wall finishing

[gunner89]

Im redecorating my room where my entertaiment gear is situated and my work station, i tried the route of smoothing the walls down as best i could and using lining paper, im not too happy with the finish so i was thinking about having the room re skimmed, it's only a 5m x 4m room, i was wondering how much this would cost?

Thanks

[mtbkr]

is this a question for the bluray forums or the diy network. kind of a mistery what you are talking about.

[tlmaclennan]

Well considering this is the Home Theater Construction section I think his question fits just fine...

Wait so you were trying to fill in holes or did you install some new drywall and you attempted "mucking", where you fill in the cracks between each sheet of drywall to make it one continuous wall? Sounds to me like you are mucking. I've heard many hire a professional for this as it's very time consuming and hard. Not sure how much though, maybe $100-500 I would say.

[gunner89]

thanks for the reply, no basically i stripped old textured wallpaper and the plaster underneath is in good condition but not smooth enough for my liking, and i want it basically smoothed over, would i be able to do this with a finishing plaster?

[anntong]

not sure,maybe not expencive.....

[matthewrounds]

How about some pictures?

[gunner89]

Here is a picture of the wall, it shows the plaster and part of the wall that has been lined with lining paper and painted. As you can see the plaster isn't in the worst condition but not good enough for painting onto without lining paper, i was just wondering what would be the next step to make this smooth enough to paint.




Thanks

[VinnAY]

As someone that's messed with wall plaster/mud/paint recreationally more than just a little bit, I'm going to say that you can't go from textured wall to smooth. The other way around, yes, but not what you're trying to do. That would look good atleast, or atleast like it had never been textured. You'd probably be much better off to bring in a pro for their opinion.

[gunner89]

The previous finish wasn't a textured wall, it was textured wallpaper, so after its off there is no texture, just walls that need to be smoothed. I just need to know how to do that.

Thanks

[VinnAY]

sheetrock, yes?

[gunner89]

no its brick then plaster, not drywall/sheetrock

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by gunner89

The previous finish wasn't a textured wall, it was textured wallpaper, so after its off there is no texture, just walls that need to be smoothed. I just need to know how to do that.

Thanks

Have you used the "T" shaped razor-blade-scraper yet? That will smooth stuff in a hurry.....

Plus, you should try a solvent to remove the glue etc...

and skim-coating is easy to do yourself...... just random-orbital sander the hell out of it if you have high spots

[gunner89]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

Have you used the "T" shaped razor-blade-scraper yet? That will smooth stuff in a hurry.....

Plus, you should try a solvent to remove the glue etc...

and skim-coating is easy to do yourself...... just random-orbital sander the hell out of it if you have high spots

thanks for the help much appreciated, one more question though, what is the best tool for applying the skim coat?

Thanks

[big akita]

Use a 10"-12" taping knife to apply a skim coat of topping compound. The "mud" is usually too thick to apply right out of the box, so add some water to make it easier to apply. Sand with drywall sanding paper. You can get a sanding attachment that fits on a shop vac to keep the dust down.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by gunner89

thanks for the reply, no basically i stripped old textured wallpaper and the plaster underneath is in good condition but not smooth enough for my liking, and i want it basically smoothed over, would i be able to do this with a finishing plaster?

Yes, you can re-skim the walls, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're trying to preserve the authenticity of a vintage-era home. My first house was built in 1906, and it had horrific wallpaper in every room. My wife and I wanted to remove the paper and paint all the rooms. The good news is that the wall paper came off easily. Too easily, in fact, because the walls underneath were rough unfinished plaster. It looked like a prison.

Anyway, we had a friend whose father was a plasterer. He showed us how to do it, and we re-plastered the finishing coat in the entire house. The amount of sanding it takes to smooth out the walls is staggering. When it came to the ceiling in my son's room, we bid it out, and instead of being re-plastered, a thin drywall was used. The job was completed in half a day, and that included hanging the boards, taping, mucking, and sanding.

Sorry to go so long with this, but I would recommend considering a thin dry wall instead of re-finishing the plaster. I've done both, and I'll never re-plaster again.

[CD82]

another helpful tip you can go to lowes and look in the book section. there are books like drywal in easy steps. stanley has a good set of books out there as well. that might give you some tips and hints

ive been around drywallin taping and bedding for a long time.

sanding the stuff down can be a mess in an earlier reply. someone stated the shopvac sanding attachments. they work very nicely and help keep down alot of dust.


there is also a different way to go as well besides doing mud work over plaster.

there is this stuff out called newall and its a paste type of stuff. and then you buy rolls of fiberglass sheets.

put the paste on the wall put the sheets over the wall then apply the paste. it drys with a differnt type of texture then the plaster you then could paint it or whatnot.

if you want to use joint-compound/mud thre are two well knowen textures
orange peel when done correctly will look exactly like the peel of an orange.

and then what some of us call knock down or spanish drag. when done correctly can look very nice (in my opinion). if ya get some books it will tell ya how to prepare the mud.
this is a method how i was showen by my dad which is very good.
spray the texture on the wall with a hopper and air compressor an let it sit a few. then go back and drag it and it knocks the bloches down smooth.

ive seen the spanish drag texture done where they mix paint. with the mud and spray it with a hopper


hope this isnt too complex an hope it might give you some ideas.

even if you dont want to do it ya self you might have some ideas of what to tell someone in the drywall buisness

[mattym]

wallpaper stripper and a plasterer is all you need. Depending on what you need i wouldnt think it would be that much though.