First Skimming job

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seanreay1986

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Skimming a relatives dining room, first time skimming by myself having done a little polishing etc before,

You guy's got any tips for me to get the best finish possible,

Regards,
 
Re: First Simming job

never done a simming job......lol

Take your time, dont worry too much about setting times and remember ceiling lines and corners.

Good luck ;)

Regards

Danny
 
mix up
lay on
clean corners
flatten it
mix up AGAIN! bout 1/3rd of what you put on first time
lay it on thin
clean corners
flatten it
clean buckets tools
trowel it
clean floor, any splashes
trowel it
cup of tea
trowel it
you now have a perfect wall
easy innit
:)
 
they were the do's
here are the don'ts
dont panic
dont stay in one place tryin to get it perfect first time, it gets better by degrees work on the surface as a whole
dont leave hollows/defects too long, they will give you heartache
dont put it on too thin first time
dont put it on too thick either (waste of plaster)
dont forget 2 coats pva if youre overskimming
dont forget to eat breakfast
and last but definately not least....
DONT forget to get paid!
 
So you recommend putting the plaster on in 2 coats?

Any other handy tips on how to get the best finish, last room i did came up with quite a few blemishes

Cheers
 
aha! you just answered your own question!
always 2 coat unless youre only in it for the money and u can definately get away with it and youll never see the site agent/customer again.. :D
lay on your first coat, then when its gone a bit go over it with your biggest trowel, youll take 90 percent if not all of the lines/ridges/hollows out at this point
then when you mix up again, the setting time is different, gives you a better chance and a much better finish
any hollows etc will be filled in now (think 'first coat gets it flat, the second even flatter)...
if you top it with the same mix youll acheive a better finish than 1 coat but nowhere near as good as with 2nd coat new mix..
youll be surprised at how easy youll make it for yourself...
youll also be surprised at out of flat your wall was after the first coat when you top it...
tip - keep your trowel as flat as you can for as long as you can, if youre pulling plaster back off the wall in large amounts as you flatten/trowel it, your too steep...
keeping a shallow angle will flatten the wall for you so when you come to finish it the jobs easy...
takes practice keeping a shallow angle as youll have a tendency to go too shallow and stick the trowel to the wall, pulling of lumps of plaster when you remove it...
go slowly and deliberately
 
So,

Should the second coat get rid of the little blemishes that are left when you try and 1 coat it,

Also, does anyone know if there are any quick videos on the net that i could view to get a better idea,

Cheers
 
Cheers Danny, i will have a look at it

Also, this is the way i have worked, any tips/help will be great

Mix Plaster
Spread it on
smoot over a little
let it stiffen up
wet it
and then polish it

I have only 1 coated the room and you can see quite a few blemishes but not bad for my first time

Cheers
 
christ, the training center that teaches one coating need s shooting.... absolute tosh.... its hard enough to get it in 2 coats!!

I would go back and glue and re skim! but do a 2 coat this time you could spend a day or so with aims filling but real waste of time

Danny
 
Personally danny i am with you on the 2 coat. but saying that i was on a site in cardiff a few years back and there was a spread there who 1 coated every thing and to this day i couldnt figure out how he did it, but it was the best plastering i have ever seen. All the board was tapered edge, and even with 2 coat it still some times shrinks back, but he never had any of that, and there was not even a blemmish or water mark nothing at all in any of his work. It seemed like it was all one colour all over and you couldnt see where he'd been laying on. Ive worked with alot of spreads over the years, some of the best, and some of the worst, and haven't come across anyone who could get the same finish as him. He wasnt the fastest spread but by no means he wasnt the slowest either.
 
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