What exactly is skin coat? and is it better than sheet rock?

Question

What exactly is skin coat? and is it better than sheet rock?

Answer 1

a skim coat goes on sheetrock so that it has a consistant porosity for paint.

It's a way to hide the seems when two pieces of sheetrock meet.

Sheetrock compound is watered down and painted on using a variety of methods- anywhere from rollers to sprayers. this gives a wall a perfectly consistant coat that hides what is underneath i.e. seams, repairs, etc...

I see no need for TREX to go insulting us here, but I feel I must repond. My advice comes from the fact that I own a company that does exactly this. I know a lot about walls and the problems that come up and solutions that are used to effectivley solve situations.

The advice from TREX may be ok in some circles, but he is talking about plaster, while plaster has it's place , it is yesterdays technology. Going over a rough wall with plaster to cover a brick wall or other substrates is fine if you have the cash to cover the high cost or are highly experienced with the material and have confidence coming out of your ears. Even then, plaster is hard and brittle and sending in a anchor to hang a picture is tough work. It's time consuming, expensive and a poor product.  That is why drywall is made in the first place.

Drywall installs fast and is not to expensive. After the panels are installed the joints are taped , mudded over and then comes the finishing. You end up with a product that is flatter than plaster could ever be. The skim coating in the first part of my answer comes in at this point. Drywall has a paper surface which is different than the joints which are filled with mud. If one simply paints over this entire surface the paint will absorb differently  between the paper and the mudded joints. A lot of cheap--cheating types think that they can just primer the c**p out of it and it will cover it, but it's simply not true. I can walk into any building in town and tell you if they skim coated it or not.

I say go for Sheetrock, it 's cheaper, faster, and a better product.

Answer 2

What a load of blooming nonsense cotained in the above answers.

You have two choices,

1/ if the plaster board is fitted with the white side facing you, then you can iether have the joints taped with paper tape and white filler, or you can have a plasterer cover the whole wall with a very thin covering of finished plaster, usually pink in colour, this is a Skim coat.

2/ if the plaster board has the dark grey side facing you then it has been installed with the sole purpose of being plastered,again with a thin coat of finished plaster, called a SKIM coat.

On an old or even new brick wall you would have about half an inch of two types of plaster, the first coat would be appled to the brickwork about half an inch thick and is called Browning, this coat then has the surface scratched while still wet to allow the finished top coat to be adhered,  this top coat is again a thin coat of finished plaster and again is called a skim coat.

Answer 3

A skim coat can be used on older drywall and plaster to make a smooth surface for painting. You use slightly watered down drywall mud, spread a thin layer over the entire wall, then sand.