Taping & joining Vs fully skimmed

size5

Have been looking at ways to cut down the costs of an extension and one of that was suggested was to tape and join the plaster boards rather that fully skim.

My own thoughts are currently live in a house that was taped and jointed and you can see every joint(though house was built when they were just thrown up and anything would sell)-so wouldn't be in favour of it.

Though with less work now quality should be better.

Questions:
Would there be much savings?
Can there be good jobs done by just taping and jointing?
Would savings be so slight that I would be better of fully skimming?

thoughts advise appreciated

muffler

Not fully suited to the prices/costs forum. I'll move this to the C & P forum.

dan_d

I'm not great on the cost, but I know we used it in a recent job. 2 coats of taping and jointing and then sand. It gives a pretty good finish as long as you make sure the boards making up the walls are plumb first. Also there'll be a bit of a build up at corners, so you may find some are off square slightly - see if you can sort out some sort of detail with whoever's doing the job for you .

I suppose some advantages are that it's quick, it dries a lot quicker and probably cheaper. Disadvantages being that skimmed walls finish that bit better, but it depends on how fussy you are. You can get a good job out of it though.

mfceiling

Hi,

The savings will not be particulary much on an extension but you get what you pay for.
I know 2 lads who are great tapers and will leave a wall nigh on perfect.
I also know a few good skimmers who will leave quality work.
It's like everything op - good men will leave good work, shoody men will leave poor work.

The only other point is taping is not considered a "wet" trade and therefore will dry out quicker than skimming allowing you to paint quicker.

AckwelFoley

Taping is very common in the US house building, no so common here.

Id always go with the skim finnish, betterfinish every time imo

mickdw

The finish can be fine with tape & jointing however I have yet to see a job where you cannot pick out the joint if the wall is shadowed in a certain way. Any lighting fixed to the wall will show up the joints. This will also show up any problems with a skimmed wall too so the point made earlier re good/Bad tradesmen in very true