Ugly, bumpy ceiling after being plastered

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Barny

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Hello everyone!

Can anyone help me please? I had a load of Artex on my walls and ceiling and had someone round to smooth it over. First a coat of Thistle Bond It was painted on, then he put on a layer of bonding coat followed by plaster.

I lightly sanded, dusted and painted 4 weeks later with a 50/50 mix of water and emmulsion.

Now I have all these blisters on the ceiling, when I press the big one which is about 6x4 cm, there is a lot of resistance so it cannot be a bubble of paint, it has to be the plaster. Also, after just a couple of months a lot of cracks began to appear where the ceiling and walls meet and now some plaster has fallen down in 2 places.

Does anyone know why this has happened? I don't know if it will need doing all over again, would another coat of plaster make more of the ceiling come down?

I'd be really grateful for any advice as he is trying to charge me almost £1000 to do an attic room and not even the bottom meter which is covered in wood and I thought the bill would be a lot less.

Thank you so much,
Barny
 
Artex is funny to work over, first of all I would have boarded over te ceiling and not bonded much better finish, if he's charged you full whack then get him back to rectify we're bouts in the country are you barny?
 
Has he already plastered the loft? If not it wouldn't hurt to get some other prices. Maybe someone on here might take a look.

Sounds like he went through the right processes for an overskim but like ally says, overboarding would have been a much better option and probably a very similar price.
 
Hi, the ceiling beneath was solid, sorry, I should have been clearer, it is only the new plaster that has come down, the original ceiling is still up there and it is only a couple of small patches.
 
artex is prone 2 that kind of problem especialy with ceilings.most will overboard and skim.then its garenteed 2 stay on.youre plasterer.should put it right 4 you.
 
Hello everyone!

Can anyone help me please? I had a load of Artex on my walls and ceiling and had someone round to smooth it over. First a coat of Thistle Bond It was painted on, then he put on a layer of bonding coat followed by plaster.

I lightly sanded, dusted and painted 4 weeks later with a 50/50 mix of water and emmulsion.

Now I have all these blisters on the ceiling, when I press the big one which is about 6x4 cm, there is a lot of resistance so it cannot be a bubble of paint, it has to be the plaster. Also, after just a couple of months a lot of cracks began to appear where the ceiling and walls meet and now some plaster has fallen down in 2 places.

Does anyone know why this has happened? I don't know if it will need doing all over again, would another coat of plaster make more of the ceiling come down?

I'd be really grateful for any advice as he is trying to charge me almost £1000 to do an attic room and not even the bottom meter which is covered in wood and I thought the bill would be a lot less.

Thank you so much,
Barny


Did you or your (someone) prep the ceiling up before the (smooth over) what surface can u see where the plasters come off?
Is your someone a plasterer and thats not polycell smoothover is it?
 
Wow, thanks for all of your input guys.

Dave5o, in one spot I can see the original Artex and the blue Thistle Bond It coat. In the other spot I can see the mesh tape that he's used.

I'm not sure I understand your other question, he is trading as a plasterer. When he arrived to do the work he bought 5 big 25kg paper sacks of what he told me is a bonding coat and the same amount of multi finish. With regards to prep, I swept all of the walls and ceiling clean then painted on the (well stirred!) Bond It. From there on I left it to him. He only used the stuff in the sacks, nothing made by Polycell.

Henry, I think that may be the case, do you know why it would happen?

Thanks again, I very much appreciate everyone's advice.
 
Hi Danny, no, no heaters were used. This was back in September/October so it was mild weather and it dried naturally.
 
thistle bond it is green lol, get on the phone and get the guy back, hows he ment to know that he has made a mistake, if he is a real plasterer he will come in and fix it
 
Wow, thanks for all of your input guys.

Dave5o, in one spot I can see the original Artex and the blue Thistle Bond It coat. In the other spot I can see the mesh tape that he's used.

I'm not sure I understand your other question, he is trading as a plasterer. When he arrived to do the work he bought 5 big 25kg paper sacks of what he told me is a bonding coat and the same amount of multi finish. With regards to prep, I swept all of the walls and ceiling clean then painted on the (well stirred!) Bond It. From there on I left it to him. He only used the stuff in the sacks, nothing made by Polycell.

Henry, I think that may be the case, do you know why it would happen?

Thanks again, I very much appreciate everyone's advice.
what colour were the bags barney. somethings sounding fishy
 
Scotsplasterer, yes, you are right, it is green more than blue, my mistake! I really cannot recall the colour of the bags, I just remember being amazed at how much was needed for 23 meters. I think the sacks were brown paper. I have a receipt from B&Q which reads "Thistle 25kg" and "Multi Finish". There was also something called "Thermal fix" but I haven't the faintest idea of what that is.

I don't get the feeling that he has been dishonest about these materials though, he just did a very bad job and denies having any responsibility for the state of the ceiling.
 
Hi Spunky, aside from the stuff already mentioned, there are a lot of ripples in the ceiling, not a single line is straight, you know, where the ceiling joins the walls and there is a lot of cracking in these areas. Also on one wall there is tape sticking out from the plaster along the length of the join. The joins between the horizontal part of ceiling and the sloping part are really messy, you can see where there is some excess plaster that has not been smoothed down and again it is cracking along this join (reminds me of the first time I tried to ice a cake when I was a little girl!). Also when you run your hand over it, the surface is not flat although mostly this is not visible. There are lots of indentations and little lumps and dribbles of plaster that became very noticeable once it was painted. Also he felt that it wasn't necessary to finish around the door frames so even with architrave it would look messy. After 4 weeks I found myself with a big bill for plaster that looks terrible and is now falling down. I don't even want him to come back and fix it because I don't trust him to do it right, I have since heard that he has a very bad reputation.

Nisus, I am in the Channel Islands, nowhere near you!

Thanks again!
 
sound as though he has done a bad job, if you can see ripple marks and unrubbed bits and scrim smiling through, sound a bad job all in all.

phone the guy and tell him that your finish is not passable
 
In most cases a simple reskim over artex is sufficent, sounmds like he has used Bondit or Blue grit, which is correct.Just sounds like he has not flattened the Bonding downor ruled out the edges, hence there wavey round the edges.

What ever happens next the ceiling needs to be overboarded,if theres loose plaster theres no point in a reskim,and if the jobs that bad theres not much chance he is going to be able to sort it out.What ever happens i would not let him loose in your loft.
 
sounds like a hell of a lot of stuff for 23m , i have the feeling that your plasterer was just a man with a plastering trowel rather than a plasterer .
if its falling off and is as rough as it sounds don`t pay him , tell him you are not happy with the job and are going to get it looked at by trading standards
the number of jobs i have had to put right after some chancer has had a go at them is unreal, there definitely seems to be a lot of dodgey spreads about at the moment
it sounds like it will need overboarding now but post a few pix so we have a better idea of the job this man with a trowel has done , also where are you located i`m sure someone on here will pop and have a look if they are close to you

goodluck with it all
 
as mentioned.it usually just takes a re-skim over the top of artex too get a decent finish.if the surface was wavy before he should have taken the time to reboard as necessary.sounds like a cowboy job too me.i would get him back too see it,if he wont sort it out then dont pay.
 
i bet he did a course and he thinks he is a plasterer:RpS_scared:. do u have any pics 4 us to look at.
 
A mate of mine is a spread on Sark if that can help you? For my money id have overboarded and skimmed too.
 
I think it's because the moisture in the plaster soaked through the Artex and caused that to come away from the original ceiling, probably caused by the suction of the bonding coat as it dried. Boarding over would have been the best solution, cheaper, better finish, more fire, thermal, acoustic protection.
 
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