How I came to love the sponge.

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Jurek

Jurek

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I've always had a sponge in the van, but only used it rarely. But recently I've started to use it all the time. Tried it one day in an empty house I was doing in case it went tits up and it was like a road to Damascus moment. I couldn't sleep that night. I just wanted to get back to the house and do it again. Just wondered what you guys think. Seems to be a lot of negativity around this subject and I don't understand why. Takes a bit of practice before you get it right. But once you do... Well
 
It's lovely where the stuff is on too deep, up to a door frame or a joist kicking out where you've had to fill out, it'll flatten like its on half a mill thick
 
Imo you must be shite laying down if you need to sponge your gear to get even etc ..........

Lazy one coaters springs to mind .... and no your finish isn't anything like 2 coats no matter how you try and 'kid' yourself it is ....
 
adamd said:
Imo you must be shite laying down if you need to sponge your gear to get even etc ..........

Lazy one coaters springs to mind .... and no your finish isn't anything like 2 coats no matter how you try and 'kid' yourself it is ....
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Your not grasping the concept Adam, it's nothing to do with how neat your laying down is.
Nor about one coaters.
I two coat everything,
If you've tried to flatten where there is about 6 or 7 mill of skim you will know that because there is so much moisture there it will have a tendency to move under the trowel making it impossible to flatten to perfection.
Leaving it longer so it doesn't move & you will get fat marks or cats faces.
When it's ready for flattening a wipe of a sponge float in that area and leave for two mins and flatten, perfect.
It's much the same concept as universal one coat, if you didn't sponge that where there is a depth of gear it would be a mess.
And before all the haters come on saying those areas should be bonded out etc, we know that but........
 
Dansouthcoast84 said:
I use a sponge. Just looks nicer when dry and easier to finish.

We do the following.
1st coat.
Flatten with eze spat
2nd coat
flatten with eze spat
Can leave longer than usual.
light water spray and sponge
trowel off
2 trowels with nela.

Job done
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What if you don't have a nela
 
BigK said:
Your not grasping the concept Adam, it's nothing to do with how neat your laying down is.
Nor about one coaters.
I two coat everything,
If you've tried to flatten where there is about 6 or 7 mill of skim you will know that because there is so much moisture there it will have a tendency to move under the trowel making it impossible to flatten to perfection.
Leaving it longer so it doesn't move & you will get fat marks or cats faces.
When it's ready for flattening a wipe of a sponge float in that area and leave for two mins and flatten, perfect.
It's much the same concept as universal one coat, if you didn't sponge that where there is a depth of gear it would be a mess.
And before all the haters come on saying those areas should be bonded out etc, we know that but........
Click to expand...
If I could put it into words, this would be exactly it. Well said
 
These are the same methods I've been using. Two coats, sponge, couple trowels. I'm glad I came out. I was ashamed at first, afraid of being different. I kept telling myself it wasn't right. But it is. Everything is less of a rush. There is no stress
 
@jureck I converted to sponge a few weeks ago and am loving it !after years and years of same technique I fancied a change !so I converted to sponge so all those anti sponge brigade didn't buy any s*p*r*lex or spats ?case closed no more questions
 
Actually sponged one wall today,
1st coat, DEEP!!!
2nd coat, deeper than it should preferably be to cover more discrepancys.
Left it longer than I would like as someone kept me on the phone,
Sponged then flattened,
1 s*p*r*lex.
To be honest I could have walked from it then, but being the particular sort I am I gave it a cross trowel of the flex.
 
Never used a sponge apart from sponging the edges of patchin to blend it in a bit better, may give it a go one day, always open to different ways + techniques. As long as it looks good when its painted does it matter how u do it, everyone works different ways!
 
Jurek said:
These are the same methods I've been using. Two coats, sponge, couple trowels. I'm glad I came out. I was ashamed at first, afraid of being different. I kept telling myself it wasn't right. But it is. Everything is less of a rush. There is no stress
Click to expand...

Im not taking the piss but i wouldn't mind seeing a video of a set (edited to under a min ideally) so i can see how u sponge monkeys do it. I used to judge people for "rough" methods but lately i've been using a bit of tatar and giving it two coats of the same gear on big hits...still good.

These days i couldn't give a f**k if someone gives it 1 coat, 1 sponge and 1 nela. If its good its good, bring it on.
 
thebearbeef said:
Im not taking the piss but i wouldn't mind seeing a video of a set (edited to under a min ideally) so i can see how u sponge monkeys do it. I used to judge people for "rough" methods but lately i've been using a bit of tatar and giving it two coats of the same gear on big hits...still good.

These days i couldn't give a f**k if someone gives it 1 coat, 1 sponge and 1 nela. If its good its good, bring it on.
Click to expand...

I'll put one up next week.
 
Got myself one of these. I'm so ahead of the game. O yes. A normal sponge just won't do it's got to be a Super Sponge!!! It's pretty damn flexible aswell I might add.
How I came to love the sponge.
 
I didn't know much about sponging until I joined the forum and I'm not afraid to try new techniques so gave it a go a few months back, I two coated and finished as mentioned above. The finish was nice almost the same as my in sponged finish, I didn't feel it saved me much work as I was just swapping on pass with a trowel for a sponge but the sponging seemed harder work and for this reason I still use my old method. The sponge does however have a place as if you ever have a wall or area that is drying quick for an unforeseen reason then it comes into its own.
 
kgreigh said:
I didn't know much about sponging until I joined the forum and I'm not afraid to try new techniques so gave it a go a few months back, I two coated and finished as mentioned above. The finish was nice almost the same as my in sponged finish, I didn't feel it saved me much work as I was just swapping on pass with a trowel for a sponge but the sponging seemed harder work and for this reason I still use my old method. The sponge does however have a place as if you ever have a wall or area that is drying quick for an unforeseen reason then it comes into its own.
Click to expand...

Did you use a sponge or spongefloat?
I have two spongefloats, one is a finer grain and is a lot harder to drag over the wall.
 
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