Skim Came Off wall, while prepping for painting

Eire Go Brach

Decided to paint some rooms. I was Cleaning the wall to prep them for painting. I noticed a bubble. On further investigation. Lots of poking.
The plaster began to crack. So I knew I had a bit of a problem. So I got a bit out and it turns out I had a patch of skim not attached to the wall.

So then I worked all the lose stuff off. It's Probably close to a 1m2. See pics. Now I hear skimming is a tough thing to do. But my question is. Should I just risk doing it myself? It is not a huge area. What do I need to do it?
Thanks

mad m

Well first thing is to makse sure the wall is sealed, use polybond to seal wall. Mix it with one part of PVA polybond and 4/5 parts of water, brush onto wall where crack is. This will dry quickly so give it another coat as it won't hurt.

Get a small bag of patching skim in any good hardware and a cheap enough trowel. Put some water in bucket and add skim and put on with trowel. Now you could use a straight edge like a length of wood to make sure its even enough (drag sloely over surface where you patched), before the skim goes off (dries) you can wipe over area with clean brush (4inch) and use the trowel (cleaned of any skim) to smooth over the surface.

If your not comfortable doing this then you will need a good few bags of polyfiller and you can still put it on with trowel and then sand....

The most important this is, dont try and fill the area in one go as it will sink..

Im sure there are videos on net that will help you.

Eire Go Brach

Thanks Mad M for that.I will check the net for video's. But can you explain what you mean by this
"The most important this is, dont try and fill the area in one go as it will sink.."
Can I not do it one go? Do it in halfs?

Buford T Justice

If you were to use something like a joint compound or gyproc promix, they all shrink when they dry out, so you will need at least two if not three coats.

My advice, skimming is a bitch. I hate it with a passion. I don't mind jointing and filling, but not skimming. If you want this done properly and to look like it was never there, then my advice is to get a professional to do it.

That's not to say you can't have a go, but just be prepared to make a balls of it.

brendankelly

The first question is why did the skim fall off??. It looks to me that it is ready to fall off on all the wall. How long is it done??. Next It is clear from the pics that the skim is coming off that it was put on in one coat which is the wrong way. Skim should be applied in 2 coats and there is a good reason for this as any plasterer that has served his time will explain. Next it is nearly impossible to patch plaster and I would advise you scrape off the entire wall and get a plasterer to re do it.

Eire Go Brach

brendankelly wrote: »

The first question is why did the skim fall off??. It looks to me that it is ready to fall off on all the wall. How long is it done??. Next It is clear from the pics that the skim is coming off that it was put on in one coat which is the wrong way. Skim should be applied in 2 coats and there is a good reason for this as any plasterer that has served his time will explain. Next it is nearly impossible to patch plaster and I would advise you scrape off the entire wall and get a plasterer to re do it.

In an Ideal world that would be the right thing to do im sure. But I assume that would be expensive enough. So I reckon Il have to try my hand and "patch plaster"
As to why It came off? I dont know. I would like to know though.
It was done 7-8 years ago. The rest of the wall does seem fine. It was just this patch.

mad m

I can see from the pic you can see the slab nails, is it a partition wall? Maybe something hit it or the partition wall is loose in some way? I'd get a couple of dry wall screws and put a couple top and bottom of the original slab nails. Its not that big an area if you are going to attempt skim. You have about half an hour to an hour to play with skim, but this all depends on how warm your place is at the time.

This link will give you a few tips....The blade he is using is a drywall blade which is about 5euro in Fleetwood paints on Davitt road.

Link