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A few months ago there was a discussion on skim coating either plaster or drywall walls to smooth out blemishes and transition old work to new work. I’ve done this in the past with success, but have come up with a question for the drywallers/plasterers… Has anyone come across a situation where the drywall compound is harder is some areas than in others once the compound dries? To explain further, I’ve used both ready-mix lightweight and topping compounds, and in areas where I’ve used two coats of compound I find areas of compound that are harder than the surrounding areas. Whenever an attempt is made to “feather” the repair, the hard areas don’t sand easily, causing ridges to be left where the hard spots didn’t sand like the rest of the compound. At first I believed that I may have been applying the compound to heavily in areas, but after further investigation, the problem seems to come about randomly… but with enough frequency to make a small project into an absolute nightmare. I’m also not doing anything out of the ordinary like mixing compounds together. Anyone out there have any ideas?? At this rate my project will be done by Christmas… 2005.
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A few months ago there was a discussion on skim coating either plaster or drywall walls to smooth out blemishes and transition old work to new work. I've done this in the past with success, but have come up with a question for the drywallers/plasterers... Has anyone come across a situation where the drywall compound is harder is some areas than in others once the compound dries? To explain further, I've used both ready-mix lightweight and topping compounds, and in areas where I've used two coats of compound I find areas of compound that are harder than the surrounding areas. Whenever an attempt is made to "feather" the repair, the hard areas don't sand easily, causing ridges to be left where the hard spots didn't sand like the rest of the compound. At first I believed that I may have been applying the compound to heavily in areas, but after further investigation, the problem seems to come about randomly... but with enough frequency to make a small project into an absolute nightmare. I'm also not doing anything out of the ordinary like mixing compounds together. Anyone out there have any ideas?? At this rate my project will be done by Christmas... 2005.