# Skim coat



## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

Ahhhh Skim Coating...lol

Right now its work. Have a job to look at on tuesday. Its to skim coat about 6300 sf of wall space. The wall had wall paper on it.I have done small jobs of skim coating on my own, But never this big. 
What Iam thinking is sand it 80 grit. And use a paint roller to put the mud on and wipe off with a knife.Or use my squeege. 

Is there a better and faster way? 

Thanks


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## Whitey97 (Jan 27, 2009)

paint it all with gaurdz, or oil base paint first. That will seal everything in behind it. then skim away! your paint roller thing would be a good idea, just wipe it clean with your knock down blade


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

Whitey97 said:


> paint it all with gaurdz, or oil base paint first. That will seal everything in behind it. then skim away! your paint roller thing would be a good idea, just wipe it clean with your knock down blade


 Will it bubble (pin holes) over the paint or oil base?


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## Whitey97 (Jan 27, 2009)

nope


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Al, did the wallpaper removal yield a bunch of brown paper? If the wallpaper was put on without seizing(pronounced sizing), chances are some of the hide pulled. That brown paper will swell up and continue to be problematic. Try some spray contact adhesive then piss-coat with quickset. Skim away.

The adhesive seals that brown paper and stops it from bubbling up after successive coats. Your job maybe too large for this and primer maybe more cost effective. But it works really well on a room or two.


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

I havent seen it yet.. It was done 13 years ago. Not sure what it looks like. Will see it tuesday.. My uncle is a paint and he says go with the gurdz. It the best stuff to use..


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## Apple24 (Jul 17, 2008)

on that big of a job prime it and spray with mark 5 wait a day, spray again. sand it following day. even if it looks like orange peel it wiil sand off smooth. Save your arm troweling it on with quickset. Small jobs i trowel 2 coats of durabond and sand perfect everytime first coat ya want to leave some mud on the wall second pull tight


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## Custom Drywall Svc. (Oct 31, 2008)

Whitey97 said:


> paint it all with gaurdz, or oil base paint first. That will seal everything in behind it. then skim away! your paint roller thing would be a good idea, just wipe it clean with your knock down blade


Yea, this is roughly my method as well....

Wallpaper on a job can range from being 'bad' to 'nightmarish'.....mostly because you do not know what condition the walls will be in after wallpaper is removed.

i specifically remember a commercial job i had like this. we all thought it was going to be a nightmare once the demo contractor pulled down the wallpaper and we saw the condition of the walls. i immediately said to myself "f-ck.....i didnt bid this job high enough. i'll be lucky to break even at this point"

so yea, i was admittedly starting to sweat bullets thinking of how our company was going to tackle the poor condition of the walls. i knew just drywall mud wouldnt do it.....we tried a small sample area, about 4 x 4.......and nearly after FOUR coats on this sample area, the freakin walls were still bubbling. i was starting to panic quite honestly. especially since i had literally 3 days before i had to spray texture these walls as if they were new.

like ****** mentioned, an oil based paint eventually came to mind ....primarily zinnser shellac based primer. we got a couple rollers, rolled it on all the wall area....let it set for about an hour..........and immediately we were able to skim coat with drywall mud.

the job literally went from 'underbid' to a major success, which meant i made more than the margins i had calculated in.

with the shellac, the job was smooth sailing after that......we only did a QUARTER of the work that i had initially bid for, which is always good.

thanks to the primer, we simply put just ONE coat of drywall mud after to skim the walls, came back to sand the next day.......and the following day came in with the spray gun to complete it.

even the general commented to me how he was surprised we were able to work under the strict timeline and conditions (this was a new years eve crunch schedule -- nice.)


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

From what I was told its going to go in phases. So I guess a few rooms at a time. So my plan is sand the walls with 80 then prime with gaurdz and one coat of mud sand touch up done.. I was thinking of .75 pf for just labor. Would you thing to high or too low? On 6300 sf 
Thanks


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

The beauty of the contact cement is that it dries really fast and we've always got it on the truck and wouldn't have rollers or airless to clean-up. But again, probably best only on the smaller jobs. 

Didn't know about the zinnser shellac-based drying so quickly. Will have to try that sometime.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Gee Al, that's $4725. And in how many phases? Think you'd be okay if you got it all at once, but if they've got you coming back say four times.... that's like 1200 per. And maybe you're still okay, but if its an occupied home and you're masking and controlling dust... sounds low then.


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> Gee Al, that's $4725. And in how many phases? Think you'd be okay if you got it all at once, but if they've got you coming back say four times.... that's like 1200 per. And maybe you're still okay, but if its an occupied home and you're masking and controlling dust... sounds low then.


Okay here is the story so far.. It a police station. The company that called me to do the work is a union company. I worked for them as a worker from sept 08 to Jan 09. As a union worker. Now I got a call from the PM to give them a price to do this work on my own. Now the job is union or pervailing wage. So I want to get this job and get me up and running with the union too. Where I already spoke to my union rep about signing up as a union company. 
With .75 a foot just tryin to get a base price. If I go with material it still high. Your right.. I will have to just look at it and see what each phase is and see what I can get done...


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

Well I looked at it and the walls are primed after the wallpaper came off. So As I was calling around to the supply houses to find gray level 5 skimming mud. I called AMES and the guy there was talking to me about using a sprayer to put the skim coat on.He says it faster. And if i rent the sprayer he will come and give me a demo on it.Has anyone use it a sprayer for a mud? And it it hard to use?

Side note the guy at AMES said he can do 8000 sf of spraying in a day. My job is 6300 sf... 
And the sprayer is $100. per day to rent.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Jump on Al, we sprayed some 14000 in a day once. Work the Ames guy down if you can, but 100 a day is reasonable. Freeman rep would bring it for free if you buy his Speed-Skim.


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## Al Taper (Dec 16, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> Jump on Al, we sprayed some 14000 in a day once. Work the Ames guy down if you can, but 100 a day is reasonable. Freeman rep would bring it for free if you buy his Speed-Skim.


The job is in a office space that is done already..I have to tape off the doors and ceiling. And repair the walls before the skiming.. I think it is a good idea too.. Is it hard to get the hang of it?
Do you spray on mud or the mud and primer mix?


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

Probably the mud first with a Mark IV or V and sand smooth and then can use mech smaller airless for primer. If epoxy to follow I don't think you want to backroll, check with painter/specs.


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## brdn_drywall (Apr 25, 2008)

apple you don't put 2 coats of mud on new construction using mark5 do you?
I find with a slow but steady overlapping fan putts a great coat of mud built up enough that you can sand off the orange peel for a smooth wall, not getting to far down where you've taken too much off.


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## Apple24 (Jul 17, 2008)

no but in that situation i would, to tell ya truth I never spray a skim on all surfaces unless have to. My builders usually have the painter put a good prime coat of tuff hide or something simular. Dont get me wrong I can use a sprayer but I'm no painter, although I usually just spray it on and wipe tight with trowel. I have done a few ceilings where I just sprayed it and left it, wasn't quite orange peel but looked like and old sand plastrer texture. BUILDER LOVED IT PAINTER HATED IT


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## Apple24 (Jul 17, 2008)

i put my 3rd coat on with sprayer every time beats rolling. Sometimes I'l still use the 12'' box for seams they dont come out as well but heah hasnt been much new const in West Michigan


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## Custom Drywall Svc. (Oct 31, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Gee Al, that's $4725. And in how many phases? Think you'd be okay if you got it all at once, but if they've got you coming back say four times.... that's like 1200 per. And maybe you're still okay, but if its an occupied home and you're masking and controlling dust... sounds low then.


 
exactly. i was just going to type that....one shot is fine, but in phases....youll get killed.


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## Custom Drywall Svc. (Oct 31, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> The beauty of the contact cement is that it dries really fast and we've always got it on the truck and wouldn't have rollers or airless to clean-up. But again, probably best only on the smaller jobs.
> 
> Didn't know about the zinnser shellac-based drying so quickly. Will have to try that sometime.


 
the shellac dries in like....45 mins


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## rayjhd (Jun 20, 2010)

*skiming*

Look We do this every day. We remove wall paper and skim and paint. The time tested and trust me the easiest way is this. 
Remove all the wall paper, go to home depot or some other rental place and rent you a porter cable drywall sander. Sand the entire wall with 80 grit. Then seal the walls before anything else with good sealer. Then skim and sand till smooth. seal with cheap sealer. Then the secret to all good drywall Firstcoat. Usg ruco and any other drywall store will have it. It removes the shine from the skim and fills small imperfections. It can also be sanded if you want your walls smooth as a babys bottom. This has been my only job for the last three years so we learned to get good at it 
hope it helps


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## Bill from Indy (Apr 26, 2010)

you may check your local sherwin williams for a product called drywall conditioner...it works like gardz but may be cheaper in larger quantities.

if you don't have a lot of prep to do, spraying would be a lot faster. But if you have a lot of ceilings and doors to mask off, it may be just as fast to pay a grunt to roll in front of you and use a rubber knife.

.75/sf is fair if you don't have a lot of repair work to do first. If you have to prime whole area or do a lot of conditioning (gardz), I would go a buck personally


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