Hello everyone! I need help with any information or recommendations on which company to hire to skim coat my popcorn textured walls. Has anyone here tackled a project like this? I cannot do this myself but would like to know what questions and concerns I should ask the professionals before I hire them. I’ve done a lot of research and understand the pitfalls and basics but if someone had this done can you kindly let me k is you’re experience and overall take.
Thank you!
Lucy
Depends how popcorny your walls are and whether you rent or own.
Presuming you own and don‘t need to restore to original condition on leaving and assuming it‘s deliberate texture, not damage, try painting the walls.
You can start in a small area as an experiment. In my experience, painting made our rough walls smoother to the touch.
As to recommendations, it will depend where you live…
How old is your building? If it’s one of those old enough to have seen asbestos things can get very complicated.
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Indeed!!! anything build or refurbished before 1990 should be carefully evaluated.
Website in French, bottom at the top right to change to DE or IT. For EN, use google
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Textured walls seem to be the norm here.
They are easier to do, hide mistakes in bad plastering technique and don’t require the same skill level compared with smooth skimming.
You can get smooth walls here (or get your textured walls skimmed smooth) but it will cost you as it is considered a premium finish.
The big problem which will create a lot of mess will be preparing the walls so they will take the plaster and as @greenmount noted, in an older place, there is asbestos to consider.
Get some free quotes from somewhere like Renovero but give as much information as you can including photos, room dimensions etc.
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Thank you. The home was built in 2007
Thank you. Painting won’t help. They are deliberately textured and have been painted twice but I thank you for the suggestion.
2007
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Thank you, much appreciated. I do understand that this is the norm here because of the reasons you’ve mentioned. The home was built in 2007. I have already sent an inquiry to renovero and have received many quotes that are all over the place-some are hourly quotes, some are m2 some super high and some super low.
I was hoping someone here had their walls done and could give me feedback on how it all turned out, if they were happy, how much the final project cost and the process of working with the plaster/mason company.
On big projects there are often hidden issues that someone finds out during or after the work. I would love to avoid those if at all possible. I had a big garden project done with a very high end garden company and it was a bit of a nightmare.
Anyway, I’m mostly concerned with pock holes (fish eyes) and overall look because I will be skim coating over painted walls.
The higher skilled the worker the better, I guess but that wasn’t the case with my garden as they sent their least skilled workers to my place and I was very naive to know that most companies really do work to save as much money as they can and try to sell as much as they can to the customer. I’m learning! …just slowly.
Thank you so much for your input!
That is definitely the norm.
Get a fixed quote - don’t go by hourly rate.
The more expensive quotes are not necessarily going to give you the best work.
Check out the reviews. The most expensive quote I got for some other work also got the worst reviews - for the quality of the work.
I went with the only company which said that to give an accurate quote, they would have to visit the property so they accurately see what was involved. Only one company said this. They were also the cheapest.
I haven’t had walls skimmed so cannot give personal recommendation.
The last wall I did I gave a textured finish. That’s so easy it’s basically unskilled work.
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Thank you!
Then you don’t have to worry about asbestos.
Yes, thank goodness! Still hoping someone comes along that had their walls skimmed or did it themselves. I would love to hear their experience with it.
It’s a big project for me as I want to smooth out all the walls. Reality will probably be just doing the living room and hallway. The bedrooms will likely stay as they are.
Thanks for your input!
I had a lot of plastering done in Malta, they quote based on m2. Makes a huge mess but is done quickly, I had 2 coats, both on inside & outside walls. Not having to use scaffolding saves a fortune.
Indoors or outdoors?
Indoors - I did it myself, but didn’t skim coat them. Went to bauhaus, bought some of the thinnest plasterboard they had and screwed it to the walls. A bit of plaster to cover the screw heads and the joints (with some paper tape), and then 3 coats of paint.
Smooth…
I just glanced at the picture and thought „Malta“ without reading the text.
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That pic looks like our Turkish-Austrian plasterer, but he actually stood on top of the upturned bucket!!! I’ve got a picture somewhere…
The flag is a bit of a give-away.
I’m working on the inside walls. I haven’t considered doing what you did but it sounds like it would be a lot less messy than skim coating. Most of my googling has led to loads of skim coating suggestions and how to videos.
Thanks for the feedback. I assume this is just as long lasting as skim coating? Are there any cons of doing it this way? Don’t you have to put a light skim coat on the plaster board before priming then painting for better adhesion of the paint? I know nothing about it.
Thanks again for your help.
My advice? Don’t do it yourself, this is not a DIY project. Painting, when the walls are already perfectly smooth and that ugly “calcio-vecchio”* is gone, sure.
Did you look at the companies around your area?
*btw, I will never understand this obsession here, my parents had something similar last time in the nineties.
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