Does this wall need skimming or just a better fill repair?

ashe

We have this wall in our house where a large hole has been from previous owner - an additional light switch was installed on the other side of it and a steel been inserted to make the kitchen / living room open plan. It looks awful when the light catches it - we're not sure if to resolve it it needs a full re-skim or if it just needs repairing better than when they did it? (The long line at the bottom heading off to the right isn't a crack, it's where something got dragged lightly up the stairs when getting our bathroom done)

MikeJXE

 A full skim is always best assuming you get a good plasterer

Whats the texture in the photo or is that the camera lens causing it 

ashe

ashe said:

We have this wall in our house where a large hole has been from previous owner - an additional light switch was installed on the other side of it and a steel been inserted to make the kitchen / living room open plan. It looks awful when the light catches it - we're not sure if to resolve it it needs a full re-skim or if it just needs repairing better than when they did it? (The long line at the bottom heading off to the right isn't a crack, it's where something got dragged lightly up the stairs when getting our bathroom done)

It has a bit of an orange peel texture to it, most the house does 

ill provide pics from other angles

MikeJXE

Well I doubt you can fill plus sand and leave an orange peel effect so you are going to see some variation on the wall unless you skim it all

Having said that it will look different to the other walls 

diystarter7

Hi

Be careful when chosing a skimmer - read their reviews and make sure they are about skimming on the whole and not something else. We had a good skimmer, he only did plastering but the last room he rushed it was 9-5 out of 10 the other rooms were 10+

Make sure you are around to check

Thanks

grumbler

ashe said:

...we're not sure if to resolve it it needs a full re-skim or if it just needs repairing better than when they did it?

It needs repairing in the first place. It looks to me like big bits of plaster are ready to fall apart if you touch the cracks. And you don't want to re-skim lose plaster. After repairing it'll be more clear if re-skimming is needed

ashe

grumbler said:

ashe said:

...we're not sure if to resolve it it needs a full re-skim or if it just needs repairing better than when they did it?

It needs repairing in the first place. It looks to me like big bits of plaster are ready to fall apart if you touch the cracks. And you don't want to re-skim loose plaster. After repairing it'll be more clear if re-skimming is needed

There is no looseness to it at all, no give when you push it. It's looked like this for the 5 years we've lived here with no change. It's literally the finest hairline crack around where they put the filler originally 

Norman_Castle

Orange peel texture looks like old plaster which has had paper stripped from it. I'd try leveling the area by sanding any high spots with sandpaper on a longer piece of wood then filling with a wide filling knife.