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Hi,
I was reading some of the artices on here where I think DJ recommended to put two layers on a wall. However I think the wall was not plasterboard.

I am thinking about trying to skim a few plasterboard walls(my first attempt) I have and thought I only need to put one coats on is that right ?

any handy tips will be appreciated

Over to dj!!

One coat should be fine, although some people prefer 2 coats.

if you opt for 2 coats you must apply the second coat before the first coat dries fully, or if it does dry you must PVA it before skimming it again!

always two coats, you just don't get the same finish with one coat. put your first one on to the required thickness, this is your roughing on coat. then leave it untill it starts to stiffen up slightly, should only take 5 mins. flatten it off to take most trowel marks out.
then mix your top coat (laying in coat) put that on fairly thin making sure you cover the whole wall, don't keep messing with it!! leave a few minutes and trowell over throwing a little water on if necessary. repeat that final process a few times and make sure you brush out your internal angles.
nice big strokes help to achieve a better finish, if you are right handed then you should be able to spread from our left shoulder untill your arm is fully stretced out to the right. from the floor you should get at least half way up the wall.
i don't care what anyone says, i learnt with an old timer and because of the way i do things i have been called an old timer, do it right first time.

Thanks for the replies.

My main worry is that I wont be able to skim the whole walk before the skim starts setting....is it ok to do a wall in stages or do you really need to do it all in one go ?

As this will be my first attempt I feel I may be quite slow

you could do it in sections but you will always get a join, you would be better to try and do the whole wall, how big is it??

Thanks. The walls are of different sizes but they all are all high. I am going to try on a small wall first and see what happens.

Do you know how big an area I bag of skim will do if u use the 2 coat method ?

depends on thickness etc but out of 1 bag you should get a 12ft x 7ft wall.
one and half buckets to a bag so mix 1 bucket for roughing on coat and the half bucket for your laying in coat.

Thanks DJ your help is much appreciated I will give it a go in the next few weeks.

Last question if I am going to skim over an area that hasnt been done very well can I just skim over the top or do I need to PVA it first ?

yes pva it otherwise it will suck more than a whore on heat then it will fall off, a good couple of coats and make sure you don't miss any bits.
good luck

oh and try to keep the room as cool as possible