How to Skim Coat Ceilings for Beginners Tutorial- Skim Coating Tips

welcome back to the channel in today's how to skim coat a ceiling beginners tutorial I'm gonna show you all my favorite tips and tricks for skim coating the ceiling I'll also to show you all the tools I use and tell you how to mix up your all-purpose joint compound for a perfect skin every time be sure to hit that subscribe button and also the bail notification let's get into this video alright so I want to give you a quick look at the section that I've already skim coded so you know what it's going to look like this is a popcorn ceiling these skin coding techniques will work perfectly whether it's popcorn knock down skip trial or even a smooth ceiling that you're wanting to make look new again so stay tuned for all these tips and tricks I'll be using my warner walk boards instead of my stilts because there's so much stuff in this room using a 14-inch taping knife and a 16 inch mud pan you can use a 12 inch taping knife and a 14 inch mud pan if you're more comfortable with that or if that's the tools you have I also like that bucket scoop to get the skim coating mud out makes it real convenient so it's you can see it's a pretty good-sized room I did one section already I'm gonna slip over here to this side and do this section and then in the next video I'll show you how I finish it off in the middle basically I fin down the joint compound with water just enough to make it creamy and smooth but I want to keep its thick consistency because I'm going over a pretty heavy texture right here it is a painted popcorn ceiling and as you know they're very difficult to get off that's one of the reasons I'm doing this and the second reason which is the biggie is a popcorn ceiling from the early 70s so that means it could contain asbestos or so this incopy encapsulates it so you don't have to worry about any of those hazardous materials you don't want to scrape anything before say 1982 because what happened was there was a ban on it in 1978 but the EPA allowed all the manufacturers to produce it and keep their back stock so what happened is they mass-produced because they were afraid that their materials weren't going to be as good as the asbestos asbestos really makes stuff strong and so that's why they were trying to keep a hold of their popcorns and joint compounds because they wanted to keep the products as good as they could later found out that it really didn't matter it wasn't worth the hazard and we're still still dealing with this today but anyways again I'm using an all-purpose joint compound made by USG most of the all purposes are pretty much compatible with each other but this is my go-to and favorite one to use I like using the all-purpose joint compound especially for the base coat of when I'm skin coding because it has a lot of glue in it and it sticks way better than say the blue lid which is a lightweight the lightweights a lot softer so it's good for final coats but not for the base coats so basically I'm just getting the skim coat mud up on the ceiling and then I drop back and go over it once I pretty much run up a pan out on the ceiling so that smoothes it out when I go back over it you can see that I'm placing the joint compound on the knife I'm not just letting it push out both sides as I apply it I'd like to work nice and clean and keep the joint compound pretty consistent as I'm putting it up before I smooth it down you have to pay special attention to the corners because those are the most visible after it's all said and done you want a nice tight corner so I just go along and work that out and then I'll do some pulling on the rest of the compound you want to go nice long strokes if you can you can see I'm putting the pressure on the right side now I'm putting pressure on the left side and lifting on the right that's why there's not a line left on the right side this will keep the minimum sandy which is what everybody's looking for minimal sanding and a nice smooth surface this is the first of two skin coats since we're going with a smooth finish if you were going to be texturing one skim coat might be sufficient depending on the texture you're using so again pressure on the left lifting on the right you want to keep it at a minimum of going over it because you'll start getting more and more chatter marks which are those lines you see from the knife hitting the popcorn texture below so once you get the mud up you just want to keep it nice and smooth you don't want a bunch of lines or divots if you see something that's not quite covered right now's the time to go ahead and get your first coat on every bit of this thing I'm using my GoPro so you can see close and tight of how I'm actually doing this with the knife let me know in the comments what kind of ceiling you're working on and why it needs a skim coat this is the same remodel project I've been working on where I remove the wallpaper and fix the walls there was also wall mirrors and then all the walls have been skimmed coated and actually I didn't remove the wallpaper the homeowners did a DIY wallpaper removal and it was a hideous mess I'll leave links in the description to all the videos from this project you're not going to believe the transformation Here I am again hitting the corners making sure I keep those nice and tight steady as she goes pressure on the right lifting on the left keeps the lines from forming next to the night there'll be a line on the right side but you go over it the next time and it's gone because you're lifting the left side which leaves it nice and smooth you can see this moves along pretty quick just got to keep steady and have enough joint compound on sight to knock it out and if you're concerned about your ceiling having asbestos or lead paint I'll leave some information down in this description below along with some links to some test kits there's some test kits that you can just scrape a little of your popcorn into a ziplock and mail it off and get your results from a lab and then there's some swabs for a lead paint if your sealants been painted now if you've got an older popcorn ceiling that has not been painted I don't recommend trying to skim coat over that because what's going to happen is it's just going to bubble and fall off potentially so if you don't want to pay big bucks for a abatement company to come in and remove that what you can do is just prime your paint or your popcorn ceiling that hasn't been painted and then you can skim coat right over that but don't try and skim coat over a unpainted popcorn ceiling it's not going to turn out good I'll also leave links down in the description to all the tools that I use in these videos it's my Amazon store so check that out it's the it's kind of an affiliate you don't pay any more money I just make a little bit off of each purchase so I appreciate that who ever buy stuff off of my Amazon store link right back to the skim coating getting it up there and smoothing it out it's pretty much the same process all the way down the line getting almost halfway I hope you're enjoying this video be sure to give me a thumbs up and a comment if you've got any questions at all just want to get it up there and then you're gonna go back and just smooth it all out all these lines you're seeing and those little air bubbles will all go away I did edit out me getting the mud out of the bucket every time you think you needed to see that so here I am pressure on the right lifting on the Left keeps the line from Forney forming from a 14 inch drywall taping knife same technique whether it's a knockdown texture skip trial texture orange peel no texture if you're doing a smooth surface you do want to thin down the joint compound just a little bit more probably too thick yogurt consists see you can also use the paint roller trick on the smooth ceilings if you're skimming this it's a little more difficult to use the paint roller trick on textured ceilings if you stick around to the end of the video I'll have a link in the endcard which is the last 20 seconds of the video to my paint roller trick that makes skim coating a breeze the paint roller trick works best for walls but it will work on ceilings too just a little workout all right so I'm smoothing it out and if you notice I'm trying to keep the knife off of the popcorn when I'm going for this smooth out because if you hit the popcorn it just shatters and leaves a bunch of little marks it's gonna happen but you want to keep it to a minimum if possible what I like to do is just run out my panel I'd and then smooth it all out and when you're smoothing it all out you actually end up probably with a third of a pan of the skin coating mud again so you can go a little further definitely recommend using the Werner what walk board they make it a lot easier than if you're trying to do this off a ladder those walk boards are in my Amazon azam store as well as you can see I'm getting pretty close to finishing this section I wanted to film the whole process so you could really learn from it and seeing how I place my knife and the different pressure points and you're pulling [Applause] this room's about a 16 by 30 room this is a blue steel 14 inch taping knife I do prefer a stainless steel taping knife over the blue steel but my stainless 14 inch knife had a nick in it so I stopped by Lowe's and they didn't have any stainless steel 14 inch knives so I picked up the blue steel and it works fine I just don't like how they run some drywall finishers swear by the blue steel and actually stick their knife overnight when it's brand new right into a bucket of joint compound so it does rust they feel that it helps it get a smoother finish I do get a lot of questions about air bubbles in joint compound what causes the air bubbles to form is usually over a painted surface it can the joint compound cannot absorb into the painted surface like it can in a raw drywall panel so what happens is it off gasses and creates these little bubbles usually the second round of mudding or skim coating fixes that problem some drywallers put Dawn dish detergent or dish soap in the joint compound and they swear by it I have never done it because I don't trust soap in the joint compound or when you paint it I don't know what's gonna happen so I've always shied away from that but if you put soap in your joint compound to eliminate air bubbles leave me a comment and tell me how it works out for you there is a product called no pock that U is a joint compound additive that keeps these air bubbles from forming I have to use that and it works pretty darn good it's just hard to keep an on hand because you usually have to special order that online I do have that no pock in my Amazon store so again check that link out in the description all right so I'm smoothing this out pressure on the right there's a void let me catch that now's the time you want everything covered this coat pressure on the right see a little chatter you just knock it back down and move on don't spend too much time dickering around with it if you can possibly help that pressure on the right lifting on the left lines less sanding this is the first skim coat of two but as you can see it pretty make much makes the popcorn go away is the ultimate goal and for a do-it-yourselfer it's an easy fix for an ugly ceiling again I barely thinned down the all-purpose joint compound with water simply because I want to keep the thickness because I'm going over such a heavy texture I mean a popcorn ceiling is about the heaviest texture you're gonna be going over and if you keep your joint compound thick enough it doesn't really have a problem going over it you're gonna need about 24 hours for this coat to dry so today I got the other side completely skimmed coated and this side completely skinned coated I'll leave these two areas to dry overnight and then run a skim right down the middle of the room you do not need a wet edge to keep skim coating there's no dust no debris the ceilings been painted numerous times if you were gonna try and remove it it would just barely scrape off it would take days to get all this off and the mess even even if it wasn't a potential hazard since it was done in the 70s you definitely don't want to scrape this stuff if it's an older ceiling without testing see the voids I'm filling you just want to be sure to get all those this first coat the second skin coat is breeze compared to this one and what I'll do is I'll after this is dry I will scrape it with my 6-inch taping knife scrape any chatters or lines there will be no sanding before the second skim coat that's why it's crucial to keep everything pretty tight and smooth minimal sanding on the last little section here leave me a hashtag dry wall tube if you're still with me in this video again I'm gonna pay special attention in these corners just pulling it kind of tight not piling up any mud that's the name of the game don't pile it up keep it smooth and consistent from the get-go you'll appreciate it in the end you can thank me later I love when people come back and tell me what they've done and learn from my videos really motivates me to keep making these videos one little spot they're gonna smooth this out keep watching cuz I'm gonna walk down the line here and show you some beautiful shiny skin coated over popcorn ceiling keeping it tight little more trickier where the two corners meet no big deal again this is the first skim coat we're gonna smooth it out let it dry finish the center section come back and do it all again pressure on the right lifting on the left that's why you see the line forming on the right nice and smooth on the left side a little bit of chatter pressure right lifting left kind of just put a little pressure on your finger that lifts it just probably a sixteenth of an inch maybe an eighth of an inch starting to look like glass you'll never know there was a popcorn ceiling under under here I love skim coating skim coating is one of my top topics here on YouTube so a lot of people trying to figure out how to make their walls or ceiling look good again and this is how you do it all right so here's the section that we just completed as you can see it's nice and smooth let me know in the comments if you're a DIY or a contractor painter handyman just kind of curious and if you want to step up your drywall texturing or painting game be sure to hit that round icon in the middle of screen now keep up with all my latest video if you've got a friend that's a contractor or DIY er be sure to share this video with them on Facebook or Twitter thanks so much for watching

Channel: Paul Peck DrywallTube

Views: 226,650

Keywords: learn how to skim coat ceilings for beginners tutorial with these skim coating tips and tricks, how to skim coat ceilings for beginners tutorial, skim coat ceilings for beginners tutorial, skim coating tips and tricks, how to apply a skim coat to a painted popcorn ceiling, how to apply a skim coat to a popcorn ceiling, smoothing out a ceiling with a skim coat, smoothing out a ceiling, how to skim coat a ceiling, skim coating drywall, skim coat popcorn ceiling, paul peck, skim coat

Id: FyMAI7tIavo

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019