Skim coat – what’s good?

Just had the kitchen skimmed, I did the boarding, plasterer skimmed last week.

I’ve chucked a 1.8m level against the wall and in areas there’s shallow undulations to around 5mm depth max, if I get the feller back he’ll no doubt blame my boarding as he’ll have just skimmed what’s in front of him no doubt – I did think he’d check areas and flatten slightly as part of the job but this obviously wasn’t the case.

Are variations over 1.8m of -5mm expected?

I’m tempted to get a 600mm spatula and redo areas in easy fill – worth the bother?

The areas not blessed with loads of natural light and I’ll use matt paint to reduce the issue as much as possible

I did the boarding, plasterer skimmed last week.

scratch coat? Sorry 🙂

I’d expect better on plasterboard, but it depends on your boarding. 3-5mm thickness for a skim coat, so the plasterer will struggle to lose problems unless asked

I can’t comment on the actual question but if you’re going to add a bit more filler in the dips I heartily recommend Toupret Interior Filler.

5mm variation points to the underlying problem being the boards being not reasonably level.

I’ve chucked a 1.8m level against the wall

Shame you didn’t do this when your put the boards up 😉

+\- 2mm/m considered ‘flat’ for building standards.  I’d like better, but it’s hard to argue too far and is pretty normal looking at most of the houses I work in.

EDIT  – as mentioned above, skim coat is 3-5mm, so the skimmer not at fault, any dips should be taken out when boarding it f that’s what’s required.

Thanks all, it’s an old stone wall terrace so the walls are a bit all over the place, there’s no insulation in the wall so I’d batterned the boards on and put 50mm insulation behind the boards on some walls, 20mm on others due to space, which is probs less than the minimal but had it spare so thought it’d help, if I’d dot and dabbed I doubt I’d have this issue.

Guess I thought he’d level up a touch and he’d have thought it was my job to square up in the first place, first time I’ve done this.

I was looking at the Knauff air plaster stuff to sort, I’ll take a look at the Tourpret stuff, I’m tempted to leave it maybe as it’ll become a where do you stop thing.

Thanks for the advice!

Toolstation have some ready mixed skim that you roller on. It will probably stay usable for longer than multi finish plaster if you’re considering using a straight edge to get what you want.

Be prepared for a lot of sanding though and consider using a proper plaster sanding machine.

I’d just leave it personally. It’ll be annoying for a couple of weeks and then you move on to the next job and something done slightly wrong there will annoy you instead.

Easi fill is probably the best way to level it up.

Get the right one , iirc there’s 2 versions

It likely started with the battening. A big bag of spacers/packers, laser level and patience would have paid off but it sounds like it’s not that far out enough to remedy.

I bet there’s plenty of new build homes that are worse!

I’ve done plenty of boarding on studs and battens and a few times with foam adhesive over insulation before – always took the time to get it 100% but when we did the garage conversion a few years back it was the first time I’d dot and dabbed boards and as a DIYer you just don’t have the time or experience to get it perfect. I was really frustrated at how not perfect my boarding was. Asked the plasterer if I should rip it out and start again, his advice was “better than most new builds that – you’ll ever notice” he was of course absolutely right.
unless there’s some specific reason it has to be totally flat, I’d bet once it’s decorated and furnished nobody will ever notice. And you learned a thing in the process!

thanks, when I fitted a new kitchen door I realised the framing was more than an inch out of plum on the one side, charm of an old house eh!

I did the same boarding job in the bathroom using window Packers behind the battens which wasn’t to bad but due to the walls being out an inch or more top to bottom you’d end up with these huge voids where it’d been packed out and I wasn’t hugely keen on making areas for damp to dwell.

I’m sure it’ll be fine and they’ll be something else to worry about soon enough

Preparation is everything. If you boarded it badly then there is only so much a skim coat can cover.

Trying to level with spatula (assuming you mean dry wall spatula) may give you some fun and games as more issue get identified..

Yes, as you hinted, the most important thing when doing preparation in an old house is knowing when to stop.