#Cement skim coat wall professional#

As you proceed to apply plaster to adjacent areas, keep in mind that plastering shares with painting the old rule, “Keep a wet edge.” Work in one direction, picking up where you left off.A third pass on the diagonal may be necessary.Work the surface over in parallel strokes, then do it again perpendicular to the previous pass.Apply more pressure this time (you may, in fact, remove as much plaster as you are applying in this pass). Once it’s covered, go back over it with a small amount of plaster on your trowel.Cover the area thoroughly, without worrying a great deal about smoothing it.Push the plaster gently along the surface, with one long side of the trowel flush.Working with a small amount on the trowel, apply the plaster to the wall with the tool held at a low angle to the surface.Start with an area no larger than three feet square. Don’t attempt to do too big an area at first, either. Load up a hawk: Not too much at first, no more than you can handle. It will outlast most other brushes, and will help in the smoothing process when applied directly to the plaster, because it has no bristles to fall out or to mark the surface.

It has a pair of felt pads and sponges a surprising amount of water. WATER BRUSHĪny high-quality brush will suffice for splashing water onto a plaster surface to be smoothed, but I favor a purpose-made blister brush ( view example on Amazon). The top is square with rounded corners several sizes are available (12, 13 or 14 inches square), but to begin smaller is probably better. The hawk has a flat top surface made of magnesium or aluminum, with a wooden or plastic handle beneath. The hawk is held in one hand, a trowel in the other. This tool acts as a reservoir for the plasterer as he or she applies the material to the wall or ceiling ( view example on Amazon). To start with, though, a joint-compound corner trowel, if you have one on hand, will prove quite adequate. To begin with, a pair of tools, one perhaps two inches and another four inches wide, will be sufficient. There are many purpose-made plastering trowels available, with short blades and narrow blades, trowel handles and scraper handles, at inexpensive prices and higher ones. If trowels are new to you, however, some practice will be required to master the coordination required in manipulating plaster with the tool. If you’ve used a similarly shaped trowel to smooth cement or apply mortar, the heft and feel of the trowel will be familiar. It can be purchased in a number of different sizes, but a four-by-10-inch trowel is a manageable size for beginning plasterers. This tool has a flat, rectangular steel blade, with a wooden handle mounted along the center of its back ( view example on Amazon). Mixing equipment will be required, too, including an empty joint compound bucket or the equivalent, and a mixer bit for your drill.

a brush for applying water during final smoothing.

a narrow trowel (or wallboard knife) for smoothing small areas and finishing around pipes.

a carrier called a hawk, with its square top surface and handle below.

#Cement skim coat wall professional#

You will need the same tools as a professional plasterer. But you don’t have to apprentice to a professional plasterer for a year and a day to be able to produce a quite satisfactory finish. Skim coating requires some skill with a trowel, so it you’ve never held a trowel in your hand, you would be well advised to start out with a little patching work first.

The skim-coat approach, which involves the application of a single, eighth-inch-thick layer of plaster over the entire wall or ceiling surface, is a compromise, offering something of the character and quality of real plaster with the economy and speed of wallboard. This is a middle ground between three-coat plastering and simply taping and coating the seams between sheets of wallboard. Yet because it is both labor- and material-intensive, it can be prohibitively expensive.

The advantages remain, as it’s durable, adds significantly to soundproofing, and, in the opinion of many people, has more character. The three-coat method, which requires strips of wood or metal lath for reinforcement, is relatively rare today.