How smooth do I need to make a wall before skim coating and repainting?
My house was built in 1939, and I've lived here for 13+ years. I tried to remove the mirror the previous owner glued and caulked to the wall, but removing that mirror made it very apparent that all the latex paint layers on the wall were going to pull off in thick sheets. The ceiling paint came off in one long, 8 ft piece! I found double sided tape tucked under the ceiling paint so....someone has been through this before with the bathroom. So I've been taking the paint off the walls with a scraper and a wallpaper steamer (extremely helpful!) and I'm down to exposed sheetrock paper, brown flecks of paint that remain on the sheetrock, and raised spots where the walls have been patched over the years that don't really want to be scraped off. The steamer doesn't really affect those areas much, so I think it's REALLY on there. My question is - at what point can I just go over this with my sander to smooth down the raised bits, then do a new skim coat and continue on? The videos I have seen all look like they're beginning with pristine sheet rock. Just to be clear, I've gotten supplies to fix any large cracks and I feel confident I can handle that. I just want to do this as well as I can so I don't get paint sloughing off again. I've used 120 grit sandpaper with my orbital sander and it's *sorta ok*, but not really smoothing down the raised parts. I'm going to try a small area with 80 grit tomorrow and see if the results are better. I am hoping someone else has done this sort of thing and what the consensus was on removing every single tiny bit of paint from the walls before skim coating the walls again,, or if I could smooth down any raised edges and go over it. I thank you in advance for any helpful suggestions you can give me. submitted by /u/EstroJen [link] [comments]
My house was built in 1939, and I've lived here for 13+ years. I tried to remove the mirror the previous owner glued and caulked to the wall, but removing that mirror made it very apparent that all the latex paint layers on the wall were going to pull off in thick sheets. The ceiling paint came off in one long, 8 ft piece! I found double sided tape tucked under the ceiling paint so....someone has been through this before with the bathroom. So I've been taking the paint off the walls with a scraper and a wallpaper steamer (extremely helpful!) and I'm down to exposed sheetrock paper, brown flecks of paint that remain on the sheetrock, and raised spots where the walls have been patched over the years that don't really want to be scraped off. The steamer doesn't really affect those areas much, so I think it's REALLY on there.
My question is - at what point can I just go over this with my sander to smooth down the raised bits, then do a new skim coat and continue on? The videos I have seen all look like they're beginning with pristine sheet rock.
Just to be clear, I've gotten supplies to fix any large cracks and I feel confident I can handle that. I just want to do this as well as I can so I don't get paint sloughing off again. I've used 120 grit sandpaper with my orbital sander and it's *sorta ok*, but not really smoothing down the raised parts. I'm going to try a small area with 80 grit tomorrow and see if the results are better.
I am hoping someone else has done this sort of thing and what the consensus was on removing every single tiny bit of paint from the walls before skim coating the walls again,, or if I could smooth down any raised edges and go over it.
I thank you in advance for any helpful suggestions you can give me.
[link] [comments]
