To skim or not to skim?

[Herring_Brother]

Do french builders normally skim plasterboard stud walls? I've been told that they don't always bother, and just tape & paint - seems a bit rough, can anybody confirm or deny?

cheers,
Matt P

[James_B]

Tape and paint in my experience, which given how slow my builders are, is somewhat limited! However architect did confirm that this is how they normally do it.

[BeauGeste<P><FONT face=Arial>Pat<FONT><P><P><FONT face=Arial>See us at <FONT><a target=_blank href="http:www.chez-robineau.com"><FONT face=Arial>http:www.chez-robineau.com<FONT><A><P><P> <P>]

I think tape and paint is being a bit unkind. It's more usual nowadays to see plasterboard white side showing, in France and UK, the joints being tapered, the joints are taped and filled, allowed to dry filled again and finally overfilled with a finish coat once it's all dried it's rubbed down with a 120 grit paper (horrible gob). The same process is applied to the lines of nails (of screws). Have a look at the Lafarge UK site there's some nice explanations of the process if I remember and a downloadable Pdf document.

There are French finish plasters available, but you don't see them used on board by the French much, it's all a matter of taste really. The taping method if done well will give an extremely flat surface which could be seen as too regular, so a skim finish might sometimes be preferable, it seems to have a bit of depth somehow.

Good luck.

Pat

http://www.chez-robineau.com

[A_Redman]

>Do french builders normally skim plasterboard stud walls? I've been told that they don't always bother, and just tape & paint - seems a bit rough, can anybody confirm or deny? >
>cheers,
>Matt P

If tape and paint is done well and the stud work was good the finish can be very good indeed / as good as plaster skim