[jgold47]

Hi - not sure if this makes more sense here or in paint.

I've found some older threads, but POV's change.

have plaster walls with lots of latex paint built up.

Have been using the 1 gallon pails of premixed joint compound to smooth the nastyness of these walls away. So far so good, but its mostly been feathering cracks and divots. i recently realized that you can cut this with water a bit which has helped. I have to do a lot of sanding because I am terrible at it, but in the end, it looks great.

I have a wall that looks like they painted over wallpaper. probably years and years ago. There is enough paint on the wall I dont want to dig down to look, so I just want to level it out. this would be a pretty massive focal wall, so I was planning on just re-doing the entire thing and creating a smooth, level-ish surface.

Any suggestions for a product other than the pre-mixed all purpose (grey bucket, blue top)? I see some people recommend the green top all purpose, and some recommend the blue top plus 3.


thanks

 

[woodworkbykirk]

dont cut it down it will change the chemical composition of it and cause it to shrink more. dont take it right out of the bucket and put it on the wall it needs to be mixed up a bit before use with a paddle and drill to even out the consistancy.. if you want perfect walls its going to take time, patience and several passes to make everything nice and flat otherwise you`ll have to go over it completely with 1/4" drywall or take down the plaster and put up new drywall

 

[mae-ling]

You can go over with 1/2" or whatever is available your area.

There is also a mesh roll you can get that you apply like wallpaper then skim over.

 

[jgold47]

dont cut it down it will change the chemical composition of it and cause it to shrink more. dont take it right out of the bucket and put it on the wall it needs to be mixed up a bit before use with a paddle and drill to even out the consistancy.. if you want perfect walls its going to take time, patience and several passes to make everything nice and flat otherwise you`ll have to go over it completely with 1/4" drywall or take down the plaster and put up new drywall

even the containers say you can cut with water. I'm taking it to a peanut butter consistency, out of the box its pretty thick. helps it spread decent. no shrinking, even the last time I used it and actually heated it dry which I normally dont do.


Unfortunately drywalling this wall, or covering the plaster is not an option. I had good luck doing a bathroom like this but it was slow, tedious and I didnt want to do it again.

these are not major problems, in this case call it a 1/32nd inch raised line (almost like they tried to stripe the wall with tape). Its only perceptable from my spot on the couch. The rest of the repairs are just where they dripped paint and knocking it loose causes it to sit low, or areas around the trim where they didnt do a good job covering the opening with the moulding. I dont need billiard smooth, just slightly less visible to the naked eye. the current paint is flat, which also seems to make it worse.


I guess I will stick with my method and hope for the best. its worked well so far.

 

[woodworkbykirk]

like i said dont cut it down. the only time it should have water added is if by chance it was left open to long just to bring some of the consistancy back.

i work with professional drywall tapers all the time, they dont cut down the mud. at the end of a day they will pour a small amount of water on top of the bucket soley to keep it from drying out over night.. in the morning they will pour that water off and remix the mud. some will add the tiniest amount of dish soap to it just to make it apply a little smoother

 

[Gary in WA]

The tape/fastener first coat should not be thinned, after that it is fine to add water; page 24 (bottom) of 48; http://www.usg.com/documents/construction-handbook/chapter5.pdf

Bedding the paper-faced corner bead and trim- add water to thin, pp. 14, 15; http://www.usg.com/documents/construction-handbook/chapter5.pdf

Faster mixing after adding water to thin for skimming; http://www.usg.com/rc/installation-...3-ready-mixed-product-application-en-J515.pdf

Gary

 

[jcrack_corn]

of course you thin it with water, not much, but some. i've never seen any sheetrockers do it any other way and neither have i. You cannot get an ultra smooth finish coat with thick mud....you dont want to have to push so hard that you distort the knife (or it will just follow the dips rather than filling them)

like i said dont cut it down. the only time it should have water added is if by chance it was left open to long just to bring some of the consistancy back.

i work with professional drywall tapers all the time, they dont cut down the mud. at the end of a day they will pour a small amount of water on top of the bucket soley to keep it from drying out over night.. in the morning they will pour that water off and remix the mud. some will add the tiniest amount of dish soap to it just to make it apply a little smoother

 

[ToolSeeker]

You can go over with 1/2" or whatever is available your area.

There is also a mesh roll you can get that you apply like wallpaper then skim over.

The fiberglass "mesh roll" is Fibra Fuse you can get it in 36" wide rolls so it is a great product for skimming and it is really easy to use. If you go to Drywall talk and search there is a couple threads about it. You can get it at Allwall.com and yes you need to thin your mud about a qt of water to a 5 gal bucket of all purpose. Having said that there is a new mud, has a puke green lid called ultra light. I just used it to skim walls after a wallpaper removal job and it was great. But do not add water to it it gets to runny, just mix it a little to loosen it up.

 

[jgold47]

The fiberglass "mesh roll" is Fibra Fuse you can get it in 36" wide rolls so it is a great product for skimming and it is really easy to use. If you go to Drywall talk and search there is a couple threads about it. You can get it at Allwall.com and yes you need to thin your mud about a qt of water to a 5 gal bucket of all purpose. Having said that there is a new mud, has a puke green lid called ultra light. I just used it to skim walls after a wallpaper removal job and it was great. But do not add water to it it gets to runny, just mix it a little to loosen it up.

Thanks - sounds like I may be trying the ultra light.

 

[chrisBC]

I will usually do a couple thin coats, depending how much filling is required. Any open cracks I will cut open and tape, to ensure they will not crack down the road.

Bucket mud will work fine,I will add some water, making it more bit more loose on final coats. Has always worked the way i've wanted it to. I've found it is better to do more coats that are thin, rather than thicker coats. Unless you really enjoy sanding drywall.

 

[ToolSeeker]

Depending on how much fill but you may want to try the setting compounds (easy sand in a bag) for fill it won't shrink and is a lot stronger than bucket mud.