Skim coat is a thin layer of joint compound used in the wall or ceiling to make the drywall more smooth, flat, and uniform before you paint. It helps the wall’s condition to be more active and helps the paint be attached to the wall for a long time.
We often see that after a certain period, the surface of the painting keeps falling off from the wall. One of the causes for this problem is not using a skim coat on the wall or ceiling. There are several advantages and disadvantages of applying a skim coat to the wall. We’ll talk about it one by one. So, let’s dive into the in-depth discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of skim coats.
Old Surfaces
When deciding between painting or skim coating your walls, the advantages, and disadvantages of the two should consider. Painting is the most popular choice, but it can be expensive and time-consuming. Skim coating, on the other hand, is less costly than traditional painting and requires less maintenance, but it may flake off over time and must be reapplied every few months.
Additionally, a skim coating does not recommend for intricate designs or large areas. Skim coating may be the perfect option for you if you’re looking for an accessible alternative to paint that is less expensive and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.
What is the Purpose of Skim Coat?
The main purpose of using skim coat in the wall or ceiling is to make the wall more smooth so that when you use paint in the wall, it does not look dead-raw. It also works to hide the crack and fill up the walls’ small high and low feeling.
The other benefits are—
- Enhance the durability of the paint.
- Makes the painting more eye-catching.
- Helps the wall to stay strong from bad weather.
The Drywall Is Retextured After Repair.
If you’re in the market for a drywall repair, be sure to choose the right type of repair. There are a variety of drywall repairs that can do, but some are more time-consuming and expensive than others.
Choose a skim coat for a budget-friendly repair job that’s of good quality. However, the finish may not be as smooth or polished as other types of drywall repairs.
Additionally, skim coat repairs may not be permanent, so choose the right contractor.
Advantages And Disadvantages of Skim Coat – Details
These three points are the core purposes of skim coat. Later, we will talk in detail about its purposes in the advantage section.
Advantages of Skim Coat
The advantage of the skim coat is irrefutable. The cost behind it is nothing compared to the superabundance of it. You can skim coat the entire walls to create a smooth, even finish over the entire surface of the wall. To skim coat the walls, you do not have to rip off the existing walls. You can put the skim coat on the walls with a painting knife and spread them all over. So, let’s find out the advantages of a skim coat.
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Smooth Surface
Skim coat makes the surface of the walls more smooth than it is. The extra layer of skimming hides the cracks and the high and low feelings of the walls. When you put the skim coat on the wall and then spread it with the painting knife, it covers up the tiny holes of the walls make the surface straight than it is.
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Hiding Cracks
Hiding cracks is one of the remarkable things done by the skim coat. We often see older houses with these kinds of cracks on the walls. Skim coat filled up those cracks and made the look smoother and even.
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Makes the Wall Flat
Another thing that skimming does is that it removes the high and low emotions of the wall and makes it utterly flat. As a result, the wall becomes more suitable for painting on it.
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New Look
Skimming the walls helps the paint to shine more than it does when you paint your wall without putting a layer of skim coat. Putting a layer of skim coat enhances the brightness of the color and makes it look even better.
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Brings out True Color
Old Walls are often seen to be damaged from inside and outside. Sometimes bad weather makes the wall so damp that when you paint on that wall, dampness reduces the brightness of the color and ruins its beauty.
So when you skim coat that wall, skimming takes over the dampness and brings out the real beauty of it.
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Makes the Wall Strong
Using a skim coat in the walls makes the walls strong and durable. Why? Because skim coat creates a layer in the walls that helps the wall from bad weather, water, or any substance that might harm the wall.
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Bad Weather
Bad weather is one of the biggest foes of walls. From summer to monsoonal season, every season leaves an impact on the walls. Skimming the walls helps them to from this kind of negative impact.
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Water
Water is another enemy for walls. Water damages the walls most. If you do not put the skim coat on the wall, it gets inside the wall by splitting the paint and damages the walls. So, when you use a skim coat on your walls, it creates a layer that water can not break through.
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Hide Wallpaper Damages
We often see that wallpaper hanging on the wall years after years. What we don’t see is the opposite side of the wallpaper. When you keep the wallpaper on the wall for a long time, light and air can not pass the wallpaper.
As a result, the walls started to get damaged from behind. And when you move that wallpaper, the damage becomes more visible. If you don’t want to face these kinds of stress, your only solution is using a skim coat.
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Saves the Wall
Using a skim coat on the damaged walls is a perfect way to hide the damages done by the wallpaper. It covers up the damage in restructures the whole wall again with a new look. It hides the cracks, dampness of the wall.
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Renovate the Outdated Ceiling
Outdated ceilings can be dangerous if they are not fixed in time. If any water tank is located above the ceiling, that part of the ceiling will get damaged easily because of dampness. You might have to renovate the ceiling.
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Reduce Dampness
If you use a skim coat in the ceiling, it will reduce the dampness of the ceiling. But if you do not use a skim coat in your ceiling, the dampness will hamper the color too. It will ruin the beauty of the house.
If you want to renovate an outdated ceiling, then using a skim coat will help you so that you do not have to face dampness in your ceiling again.
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Perfect for New Installation
If you are bringing any new installations to your home, renovating them with a skim coat will help get the desired looks you are looking for.
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Shining
Skimming your entire house with new installations heighten the brightness of the house.
A Skim coat helps to increase color brightness up to fifty percent. With new installations to your house, it will bring the true color out of it.
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Adjust with New Installations
Skimming house with new installations helps your house color to adjust with the new installation. As a result, it matches the look of the house perfectly.
How to Prepare the Skim Coat?
You either use a skim coat for cover-up cracks or to make the wall’s surface smooth for painting. Both ways, you need to have proper knowledge on how you can do this. But before you start to skim coat mud on the walls, you need to prepare it first. The DIY process is given below–
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Clear the Walls
Cleaning the walls with scratch paper is the first step for the skim coat on the walls. The best idea is to use a rough patch to clean the walls. Do it properly.
Prepare Materials
There are two types of materials in the market available.
- Pre-mixed – Quick mixed comes readymade.
- Quickset- Before you use it, you need to mix water with it.
You need to buy the one which full fill the requirements of yours.
Gather Tools
These tools are necessary to prepare the skim coat—
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Ladder
Ceiling skims coating required ladder. Because you can not reach all places of the from the ground. Particularly the edges of the ceiling.
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Big Gallon for Mixing the Skim Coat with Water
Big gallon is for mixing up the materials to work perfectly.
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Drill and Metal Mixing Rod
Drill and metal mixing rods are to mix the materials. It will take time plus lots of energy to mix them up with the hand.
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Mud Pan
A mud pan is to put the mud in the drywall and spread them entirely.
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Skimmer Plate for the Ready Compound
After mixing the materials, the ready compound must be put somewhere. That’s why a skimmer plate is needed.
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Mix up the Materials Using Tools
Now, start mixing up the materials using tools. Step by step process is given below—
Step 1:
First, put the joint compound in the big gallon and add a little amount of water.
Step 2:
Attach the mixed metal rod with the drill to mix the skim coat mud with water.
Step 3:
Now start the drill and mix the skim coat mud with water slowly. Mix the mud until it becomes creamy. Remember, do not use too much water as it might make the mud liquidy.
Step 4:
Finally, use tint in the mud and again start mixing it with drilling.
After that, it will be all ready for use.
When Should You Apply A Skim Coat?
When it comes to wood finishing, coating is a popular option. It’s a sealant that helps protect wood against water damage and fungal growth. It’s typically applied when the wood has been finished or coated with an exterior finish, such as an oil or lacquer.
What’s excellent about skim coating is that it can slow down the drying time of your project. It is perfect for projects that need to dry quickly, like decks or furniture.
However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using a skim coat. So, be sure to weigh them both before making a decision.
Disadvantages of Skim Coat
Have you ever heard Newton’s third law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”? Well, just like that, with the advantages of the skim coat, it comes with disadvantages too. Let’s get a closer look at the disadvantages of skim coats.
Time-Consuming
Skim coating is time-consuming. It takes almost three to four days to cover up an average-sized room. So, the time-consuming thing becomes a problem sometimes as the process is long. Sometimes, it takes more than three to four days if the person doing the task is not familiar with the process of how to do it or doing this for the first time.
Experts suggest that it doesn’t matter how good your materials are for skim coating. It is ideal for everybody to wait at least one week before they start to paint on the wall.
Increase Damaged Visibility
Though skim coating itself is made for decreasing damages visibility when it gets damaged, it becomes more visible. Everything has an expiration date, so does skim coat. That’s why you need to check the surface of the wall every six to eight months to see how it’s going.
Any unusual color change on the wall might be a warning of the skim coat expired sign. But the reassuring thing is that it does not expire soon. So, for a couple of years, you can be tension-free.
Complicated for Unprofessional People
So the skim coating thing is complicated for those who do not have any previous knowledge about it. In the DIY process, you need to have some clear knowledge about it. Our guidelines can be extremely helpful for you in that case.
But we suggest that this task need to be done by a professional. Learn from the expert while he’s doing the job, courteously observe how he does the job so that you can use this experience next time.
Create Mass
Skim coating creates an extra mass on the house. From the beginning, when you started to clean the walls with scratch papers, to the last moments when you painted on it. It creates mass all over the place in the house. Many people tend to avoid it for this problem.
Another problem is that when it gets dry, it becomes so strong that you literally have to declare war against it to rip it off from the place.
Additional Cost
Skim coating is basically for walls or ceilings with unusual texture on the surface or damaging problems. If your walls or ceiling do not have any of these problems, you can directly go to paint the wall. Because skim coating adds additional costs to the process, you do not have to go for it if your budget is tight. It’s not compulsory.
Conclusion
Skim coating is time-consuming, costly works. It creates mass and other additional hassles. These are considered to be the disadvantages of skim coating. But if you can tolerate this hassle for a while, it will give you perfectly durable walls and add some additional brightness to your house. It’s highly recommended for houses with a damp issue.
It helps to hide the crack in the surface and makes the entire wall flat so that the painting can work perfectly. It will help the old walls to look new again, just like a fine wine! I hope now you know the advantages and disadvantages of skim coat.
Frequently Asked Questions
1.What Is Skim Coating?
Ans. Skim coating is a type of coating applied to a material’s surface to improve its smoothness, glossiness, or water repellency.
2.How Do I Use A Skim Coat On The Wall?
Ans. A skim coat is a drywall finish that coats the wall’s surface with a thin layer of mud, sand, and water.
3.How To Repair A Damaged Wall?
Ans. There are a few different ways to repair damaged walls. The most common way is to add drywall compound and sand to the hole until the wall is level and smooth.
4.What If I Have An Old Wall?
Ans. If you have an old wall, you can remove it or cover it with drywall.