might have had a good point with the bondit then mate, ive just done a house exactly the same, well christmas....
had a problem in one bedroom where it didnt seem to be affected... SEEM being the operative word, pva'd it, trowelled up loverly then 2 days later the entire wall is hanging by the corners, one big sheet of 2-3mm skim... poked my finger through it, bit like easter egg...
anyway, quick coat of wba and skimmed it again, end of problem...
the real bad room downstairs i just battened and boarded it, didnt trust the backing and he didnt wanna hack it off...
stairs got sanded with a real coarse paper, pva'd no worries..
i'd tend to go with the sanding option mate... smoke has sh'tloads of allsorts of nasty sh't in it... from tar to grease, neither of which is gonna help the bond.... cant even see bondit sticking to grease, depends how bad it was and what was burning i suppose.....
anyway, in answer to the diluting question...
well, some people like to use it for suction control, i found out the hard way it aint no good for suction control when i watered some down...
maybe chuck a bit of pva and some water in, but no too much, might as well chuck sand in some pva if your gonna wet it right down, i thought it was some different adhesive than pva, in which case, what you gonna water it down with?
i'd just point him in the direction of the tub literature....