I decided to attempt to fix the fucked up walls in this room instead of simply repainting. There are random gouges and low spots, some seams have mesh tape visible, a few screw heads that weren't sunk deep enough, and it looks like most the paint was just thrown right on the drywall panels. I also discovered the baseboard was caulked in place when it ripped off a bunch of paper as I removed it. I thought I would be able to get away with spot patching where the flaws were and then priming the room, but there was so much in the corner I was basically doing a skim coat and failing. At points my hands were actually shaking with frustration as I fought the urge to chuck the tool through window and hire some Mexican to do this for me. I gave up after 4 hours of struggling and left it to dry for a day. I went back and scraped down some high points today, and although the mess I made looks like shit it is actually smoothing out the issues, so I think I'm on the right track. I need to go slower and stop worrying about it being perfect on the first pass. Those knowledgeable assholes on youtube with decades of experience make this look too easy.
>>2967132Basic knowledge is knowing to cut the drywall caulking at the top before removing All you're doing is smoothing the wall out. It doesn't have to be perfectly flat, just smooth as possible I aim for smooth in 3 passes, more if there's butt jointsYou can use a 100grit sanding sponge to knock down ridges before the next coat
>>2967150Baseboard caulking*
>>2967132For the pic i have a saying that roughly translates "she shat & plastered till she run out of shit"
>>2967150> use a 100grit sanding sponge to knock down ridges before the next coatI use a scraper. Less dust.
>>2967132Plastering is making the world's most boring sculpture. Slather on some plaster, let it dry then remove everything that's not the wall.Keep your plaster knife clean.Sometimes you need to expand/deepen a gouge or bump so you can get enough plaster into it.
>>2967220Picrel is a god send. It makes dust, but doesn't get clogged as fast as sandpaper and the dust falls straight down, instead of being thrown around and getting airborne.
>>2967132We did a house that was entirely plasterboard and lath. I took a hawk and skimmed all the walls because the owner wanted heavy texture to become smooth. That fucking sucked and I'm not a professional drywaller. I used a 9" vac sander because the shear footage was too much to want to pole sand and dust control after. The best part was honestly spraying 10 gallons of primer in like 1 hour. Drywall is an uncelebrated trade. To me, inside corners are hard to skim. I just attack one side at a time. Skim should only be blue or light blue compound, the green compound has pva glue for holding joints together. If you peeled paper, hit it with primer or shellac first, then skim, then prime again.When you're skimming or sanding, just do a good job every pass. Don't try to do a perfect job. Let it dry, sand, and give it another pass. Each consecutive pass becomes exponentially easier. When you're working for someone else, they expect it done very fast. This fucks you into trying to use fast drying mud or fix big problems with a lot of mud in one go. When it's for yourself, give it a few weekend sessions.
Appreciate the tips. I did the second pass today, finished off the box of green compound I started with and only got this far but that covered all the deep gouges and visible portions of mesh tape and I'm feeling better about it than when I started. Gonna leave to dry a day before scraping again for the next pass, don't see the point in sanding until it feels more even but I have a pair of large fine grit sponges for that. I got the green instead of the blue because I read it was better for coating over an already painted wall, think the blue will be fine to go over what's left? The untouched areas aren't exactly textured, just a slight orange peel from being painted with a roller at least 2 times.
Opposite side of the room. Again, didn't do a full skim intentionally because it wasn't as bad as that one corner, just filled in the rough spots and along the ripped baseboard area and corners.
This is what I'm dealing with. On the left it looks like it was painted straight on to the wall board without an applied texture. The right is about as bad as it gets. Its odd that not every seam has visible tape like this, so the obviously figured it out and just didn't bother fixing certain areas.
And this how every corner looks. It's clear they used paper tape with 2 metal strips, but there was almost no compound over it. Honestly if it was just fucked up inconsistent texture I could live with that, just chalk it up to a quirk to this old house. The visible tape is what triggered my tism.
