Kraft Tool GG242 Squeegee Trowel, 12-Inch, Orange/Black

We bought an older house and at some point an owner had textured the walls and ceilings. We needed to smooth it and didn't have time to strip it, so I started trying to skim the traditional way, with poor results. So, after seeing some YouTube videos we went with this.Amazing.Thin the joint compound and, with a friend, roll it onto the walls with a roller, then follow along with this. Do a decent sized room in an hour, let it dry for a short while and repeat. Quick and smooth with excellent results.

Used to skim coat walls after watching youtube diy videos. Went super good. Especially this partciular item helped resulting in creating surfaces where minimal to no sanding was needed.12 inch is max i would use, above this becomes to heavy to use when mud is on it

Purchased this (12 in) and the 22 in squeegee trowel when I applied knockdown texture in my house. While both work well I actually preferred this smaller one as it was easier to randomize the pull direction on the texture and give the walls and ceiling a better look. Also it was easier to not make to much of a mess when the mud was still a little too wet to be knocked down.

Let me start by saying I am using this to do some skimming. I am getting rid of the texture on my walls in the whole house. I figured is probably have to get another one before I was finished cause the texture might dig in or eventually mess up the smoothness of the squeegee part. And I was right. I just didn't think I'd need another one so soon. I've gotten 4 walls finished with the first coat and I'm guessing I'll need a new one by wall 6. Since I am a newbie at skimming I knew there'd be a learning curve. But it didn't take long time get the hang of it. It's all about the angle you hold it and the pressure you use when gliding it across. The corners are very flimsy, which could be a good thing so they don't gouge the plaster, but that also makes then bend easily and slightly warp. I can see that the wall texture is making little scratches in the blade/squeegee part. For the $24 I paid I'm not happy to need to buy another one so soon. If not need to buy 2 more to be able to finish the project. It is making the project much easier though. So I am happy with it for that reason. I just don't think it's worth the $24. If it was more around $15 I'd feel better about needed more then I thought.

I like this trowel. It's a very good product for the money!

If you already DIYer like me and you are not using this trowel to skim coat you are wasting your time. I bought regular one to skim coat, it was horrible. It took me a whole day to one room with one coat. I did three rooms, one coat in half day with this trowel, no lines from the trowel and you can screw any standard broom stick into it. Can’t wait to do the second coat and get rid off of these ugly textured walls.

Knock down requires developing a "hand", so to speak.The soft tip provides some degree of flex, but a drywall knife if just as good or better.

Skimming my ugly knockdown texture walls. Did the roller technique with a standard trowel with okay results but left behind thick lines and had to sand quite a bit no matter how hard I tried to leave no marks. I'm not a pro btw. The standard metal trowel also skipped a lot. This makes it so easy with very little lines. Sanding is down to basically nothing. My progress doubled if not tripled with this. Once you get the hang of it you won't want to stop. If you're skimming this is the 1 thing you must have.

I had to skim coat an entire kitchen as my tenants had installed a permanent stick-on backsplash without my permission. When I removed the backsplash it ripped off a lot of the underlying paint and even drywall leaving the entire wall surface in need of a skim coat. I'd never done anything like this before, but I followed the Family Handyman "how to skim coat walls" tutorial, and the walls turned out amazing and flawless by using this tool as demonstrated in the tutorial video on YouTube. Walls are now painted and good as new. Would recommend to anyone wanting to skim coat.

Useful for small areas

GREAT tool!!

def not as advertised. ended up using a 12" taping knife instead. left a rough texture and cleaning it off was a pain.

Would not purchase this again as it is to flimsy to spread drywall mud.