any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceiling

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barbi1963

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Hi there - been out the loop for a bit, still plastering my house :) , getting better, can now do 6 metre wall in 3 hours & its near perfect, well pleased - ok so I'm not a full time plasterer but I do have a 300m+ new selfbuild house to do on my own, got a weeks training last year & am gradually getting better and faster, long way to go yet, dreading the stairs and landing. was battling agains hubby who didn't support me doing it, didn;t think I could manage, however have now proved otherwise & he' now said i can do the sitting room - 11 metres long..... I have the disadvantage I've never worked with other plasterers so can;t pick up tips that way

ok enough chatter - I've been asked to skim an art texed ceiling - any tips?? (excuse spelling, can't remember how to spell it - that spikey stuff that 80's houses have on the ceilings)
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

there is two ways well three you can reboard it first. the first way and probably the best way for you is to pva first then use bonding to flatten the ceiling first making it as flat as possible as its going off as if you were trowling up a skim coat, then pva again when the bonding has set and then skim. the other way is to scrape the heads off artex to take as much down as possible the pva and skim depending on the depth artex u may need to three coat it with finish to get a good job. in short skimming over artex is not easy if your new to the game but good luck.
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

these jobs are bread and butter to me...its not often i come across a ceiling which i have to rip down but it does happen...if its real bad e.g. blown/loose/flaky on lath and plaster then ill usually take em down...
if not (95percent), floorscaper - take the high spots off (tenner from wickes) then 1 coat of pva @ 4:1, let it dry then another @ 2:1, let it go tacky...assuming its not silk paint (another story)
Then lay on first coat (use multi) real thick, helps if you knock it up a bit thicker than normal cos then it'll naturally come off your trowel thicker...cover ALL the artex in this coat, you dont wanna see any little white dots at all...
Let it pull in and flatten off, then mix up again maybe 1/2 as much consistensy as normal and top it, trowel up as normal..
sounds simple yes?
it might be...all depends on the artex and what its coverered with...
if its silk painted you could be in for a headache...best to read as many posts as you can find on this forum containing the word artex cos theyre all about the same thing and a million different ways to deal with what is essentially down to intentifying background suction/adhesion...
some kill all suction dead...thistle bond it and board finish might help you out here..
others throw a coat of bonding on it to level it out, i prefer not to...
i like a bit of suction and i use multi...
dont be scared of it though, if you find it goes to quick to get a good finish just knock up another coat and top it again...
bear in mind theyre all different, skimming on board is one thing...overskimming is a completely different animal and we never stop learning...
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

you go girlfriend ;)
like the lads are saying get youre dayrate plus materials and explain to the customer the pros and cons
new p/board- best finish
reskim on p.v.a- could poss fall off in sheets
qypbond- seals the artex so although not fully guaranteed gives better odds than pva
p.s where are you based i'm sure someone could show you the ropes for the odd day
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

ey up nicksey, whats the difference between gypbond and thistle bond it? reason i ask is cos im lead to believe it kills all suction - dead...
now whenever i overskim i always use pva, but theres been a time or two when ive gone a bit overboard with it and ended up killin all the suction and its been a f""kin nightmare...in short got a huge set to do so i go mad with the pva, then it'll just sit and grin at me for an hour, pointless flattenin it, then all at once it goes off like a bullet so im runnin round like an idiot, then ive gotta quick top it but its like toppin a dry wall...still runnin round...this is multi though...i like it to go off steady so i can flatten it pretty much soon as ive laid on...
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

Hey bigsegs what nickseys saying about gypbond is the same as thistle bond-it. I actualy thought it was called gypbond as everyone calls it that it's like pva being called unibond or door closures being called percos it must have been called that before or something as i still call it gypbond, I only found out it wasnt called that when i told a customer to get some and came back telling me there is no such thing and then pulled out a tub of bond-it and i said thats the stuff :)
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

lol..right.. ;D
i used to think the underfelt support on the end of roof rafters was called a sarkin board..still do..
then some scottish geezer tells me everything treated (timber) is called sarkin cos i was lookin at him a bit funny when he suggested boxing out a sash window with 'a bit of sarkin'!
whats your veiws on killin all suction then bod?
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

that's true i'll remember that when i send a customer for mat's !! i used to go on another forum and i swear the lad thought gypbond and bondit were two different things lol apparently you can use qypbond for outside and only thistle bond it for inside lmfao ;D
it's lovely stuff to use bigseggs but only on decent size sets it's got an aggregate in it so you get a key on say a silk painted wall and the multi does seem to stay nice and spongey
downsides though it's a little dearer and it has to go on 24 hours before or less if the rooms warm and it costs 30-50 quid a tub for 10 litres, wickes do a wba version never used it though
however ive never had any probs with pva on overskims even artex ceilings but i know a lad who has ;D
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

You say it's 11m long but how wide. As in m2 total
I think you'd be better with wickes bonding agent as there's no timing involved (well overnight)
and it is more even.
I think you'd find it gave you more time.

As someone said where are you?
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

the artex ceiling is only 7' by 7', so i can suck it & see how it works (have been requested to do others but so far have avoided) my house is new & plasterboarded, no major problem apart from the timing - in Winchester hampshire, hubby suggested making a break with a batten & then meeting it the other way

barbi
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

if you want to break up a ceiling you can run a length of scrim where you want to break it and tear it off after the second trowel
on a large roof (as my lab likes to call them ;D) you stagger the joint aswell so it doesn't look too obvious
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

nice 1 top tip there with the scrim..how do i finish other half?fade in to line ect?
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

best done same day if you can mate and keep the joint nice and wet, it's pretty much the same as any patching really ........you need to aimes it after ;D
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

55m2!
The only way I'd do that would be a rolling gauge and I'd charge monster for it cos it's damn hard work.
I never use joins but at your level the scrim tape woud seem the best option.

What's the biggest area you've done?
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

get another spead to help, it'll be abetter job to do it in one hit.
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

isnt it funny, alot of people call ceilings, roofs ;D

also havnt had a beer now for 4 days :(
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

biggest celing so far is probably 30m2 which took 6 hours, I've got 3 more ceilings to do before I tackle the big one, probably be me, my bro & husband, they labour & I do the finish.

did the artex ceiling yesterday, went well, took longer than I anticipated, as i had to scrape it back to base as it had paint on it that looked suspiciously shiny, got instructions from an old pub customer whose a plasterer, who happened into the pub sunday whilst I was working, hes on holiday from florida, who I haven';t seen for 3 years, he kindly gave me his phone number if I had problems. then skimmed all the walls too, not sure I'm going to admit how long it all took, but customer was pleased with the result, I wasn't with the last bit, will probably go back to redo, I was consious that it was getting late.

:-*Thanks to everyone who gave me instructions, it saw me fine, so now I know what to look for if I'm asked to do one, so I don;t under quote, although I tend to charge by the hour, as I'm still very much an improver, not brill on corners yet, guess thats just practice, also plugs are a nightmare
 
Re: any advice onskimming over art tex on the ceil

hi barbi, i'm fairly close to you, (basingstoke)and have worked in alresford easton and abbotstone. give me shout if you get stuck, advice and site visits are free, well vertually, i'm partial to a bit of coffee and walnut cake! ;D
 
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