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IP1977

New Member
Hi all,

I have been reading some posts on here over the last few days but I was after some specific advice if possible as I keep reading conflicting information on various websites and have no previous knowledge of plastering.

Basically, we recently had all the artex ceilings in our house skimmed over by a plasterer. After about 3 weeks of being up (we left the plaster to dry as long as possible), we mist coated one of the ceilings and shortly afterwards, the plaster blew off the ceiling leaving the original artex intact. After looking into it further, it appears that the plasterer only applied PVA to the first ceiling and as it was sliding around (he thought the paint was silk/vinyl type finish), he did not PVA any other ceiling in the house.
Most advice online seems to say that the ceilings MUST be treated first with PVA or other bonding agents, but I was just wondering if there is any way to test if the ceilings are going to be safe in the short term until they are overboarded?

We've had quotes to overboard all the ceilings but that is way over the budget we had and so we are going to get the bedrooms and kitchen overboarded (which will use up all available funds) and are now wondering how likely the remaining rooms will be to come down. The skim was only about 2-3mm deep as the artex was very shallow and the tips of the artex could just be seen through the plaster.

Any advice would be much appreciated as we don't want to take any risks as we have young children in the house, but also, we are a couple of months off from being able to get the remaining ceilings overboarded and have no idea whether the ceilings are going to come down or not.

Thanks
 
if it was going to blow I would have thought it was going to do it by now...

I would always recommend overboarding or ripping the old one down... price is a key factor but at least you know it will last :D
 
Always overboard artex..we used to overskim but not anymore..did u just go with cheapest quote possible as uve mentioned budget a couple of times in ur post u shudnt be seeing the tips of the artex and your plasterer should of pvad every ceiling it sounds like he hasn't been arsed to wait for pva to go off so gear has slid around ceiling whilst he's put it on..sometimes artex needs pva ing the day b4 hence y should always overboard or use unifinish
 
If the plaster hasn't stuck to the artex then it is the fault of the plasterer not preparing it right. Get him back to rectify it.
 
stuart23 said:
If the plaster hasn't stuck to the artex then it is the fault of the plasterer not preparing it right. Get him back to rectify it.
Click to expand...
Sometimes its artex ur going on we once did a school was about 200m2 overskim artex with Feb bond painted on b4 by a couple of different lads and loads of patches blew..
 
Agree with Stu if you are happy with the finish of the other ceilings you should ask the plasterer to redo the ones that have blown..sometimes it does happen as stupid as that sound's.
Can I ask how do you know he didn't pva the ceilings?
IP1977 said:
Hi all,

I have been reading some posts on here over the last few days but I was after some specific advice if possible as I keep reading conflicting information on various websites and have no previous knowledge of plastering.

Basically, we recently had all the artex ceilings in our house skimmed over by a plasterer. After about 3 weeks of being up (we left the plaster to dry as long as possible), we mist coated one of the ceilings and shortly afterwards, the plaster blew off the ceiling leaving the original artex intact. After looking into it further, it appears that the plasterer only applied PVA to the first ceiling and as it was sliding around (he thought the paint was silk/vinyl type finish), he did not PVA any other ceiling in the house.
Most advice online seems to say that the ceilings MUST be treated first with PVA or other bonding agents, but I was just wondering if there is any way to test if the ceilings are going to be safe in the short term until they are overboarded?

We've had quotes to overboard all the ceilings but that is way over the budget we had and so we are going to get the bedrooms and kitchen overboarded (which will use up all available funds) and are now wondering how likely the remaining rooms will be to come down. The skim was only about 2-3mm deep as the artex was very shallow and the tips of the artex could just be seen through the plaster.

Any advice would be much appreciated as we don't want to take any risks as we have young children in the house, but also, we are a couple of months off from being able to get the remaining ceilings overboarded and have no idea whether the ceilings are going to come down or not.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
theplasterman said:
Agree with Stu if you are happy with the finish of the other ceilings you should ask the plasterer to redo the ones that have blown..sometimes it does happen as stupid as that sound's.
Can I ask how do you know he didn't pva the ceilings?
Click to expand...
Because he watched him thru crack of the door whilst he was working..
 
I never warrant overskims, no point, customer has to take the punt, God knows how many times it's bubbled up on me or started delaminating. It's either overboard or no warranty. At this point hard to say if the plasterer prepared it as it should be or not, first point is give him a call and take it from there.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
There's a new product called unifinish excellent choice for artex ceilings worth a read up
 
theplasterman said:
Agree with Stu if you are happy with the finish of the other ceilings you should ask the plasterer to redo the ones that have blown..sometimes it does happen as stupid as that sound's.
Can I ask how do you know he didn't pva the ceilings?
Click to expand...
Sounds like you would redo it no questions asked free of charge?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
zolco said:
Sounds like you would redo it no questions asked free of charge?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Yes I would seems strange it blown after 3 weeks.. Could be anything even the pva not necessarily plasterers fault , if he willing to redo happy customer,happy plasterer.
:musculoso::hola:
 
zolco said:
Sounds like you would redo it no questions asked free of charge?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Had many problems in my years of plastering but my plaster not sticking to artex is one I've never had. Imo it's up to plasterer to prepare the substrate so the plaster sticks, if it doesnt stick then the blame must lie with plasterer. If the artex came away that's different but you are being employed to carry out a job and if it ain't sticking it's something you've missed. If ceilings were covered in grease or tobacco stains then it's up to the plasterer to overboard and if customer tells you not to as can't afford it then you shouldn't be doing it. I would fix foc
 
stuart23 said:
Had many problems in my years of plastering but my plaster not sticking to artex is one I've never had. Imo it's up to plasterer to prepare the substrate so the plaster sticks, if it doesnt stick then the blame must lie with plasterer. If the artex came away that's different but you are being employed to carry out a job and if it ain't sticking it's something you've missed. If ceilings were covered in grease or tobacco stains then it's up to the plasterer to overboard and if customer tells you not to as can't afford it then you shouldn't be doing it. I would fix foc
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So if the artex delaminating how's that your fault as a plasterer, sloshing pva on the artex or any other bonding agent ain't gonna cure any bond between the board and artex.
If the skim shells off and the artex stays up fair enough Id take it on the chin.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
zolco said:
So if the artex delaminating how's that your fault as a plasterer, sloshing pva on the artex or any other bonding agent ain't gonna cure any bond between the board and artex.
If the skim shells off and the artex stays up fair enough Id take it on the chin.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I'm talking about skim delaminating from the artex, if the artex delaminates it's not the plasterers fault. Op says the skim is delaminating from artex
 
stuart23 said:
I'm talking about skim delaminating from the artex, if the artex delaminates it's not the plasterers fault. Op says the skim is delaminating from artex
Click to expand...
Me bad Stuart, I didn't read it properly, hence I was questioning it

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
image.jpg
zolco said:
I better get me act together

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
I've had it happen twice to me going over artex once it was like the skim pulled the paint off the artex and second time the artex came off the board both times I sorted it free of charge both times with a tear in my eye
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the fast replies.

@Danny - Thanks, the ceiling had been up for around 3 weeks when we mist coated it but then came down almost immediately after I finshed the coat. We were trying to minimise damage to the artex as we had an asbestos survey carried out and all ceilings tested positive for Chrysotile so we were advised not to disturb the artex in any way and so thought the skim was the safest option.

@theplasterman - Thanks for the reply, to answer your question; I knew he hadn't PVA'd it because he told me while he was doing it. He mentioned after doing the first room that the plaster was just sliding around in the PVA in the first room because of the type of paint on the ceiling so said there's no point putting PVA on the others as they're already sealed by the paint. I asked if it would be ok without and he said it would be fine so I just went with his advice (to be honest I had no idea about the implications until after the ceiling came down and a few days of googling to find out what could have happened). We were happy with the finish on all the ceilings but the safety aspect is what is concerning us as the one that came down looked fine until it suddenly blew off the ceiling, so we are just trying to fins out whether there is any chance the plaster will stay up without the PVA.

Not sure if it makes any difference but he was using multifinish plaster (orange bags) for the whole skim (they were left in the hall for a few days while he was doing the work).

@Kitchy - Thanks for the reply, the quote we went with wasn't the cheapest but we went with it as the company was able to do some other building work as well at the same time and seemed to know what they were talking about when they came round to quote (we went down the cheapest quote route in the past and learned from the mistake.....or at least I thought we had!!), the only reason I mentioned cost in the original post was because the overboarding is almost doubling the cost that we paid for the skims. Obviously getting the room that blew overboarded and skimmed definitely needs doing, along with the bedrooms (just in case another one decided to come down in the night!), but that will pretty much use up the plastering budget so was just trying to get an idea whether the other rooms are likely to be able to stay up even without PVA or if it's just a matter of time before they all come down (in which case we'll just have to get them boarded and make a couple of cuts on the other things that need doing). We're having a lot of renovation work done on the house and just didn't want to get the new flooring/decorating etc done and then have the ceilings come down just as everything is finished (which seems to be the way our luck is going recently!).

Thanks
 
Too many posts here to go through the whole lot, and I'm sure it's been answered already.... But.

He pva'd the first non porus ceiling... Had sliding plaster, so didn't bother adding any adhesive key to the other ceilings.
Plaster has delaminated ... No suprise There.

I will happily re-skim shiney ceilings as long as the plasterboard is sound, but use bond it or the wickes version. It's still not very nice to skim... But can be done.
 
IP1977 said:
Hi guys,

Thanks for the fast replies.

@Danny - Thanks, the ceiling had been up for around 3 weeks when we mist coated it but then came down almost immediately after I finshed the coat. We were trying to minimise damage to the artex as we had an asbestos survey carried out and all ceilings tested positive for Chrysotile so we were advised not to disturb the artex in any way and so thought the skim was the safest option.

@theplasterman - Thanks for the reply, to answer your question; I knew he hadn't PVA'd it because he told me while he was doing it. He mentioned after doing the first room that the plaster was just sliding around in the PVA in the first room because of the type of paint on the ceiling so said there's no point putting PVA on the others as they're already sealed by the paint. I asked if it would be ok without and he said it would be fine so I just went with his advice (to be honest I had no idea about the implications until after the ceiling came down and a few days of googling to find out what could have happened). We were happy with the finish on all the ceilings but the safety aspect is what is concerning us as the one that came down looked fine until it suddenly blew off the ceiling, so we are just trying to fins out whether there is any chance the plaster will stay up without the PVA.

Not sure if it makes any difference but he was using multifinish plaster (orange bags) for the whole skim (they were left in the hall for a few days while he was doing the work).

@Kitchy - Thanks for the reply, the quote we went with wasn't the cheapest but we went with it as the company was able to do some other building work as well at the same time and seemed to know what they were talking about when they came round to quote (we went down the cheapest quote route in the past and learned from the mistake.....or at least I thought we had!!), the only reason I mentioned cost in the original post was because the overboarding is almost doubling the cost that we paid for the skims. Obviously getting the room that blew overboarded and skimmed definitely needs doing, along with the bedrooms (just in case another one decided to come down in the night!), but that will pretty much use up the plastering budget so was just trying to get an idea whether the other rooms are likely to be able to stay up even without PVA or if it's just a matter of time before they all come down (in which case we'll just have to get them boarded and make a couple of cuts on the other things that need doing). We're having a lot of renovation work done on the house and just didn't want to get the new flooring/decorating etc done and then have the ceilings come down just as everything is finished (which seems to be the way our luck is going recently!).

Thanks
Click to expand...
Okay thanks the only thing I can say really then is that I would get another plasterer in to reskim the one that has fell down either with unifinish (no pva needed) or pva with multi finish either way there is no need to board or disturb the artex
 
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