Skimming and repainting a small bathroom difficulty and need to knows! Help!

After the wallpaper got ripped off of my bathroom walls, someone repainted them white, but since they did not do anything to the walls before they painted, it is really obvious to see the moderately poor conditions of some parts of the walls, especially some uneven areas. So I plan on repainting the walls, after skimming them, but I have a couple of questions:

1. Is all of this possible for a first time project?
2. Is their a lot of difficulty to sanding the skimmed walls with an electric sander?

please keep in mind that this is my first time project, so please tell me if I am in way over my head. I have watched a few videos and it does not look like it is too difficult of a process, but yet again the people doing it might just be making it look easy. Also, feel free to tell me any other pointers I might need, thanks!

 

Welcome to the forums

1 Yes
2 I wouldn't use an electric sander, sanding joint compound is usually a manual process.

You can do this and we can walk you through it. That said, I would rank this as a relatively straight forward job and therefore not a bad place to start your DIY career.

 

You'll want to use a sanding pole or anything that holds the sandpaper flat to do your sanding. An electric sander will remove too much and create too much dust. Personally I'd rather add an extra coat of joint compound than do any extra sanding.

 

My only other questions are, how many layers of joint compound should i put on before sanding? and how many times should i repeat this process minimum?

Also, after the sanding process is complete, do i paint directly on to the sanded joint compound? or is their any final steps i need to take before i paint?

Thanks!

 

Last question first - prime the joint compound before you paint it.

As to the number of coats, that depends on you - might be one or two, might be more. You typically do not sand any of the intermediate coats, only the last one.

 

What type of primer is best?

 

Any primer meant for bare drywall would be fine, my personal choice would be Zinsser 123.

This assumes you are using latex paint. If you are planning to use oil based paint, choose an oil based primer (Zinsser Bulls Eye oil based would be my choice in that case).

 

after the primer layer is dried, then i may paint the walls any color i desire? Right now they are just white, and i will be skimming over the white paint.

 

Yes. That said, if you are thinking of a deep color, it may benefit you to get your primer tinted as well.

 

Also, after sanding, is their any preparatory steps i need to take before i apply the primer?

 

Just remove the sanding dust from the walls - wipe them down, sweep, vacuum, whatever.

 

Skim coating is a bit different than drywall finishing. If it's applied good enough, a skim coat can be done in 1 coat. It all depends on what it looks like. The odds are you'll apply 1 coat of mud, let it dry and see a few areas that need more mud. Sand the wall when you think it's ready.... you can still add j/c if needed. Even after the primer coat, if you find areas that need more attention - remud those areas, sand and prime.

As Mitch stated - remove the sanding dust before priming! It doesn't have to be perfect.... but paint won't adhere to dust.