going all different directions until it stays perfectly smooth. It has the texture of creamy peanut butter. Scoop some of the pre-mixed compound into the mud pan.

All-Purpose Joint Compound вЂ“В (Sold at Home Depot вЂ“ bucket is is the best.).

To smooth your textured walls with a skim coat, you will need: I looked at a few tutorials before attempting on my own, and as I began I actually developed a little different method that really worked quickly and easily. The texture itself is made of a spray-on joint compound, and since my walls were painted with a flat paint, I had no prep work before I got started. It refers to spreading a layer of joint compound over the walls to fill in the bumps and valleys in the texture, effectively creating a smooth surface. The process of smoothing textured walls with skim coating is fairly common. Here is the bathroom before.В I was told that the walls get this orange peelВ texture treatment to hide imperfections in the sheetrock seams, but IвЂ™ve lived in a lot of places with sheetrock and flat walls, so IвЂ™m not sure what is really going on. The cost of supplies and doing it myself put the total investment around $50 and 5 hours. You can hire a painter to smooth textured walls, but the cost for labor would have put the project out of my budget. Adding the skim coat to smooth the textured walls was super inexpensive and a very simple process. I started the process in this small bathroom, where I was planning to add some fun jackalope wallpaper, but couldnвЂ™t wallpaper over the thick texture.В After lots of research I determined that a simple skim coat would do the trick to smooth the walls enough to add the paper. So, IвЂ™ve decided to tackle the texture myself by smoothing it out with a skim coat before I paint or wallpaper each room. Where I grew up in Utah, walls were always smooth, and the heavy texture that seems to be the norm in Texas and many other southern states feels unfinished to me. Before moving to Texas and building a house, I didnвЂ™t realize the wide variety of texture finishes that are possible on drywall.

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