Level 5

Brockster

Has anybody tried to spray a skim coat over a painted surface? I'm a little worried I'll get the dreaded air bubbles when it starts to dry. Maybe it won't because it's just a thin coat. Anyone ever been it this situation and have a good answer for me?

rettt

If you are getting air bubbles the mud you use to texture with probably is getting way too much water added to it ! Try approx 3 quarts of water to every 3.5 gallons of light wieght mud . If you use the general purpose mud ! Use less water in general purpose mud .

Brockster

Yesterday I used all-purpose thin way down to almost the consistency of good high build primer and went back today and no bubbles like I was afraid of. It is "level 5" now, I suppose and looks great for smooth wall.
The problem I saw was with my patches being smooth and the previously backrolled painted surface not matching. Now it all is smooth, no chance for photographing and I'm happy trying it this way worked out great.

cooper

Usually in the level 5 final coat when coating by hand you are making things that much flatter. Wouldn't spraying the final coat just be like painting it, but filling in imperfections a little? It also seems like if you had a scratch in a wall it would fill the scratch, but there would also be more material on the rest of the wall, so then the scratch would ultimately not be filled... Right?

Brockster

Most if not all imperfections will still be there after a sprayed skim coat. Skim coating helps to ensure you don't get "photographing". Without the texture you have a good chance of seeing every place you applied mud because the primer will adhere to the paper and mud differently.

cooper

Ok, are we talking about spraying mud or paint? Just priming will avoid the flashing, or photographing, why are you spraying mud... ? If you can spray mud over a wall to avoid flashing, then why not just orange peel the wall with no primer and call it a day?

Brockster

I had a job where we put in new ceilings because they needed to add speakers and a million little lights. They kept the existing walls that were smooth except for a small stipple from a 3/8 roller and we had about 50 patches plus fixed up the old drywall. The owner want smooth so trying to get all the patches to match along with the new ceilings we needed to skim coat everything.
BTW, Builders Solution does a great job at hiding seams but with all the light from the windows and light bouncing off the lake I needed to go one step further.

cooper

But isn't the one step further, mud? So when you spray mud the same as you spray primer it is better for stopping flashing? I had a Graco rep try to sell me on these 'smooth wall' spraying machines but he didn't mention anything about stopping flashing with the mud...

Tim0282

Cooper, The difference is the primer soaks in to the drywall different than the mud. When spraying the mud on the wall, the whole wall is covered the same and the primer can soak in an all will look the same. Works great.

cooper

What are you saying... ?

Primer soaks into the wall taking away the possibility of flashing. Why would spraying mud through one of the Graco mud sprayers be an alternative to priming with paint? How is it better than orange peel? I guess it would depend on how much mud you used for orange peel... We spray it on pretty heavy in my area...

I'm not arguing, just trying to learn more about these new mud spraying airlesses. How do these things hold up by the way? I find myself repairing my paint airless enough that I wouldn't want to mess with the similarly fashioned mud airless...

Brockster

Coop, Tim had it right from what our understanding is meaning the primer will soak into the paper differently than it will the mud and causes our flashing problems.

cooper

ah.... I thought he was defending the method...

Brockster

Good question, I have the markV that is made to pump thick mudd but only time will tell to how long the pump lasts. So far it has pumped mudd through 150' of hose and it's hardly working. We'll see.
That reminds me I need to order that extra pump with their "endurance" offer.

Al Taper

Took a Level 5 class. We used the mark V sprayer and used this Grabber primer( with spackle in it) Put two coats on looks great. But its not cheap. I asked about useing spackle said Green/black is the best to use. Spray it on and use a squeege to wipe it off. Two coat comes out like glass.

Grabber site:
http://www.grabberman.com/ItemDetail...=GASW#Features

HangemHigh

We use Magnum Level Coat, we spray it on after final touch-up with a markV. It does an amazing job for us

cooper

The Magnum Level coat is a primer though, right? Not a real thinly mixed mud?

brdn_drywall

i only use my mark v for level 4 skiming now (20"spraycoat with a tight wipe over the box coat ) prorock brand has a new level 5 wall and ceiling primer/surfacer that does everything you guys are debating with a regular airless. it is manufactured by certanteed (formerlly bpb before the takeover) high hidability and sandable the rep gave me 10 free gallons to try and at 90$ a fiver and eliminating primer best bang for your buck on the market right now.

Tim0282

USG has one also, have you tried it? I have. Ummm it is so, so. If you apply it as thick as they spec, it fish eyes a bit. That is not so pretty. You couldn't sand it, either. Prorock sound more appealing.

OLDSKOOL TAPER

Hi every one,over here in the UK,we don't do a "level 5" type finish in the way you do in America/canada,it seems to me you defeat the object,why go to all the trouble of taping all joints etc and finishing ,only then to cover the entire job in joint compound then smooth all that out.Why not just skim the whole job with board finish plaster?I still can't get my head around the idea of the skim coat,i know full well the problems with joints photographing,but know matter what you do ,natural light coming through a window at certain times of the day ,can still make any level of finishing look ropey.we only have 2 types of wall primer over here,one is just like a basic painters primer,bog standard,but the other is more expensive and is a sealer,once applied it sets like nail polish,and really helps to avoid photgraphing,2 coats also gives you a vapour check.Back to my main point,let me know your views on the point of skim coating. Thanks

cooper

When skimming walls for a Level 5 finish, I use joint compound over finish plaster because it is significantly cheaper. The reason why I skim the entire wall with joint compound is to fill in the many imperfections of sheetrock. Certain lights can really make any wall look imperfect, that is definitely true. But you need to 'go to all the trouble of finishing joints' because the final skim coat is real thin and in no way is intended to make the joints appear flat.