How to Slip Coat Plaster Walls

Adjust the temperature in the room between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If you cannot obtain this temperature you can still skim coat your walls. However, bear in mind that increased temperatures will speed the drying time of the plaster. This means you must work faster.

Dip your hawk trowel into water. This will help prevent the plaster from drying on the trowel. A hawk trowel is a large square trowel used for holding plaster while you work. This prevents the need to keep going back to your plaster bucket for more plaster.

Apply a moderate amount of plaster onto your hawk trowel.

Scrape some of the plaster off the hawk trowel with your plaster trowel. You should have approximately a 3-inch layer of plaster that covers approximately 60 percent of the trowel's surface.

Hold the trowel at a 45-degree angle to the wall and position it at the halfway point between the floor and the ceiling.

Push the trowel upward to distribute the plaster onto the wall and then flatten the trowel onto the wall and skim it over the surface of the plaster to smooth it out.

Apply more plaster to the trowel and compete a second pass, overlapping the first pass slightly. Work to keep the plaster level with no visible lines. The object is to coat the wall without the need for sanding. Repeat this process as you work your way across the wall in an upward and then downward motion. Stop after you cover the entire wall with plaster and it looks level without lines or streaking.