After - Skim Coating to near perfect smoothness

Skim Coating Co-op Lobbies In Queens NY

The popcorn ceiling has gone the way of dot matrix printers, landlines and fax machines for no longer being needed or especially appealing. The bright white attraction can easily be satiated with today's wonderfully-formulated ceiling paints, and the sleek look of a smooth surface over your head modernizes the proverbial loft, condo, house, lobby, work place and office space throughout all the boroughs of New York City. Popcorn ceilings are a little infamous for covering poor workmanship or sloppy installation, akin to heavy Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict when the yolks have already begun to drool. Additionally, they were touted for acoustical properties, but we can raise the bar on that by completely sealing your popcorn nuggets in plaster and then smoothing everything with a skim coat to a contemporary, lustrous finish.

The job we recently completed in a co-op condo building lobby and hallways involved adding skim coat plastering over the popcorn component. Sometimes when a popcorn ceiling has been painted over many times it is more cost effective and dust/mess reducing to skim coat over the popcorn ceiling. With a steady hand and smooth-sided trowel, the Paintworks & Decorating experts crafted a beautiful, unwrinkled ceiling surface. Not only does this smooth ceiling contribute to property value and interior aesthetics, but also it will be super easy to repair. One major drawback of the ol' popcorn ceiling is that it can never be repaired to look the same as the original. A patch job will always be evident, and water leaks from above as well as unintentional ceiling damage are all possible, even for ceilings on a top floor.  We enjoyed renovating and transforming the ceiling, and the residents now enter and move through a much more contemporary environment.  

Before - Mid Skim coating

Finished Master bedroom

Other side of Master bedroom with bold colored doors

The prep stage - Level 4 plastering on walls and ceilings

Jackson Heights Skim Coating and Interior Painting

Jackson Heights is home to many historic residential buildings that are wonderfully built and preserved details. Unfortunately as time goes on and apartments constantly change hands these once fine and beautiful details become lost. Plaster starts to fail, the walls become warped and wonky. Door frames covered in 10+ coats of paint hide the once detailed frame. Good news is that all of this can be fixed. This new homeowner wanted the apartment returned to its original glory and we were happy to help. As professional plasterers and door frame strippers in Queens we immediately knew how to remedy the situation after walking the space. With our Jackson Heights skim coating team in place we began the 4 day process of giving all walls and ceilings of the apartment a Level 4 treatment. Level 4 is 3-4 layers of compound applied to the surfaces to give a smooth look and feel, replacing any current texture. The bottom picture shows a bedroom during the 2nd day of plastering. While the plaster was drying we began the process of stripping all the door frames. Removing years of paint from door frames is an intensive process that takes expertise and patience. Once the paint was removed from the door frames we re-plastered around the frames to make everything look new again. With the plaster dried we sanded all walls and ceilings with fine sandpaper to ensure proper smoothness. We then primed all surfaces to ready them for the finish coats. Using 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Aura we painted the entire apartment. We loved the accent walls and door colors the client chose. Painting the furnace cover a different color from the wall is unique and worked out well. Painting historic Queens Co-ops can be a challenge but it is always worth it. We are thankful for this very involved project and the way the finished place looks.