artex argghhhh!

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windy

windy

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HI all

Went to the mother in laws today to do a test patch over the artex im skimming over on monday. Was goona WBA it then decided to save some cash and just use pva. :-[

I then hacked off the high points with a scraper and applied 2 caots of pva and waited for ages for it to dry then gave it one coat. Started skimming when last pva coat was tacky. I was only doing an area behind the couch to see if 2 coats of boardy would cover the high areas or whether it would need bonding then skimming.

I used board finish which has been in my shed ages and used a bit of muck water to set it off quicker. Applied thick first coat and waited for it to go off and waited and waited. About an hour later it was still wet and i wasnt able to flatten down. THen it seemed to start bubbling - a bit like when you mistakenly plaster over wallpaper. The bard finish looked all wavey and looked like the moons surface. After an hour tried to give it a firm trowel and most of the gear slide off the surface of the wall it hadnt even bonded properly to the wall ::)

Im confident in plastering most backgrounds but i aint done a lot of artex.

What did i do wrong and how could my technique be fixed. Would a tight bonding coat have caused this bubbling as well??

As soon as i think im taking one step frward in this game i come across something that knocks me back two steps

Arrghhhhhh

Please help
 
Have had the same problem in the past, now I either use Thistle Bond It or Bonding,never again will I use PVA over artex purely for the same reasons.
 
Sounds like the ceiling wasn't flat to start with sometimes you dont notice this till its to late , just pay more attention to the prep and use wba ;)
 
Thanks

Off to wickes tommoz to get the WBA

Will use fresh gear. Would you use multi or board. Amd seeing as suction will be killed shall i let the 1st coat hang a bit longer before flattening down.

WIll the WBA be enough or would you pros use bonding plaster then skim?

Just dont wanna go back and make another tit of myself :(
 
Without seeing the ceiling its hard to say what can be skimmed and what needs bonding out first , wba gives you a good key which is a good starting point .
 
As Steve said , don't think the old plaster and mucky water helped much , i do 100's of these a year and i always use PVA without any probs , love wba but it's too expensive and you have to wait 24 hrs,
if the ceiling is silk or gloss finish just scrape or score (don't always do it ) and pva then on with the first coat (nice an thick if over artex ) and then a fresh second coat (don't always do this either ) yep sometimes you get loadsa bubbles , cos there no suction , but on yer final trowels these will go , be patient and consistent , it will work , whether it's thistle board or multi , don't mean to sound condescending or patronising mate , but these types of jobs are just run of the mill , it will get easier with more experience you gain
 
warriors summed it all up. i never use wba, always pva and never had a problem. 2 good coats is normally enough to cover artex and like he said, the blistering tends to go by the time its finished. i always give it the first coat of pva the day before if possible, then the second coat will stay tacky for a while but not ages.
 
Warrior wickes wba only needs 2 hours mate then skim away ,one tub will cover 22m, so works resonable at £13 a tub. I was dubious till I used for first time, used to use bond-it that needs 24hrs, still use on thick artex to be fair.
 
ziggy2 said:
Warrior wickes wba only needs 2 hours mate then skim away ,one tub will cover 22m, so works resonable at £13 a tub. I was dubious till I used for first time, used to use bond-it that needs 24hrs, still use on thick artex to be fair.
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Cheers mate , never used it but will bear it in mind for future ref
 
is it similar in texture to bond it or more like pva? ive only ever skimmed over bond it once when a builder bought some and tried it on one wall. wasn't too keen.
 
has anyone tried [unibond plastering pva] comes in a blue 4 ltr can ,bought it this morning to go over artex next week cost us £21 just wonderin if its any diff to ordinary pva or just pva in a fancy can :-\
 
never used it, used normal uni bond and its alright, magnet in coventry do 25 litres ofbond it pva for 20quid. thats pretty good stuff aswell.
 
steve_cov_spread said:
is it similar in texture to bond it or more like pva? ive only ever skimmed over bond it once when a builder bought some and tried it on one wall. wasn't too keen.
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i think its better than bond it , the aggregate in wba is finer and seems to spread easier via a roller , bond it to me seems to clump together making hard to skim over without the grit grinning through , cause its from wickes people think its diy "ish" but apart from the price i cant knock it
 
Do you guys always go over 2nd pva coat when its tacky?

Ive always left both glue coats to dry as the scrapped artex gives out a good mechanical key, and it gives you that little bit longer to work the ceiling
 
thats the reason i didnt like it church, too gritty. maybe he just put it on too thick but he never bought it again! yeah i always go over second coat when its tacky. if you've let the first coat dry fully you should have more than enough time to skim it. the way i see it is if it says on the tub to skim when tacky, then do it. if you skim it when the pvas dry and it doesnt key, then your not covered.
 
Wickes wba has very fine sand in it, great on stipple, rather than Bond-it is like Church says thick and coarse, however, I like to use this over heavier artex patterns, I find the coarser texture gives better coverage thus making skimming easier on swirls and bumps. I use board finish only and have no problems, beats pva and bonding up all day long.
 
bond it to me is not designed for the over skim market (wheres there is suction involved away ) neither is wba but wba seems just more tolerate if that makes sense. Bond it needs gyprime really
 
ziggy2 said:
Wickes wba has very fine sand in it, great on stipple, rather than Bond-it is like Church says thick and coarse, however, I like to use this over heavier artex patterns, I find the coarser texture gives better coverage thus making skimming easier on swirls and bumps. I use board finish only and have no problems, beats pva and bonding up all day long.
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Agreed
 
Scrape high points off artex,
dust off with a soft sweeping brush,
thin pva let fully dry,
2nd pva not to thick, skim before dry.
put 1st coat on & leave it till firmed up & quick flatten if needed(don't play around with it or flatten to soon)
then 2nd coat, no probs this way.


If you flatten 1st coat to soon it'll blister as your forcing the water through to the background. Just leave it to go off.
And if the 2nd pva mix is too thick the skim will slide all over the place, as the pva will appear tacky but it'll still be wet under the film surface.
 
I NOW only give artex 1 coat of pva, alittle thinner than usual and away we go.
No real need for a key from the pva,as you will have one from the textured artex.I use it just to slow the suction down.
Artex is a nightmare,always best to overboard on small ceilings saves a lot of heartache.
 
Like you said knock off the hard edges then i always pva take youre time till it,s tacky then bonding with a wee bit of multi finish, flatten off then multi all the way to a paint finish
 
2 hours for wba to set, plus 3 hours to skim the ceiling if theres no suction plus an hour either side setting up and clearing up.

That means a full days work just to do a ceiling <------ bollox to that.

If I've only got a ceiling to do I expectg to be back home by 12 or 1 o clock latest.
 
thanks for replies lads

Great as ever :-*

I skimmed over tiles last yr on a bathroom job. WBA first, came out fine. GEar was hanging a bit before goin off a suction very low. Seemed easier than goin over this shitty artex.

THanks for the tips re the artex
 
Start job at 8am, sheet up then wba, set your gear up and water av a cuppa, mix on 1030am, ceiling done 1pm, clean as you go, in van 130-2pm, jobs a good un, £165-£180 money in the bank!!
 
Over board 9.5mm boards if you can get the price in. 2 hours to let the WBA go off.
You could over board a average ceiling in an hour or so.
 
it always takes me till lunch to overboard a ceiling! get in set up find and chalk all the joists then cut and fix then scrim get mixing gear out start plastering at about 2ish done by 5pm kit in the van and home
 
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