You Need To Skim Coat Drywall If You Want A Really Smooth Finish

To skim coat drywall well requires a clear idea of what you want the final drywall smooth finish to look like. For one simple reason: there is smooth, and there is SMOOTH.

We can call drywall smooth when no texture is put on after the joint finishing process is done. But if you want a flawless surface for paint (or paper), you have to go an extra step. You need to skim coat the drywall paper also. After that is carefully sanded, you have smooth drywall.

What is “smooth,” really?

Some may see this as odd. After all, isn’t drywall already smooth?

Not exactly. Some brands of drywall have subtle texture on the paper. In the right light, you can see what appears to be what I would call a cross-hatch kind of pattern throughout the paper. When you skim coat drywall paper, you fill in this subtle pattern so that the paper field takes on the exact same appearance as your finished drywall seams.

In addition, you will sometimes have subtle variations in the flatness of a drywall sheet. Skim coating fills in those low spots also.

Getting a perfectly uniform appearance

So this is what you want to end up with ... a perfectly uniform appearance over the entire drywall surface. And the only way to get it is to take your normal drywall finishing process one step further. When the seams are all done, go back and skim all remaining exposed face paper. Then you can say you have true smooth coat drywall.

Over the years, I have found that more and more of my clients are asking for smooth drywall finishes. Here on the west coast of the US where I live, textured drywall and plaster is the more common interior wall and ceiling surface. But people coming here from other parts of the country are asking for the smooth walls and ceilings they are used to.

An exacting process

Getting a really nice smooth finish on your drywall is an exacting process, but certainly do-able with time and effort. Actually, to skim coat drywall is not difficult, but getting that final flawless surface requires some close work.

My approach

So here is how I like to approach it. I use all-purpose joint compound. I either thin it down some with water, so it trowels easily, or I stir in some thin texture compound, which I usually have on hand left over from my most recent texture job. For skimming, I lean toward the lightweight varieties of mud.

For walls, I start in an upper corner and work my way across and down. I trowel it on thin, then wipe it off. If my mud is not overly thin, the paper will hold onto enough of the mud as I trowel it back off to fill in the subtle features of the paper. I shoot for getting the skim coat pretty even and uniform, knowing that I can take care of the minor imperfections when I do the sanding.

Good lighting is important when skimming, and absolutely critical when it is time to sand.

Sanding time

Now for the part that everyone loves - sanding. I wear a good paper mask (you don’t want “white lung”) and a hat or cap with a brim to reduce dust in the eyes. I like the sanding sponges, either a fine or medium grit. If medium, care must be taken to use light pressure to avoid getting scratches in your soft skim coat.

It is important to be systematic so nothing is missed. I hold a light in my left hand and my sanding block in my right. I like to move the light around at different angles so I don’t miss any imperfections, even the most subtle ones.

I almost always find little skipped places, and scratches in the finish coat, so I have a small pan of thin mud handy ... to fill in these kinds of things rather than try to eliminate them by sanding. The filling must be done carefully, so I don’t create new places needing sanding later.

Smoothing drywall ceilings

It is really important to skim coat drywall ceilings that are not going to be textured. This I have learned the hard way. You can do a flawless job on the drywall seams, but when you paint later, you see that the joints will often show ... because they are smoother than the uncoated paper surrounding them. Don’t make this mistake.

Yes, to skim coat drywall overhead is a pain, but so is a new painted ceiling with all the seams highlighted.

If you have old painted drywall that's rough and needs to be smoothed out, you have a different kind of challenge. Check out skim coat rough plaster.

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