Skim or not to skim ??

[Mar00]

We recently bought a victorian flat, and the walls are uneven (no visible cracks, it just looks like generations of old polyfilla repairs that were not sanded back). We have had workmen in - some suggested skimming the walls and some just sanding them properly. Which advice should we follow? What are the pros and cons of each option?

Depends really on what you want. Skimming will give you a beautiful even finish. Sanding and filling is more work for you and may not be as good a finish.

Depending on how much you care about spotless walls and whether you can afford it. We skimmed ours, no regrets it looks awesome. Our house is also a long term investment for us.

You could try using joint compound if current plaster isn't lime based? You can get it from builders merchants and apply it yourself with a squeegee from homebase etc. It's like a thin fine filler and it sands very nicely.

We had our kitchen walls skimmed and forever regret it as the plasterer ended up being awful and left the walls in a worse state than they were in beforehand, (he had been recommended by people we knew well!). We had other plasterers around to look at the first plasterers poor work and quote for fixing it, and one helpful one suggested that we could fix most of the issues ourselves by using joint compound.

You can layer it up and because you apply it with a squeegee you don't have to have any knowledge of how to work with a plasterer's trowel etc. It took us three days to do one room but I'm 90% happy with the walls in that room now, (10% unhappiness only caused by finding bits I missed), and when we take the vintage wallpaper off of the rest of the walls in the house we'll do the same to them as well. It does take time, but you can do it yourself and don't have to interfere with original coving/ cornice / skirting etc.

I've not seen this tip anywhere else though so no clue if it's recommended?!