Is This Room Ready for Sanding?

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

D725A

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
98
Reaction score
6
Hired a contractor to remove wallpaper, plaster and paint living room and hall. He says having put two coats of skim coat--in some areas with mesh--he's ready to sand tomorrow. However in looking closely at the work, I've found mesh showing in dozens of places--meaning to me there's only one layer of skim coat, some very sloppy work uner the windows and near stairs, and some hardened drops from the plaster weld that were allowed to drip. Where it looks sloppy I'm guessing he mixed in extra plaster for strength which then dried before he could smooth it out. Is this all correctable by sanding? Surely if the mesh is visible now, sanding will make it more visible. I hope i can attach photos.

DSCN3987ed.jpg

DSCN3982ed.jpg
 
I'm no expert by any means with plaster but I have hung my fair share of dry wall .
I would ask him to put on another layer to fill the mesh if he sands it now he will just remove more plaster making the mesh more visible .
 
Thanks Tyler for your answer. FYI this is an old plaster wall but I think your advice stands. So since it would be hard to identify every area where mesh is showing he'd have to put another complete skim coat on yes? I guess looking at a white wall can be a bit stupefying after awhile, so plasterers must have a trick to systemtically cover a certain area then move right or left so they know they covered everything.
 
Another thought would be let him sand now and go back over it again with a skim coat more time to do it like that but it would be the same as having him apply another coat before sanding . Just make sure he dose fill the voids one way or another .
 
Are you sure the "contractor" is a professional? That's one of the worst examples I've seen.
Do what Neal says, lock up the check book.
 
I've done tons of drywall repair and skim coating. That's a horrible job and will not be fixed by sanding. Your contractor is clearly not a skilled at skim coating, and if nothing more is done, other than sanding, you'll have a very poor job. You'll be sorry if you accept that work.
 
Thanks for your replies. I ended up calling in a known plastering expert for an opinion. The pictures I showed were the worst areas; the advice was to chop it out and start again in those areas. Also since I had found so many areas of mesh showing after the 2nd coat, the advisor said you could spot-coat those areas, sand then oil prime but that he would just do add on another complete skimcoat, which is that my contractor did and now it all looks quite good. The areas in the photos look much better now after sanding and recoating. i'll send photos when the job is done. These projects always remind me how the homeowner has to do his research and sometimes consult with experts --online like here and/or in person--to move the job along. I often write my own contracts which I try to make as clear as possible. Next time I will specify three layers of skim coat from the get-go.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top