Preparing for skim coat of plaster

[Dragonrider99]

Greetings all. I hope I get this answer before the weekend. I have just finished removing the wallpaper from a very large room we are renovating for my son. Used to be 2 bedrooms and we took down the dividing wall. As a result, there are 2 color carpets, 2 different wallpapers, etc... Anyway, instead of repapering (which I can't do), we decided to have the walls all skim coated and then paint. The reason for the skim coat is that there is new construction in the room (doors blocked, closet removed, closet added and so on.) Anyway, what I need to know is this: I have to prepare the walls for the plasterer. He has already come obviously and looked at it all. The walls are original horse hair over slats so I did not really want to tear it all out and start over. He told me that I needed to get the walls as clean as possible so that the plaster will have a good bond. There is very little wallpaper paste remaining on the walls. He suggested I use TSP to wash them down... rinse it well... then sand it all with 40 grit sandpaper. Then I need to wash it again to remove the dust.

Is there an easier way to prepare the walls? I'm not lazy but very pressed for time. He is coming Monday. Can I just sand the walls then rinse them? Won't that remove any remaining paste?

Thanks for your help !!!

[CThomp]

I guess it probably to late. Washing the walls of one room really isn't that big a deal. Neither is the sanding. It would'a been alot harder to tear down the old plaster. Smart move just doing a skim coat.

I had my plaster ceilings skimcoated and a knock down done on them for texturing. I didn't prep them at all for the pasterer. Of course they were never drywalled. I think I just hit them with a broom. That was probably it. My plasterer mixed quickdry cement in with his plaster for a stronger plaster.

I wish he wouldn't have moved to Georgia. He was probably the bext plasterer i've ever met.