# Rough plaster texture -- skim coat or sand off?



## Bret86844 (Mar 16, 2016)

Sanding plaster can be a pain. May be worth a quick sand over the high spots and then a skim coat. In one room in our house we skim coated over textured plaster and it took a lot of mud and there are still some bumps that show through. A little bit of sanding first and I think it would have looked A+. Hope that helps.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

Agreed, this is tough stuff to sand.


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## Dixon12 (May 3, 2016)

Actually the texture isn't plaster, it's drywall mud that was put on a rather nice and smooth plaster surface.


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## Sir MixAlot (Apr 4, 2008)

Since it's drywall mud on a painted plaster surface you might be able to wet it with a yellow grout sponge and scrape it off. It will probably take a couple rounds of wet and scrape wet and scrape. Just do a small test area first and see how it goes.:thumbsup:

And if that doesn't work just knock off the texture tips and skim coat it. :yes:

Skim coat by hand:






Or do the paint roller skim coating trick:


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## Sir MixAlot (Apr 4, 2008)

Dixon12 said:


> So can I skimcoat right over it with Durabond or similar


Really you could just use a reputable brand of all purpose joint compound. I prefer USG all purpose joint compound for skim coating over a texture. Here's one of my videos that shows all of the materials and tools needed to mix up enough skim coat mud to do a room or two. :vs_peace:


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## Dixon12 (May 3, 2016)

Thanks! Really nice vids. Would the all purpose joint compound stick to paint?


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## Sir MixAlot (Apr 4, 2008)

Dixon12 said:


> Thanks! Really nice vids. Would the all purpose joint compound stick to paint?


Yes. The all purpose has a lot of glue in it. Most likely it's going to take 3 skims to get a smooth surface.


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