Hi, First off, it's natural for the white coat of plaster to have spiderweb cracks all over the surface. These are only in the white coat and are very closely spaced and interconnected. By closely I mean 1/4" apart. _Those_ are nothing to fix or worry about. Cracks that extend into the base coat, and have movement that you can see by pressing, and seem "broken" are something to fix. I like to spray the cracks with bonding agent (garden sprayer) and sponge the stuff in (don't leave any drips of bonding agent; hard to skim over them). It seems to stop any movement for some time. Then add fiberglass mesh tape and the durabond routine, as you have read. The closet area, maybe sand the mess a little smoother to take off any high spots, the prime and then tape. We always use an oil primer around unknown/unforeseeable problem areas, because it really seals anything "bad" like wallpaper glue and prevents problems in the future, and durabond or regular mud sticks to the primer. Regular mud is not optimal for plaster repair in areas where is has to build up thickness; that's where you run into drying cracks (plus it takes lots of time for all the water to evaporate) and when/if it ever gets wet again it falls off lime plaster in sheets. It won't fall off if you oil prime first, and use it sparingly. Use brown coat plaster like Structolite (or Gypsolite), on top of a bonding agent like Link or Plasterweld if down to the lath, use durabond or easysand when the white coat is damaged or missing, use regular mud only for small imperfections and the final touchups, and you'll be fine. Casey

Quick update: BM rep came by my house a few days ago and took a look. Said smell normally disappears sooner, but wasn't too concerned. He would have been concerned if there was a rotton egg smell as this means mold or bacteria is in the paint (it must have happened before for them to check for this). He said this is only the 2nd case of someone complaining about Aura's odor lasting too long. He said the other people used Mr. Clean to prep the walls so he was interested to hear how I preped them. In the end he said nothing stands out as improper preparation. He suggested I keep more windows open while I'm painting (I had all the hallway and other bedroom windows open but keep them closed in the room I was painting to try to minimize the amount of dust in the air. I opened them after painting). Anyway he offered me a complementry can of Aura which I will use for another coat in the next few days. I'll update the thread again to see if the odor experience is different.

SOS-feeling like this thread might have the answer I need! Skim coating over a really bad knockdown texture. I have done three coats with all purpose lightweight joint compound overall it’s looking pretty good! Only issue is there are still some high point from the knock down still showing through. I don’t think I can sand them at this stage without destroying all the work I have done. What should I do? Additionally, on the walls that look ready. I’ve gone over everything with a light and touched up the places I noticed. I’ve run my hand over the wall more times than I can count to make sure it’s smooth. However, I’m really worried that when I paint sections that aren’t level will be very apparent. Does anyone have any other tips to make sure everything is ready to prime and paint? Would priming the walls and then If anything comes through doing another coat be a terrible idea? It’s been a messy and time consuming process and really can’t wait for it to be over hahah Thankful for any advice!

Let me tell you a story. I used to work for a huge new construction painting crew. We had 35 painters or so. Many of us were specialists in spraying primer and backrolling. We used 1 1/4" nap sleeves. You can get into a lot of trouble with a roller cover that big if you don't give a crap. However, if you spread the paint out properly, you can get a wall to look as if it was rolled out with a 1/2" nap. My point is, this is a technique issue. This is why you have some areas that don't look too bad and some areas that look fine. It's not that they choose the wrong size nap. It's just because they didn't care (or were not trained properly). I'm not saying that the 3/4" nap is the best choice for rolling primer. It's not. 1/2" would be more appropriate. So, don't let this one incident ruin you image of painters. You should be able to find a painter that can paint.