Plastering over a thick artex ceiling

[Czar]

Hi fellas,

Having skimmed most of my house with good results I have been roped in to doing some work for a neighbour. She wants two bathroom ceilings done that have a quite thick fan-patterned artex on them. There's no way I'm up for scraping them right back so if the ceiling seems sound my plan is...

1)Pva the whole ceiling the night before
2)PVA again next day and then give it a coat of bonding to fill out most of the gaps and ridges in the pattern, leaving me with a fairly level surface.
3)After the bonding starts going off (an hour or so?) skim with two coats of multi as per the norm.

Does this sound ok? How long should I wait for the bonding in normal circumstances? It goes off quite a bit slower than multi doesn't it?

Any help much appreciated, cheers.

 

[NickB_99]

Sounds an ok plan.

I wouldn't be scraping the artex, in the event of any asbestos risk.

When you did your skimming in your house, I hope you experienced ceilings. They're not as 'easy' as walls.

The only other advice, is as a variation of pva night before and before bonding, is you could use a bonding agent liberally the night before. Then you can skim dry next day.

I've not gone by time with bonding, can vary depending on conditions. Once the bonding sets and darkens, you should be ok to skim straight away. No pva or anything needed.

Good luck.

 

[Czar]

Cheers, yeah I've done a few ceilings so have some idea what i'm letting myself in for. I just haven't tackled any with the really thick artex before.

Which bonding agent would you say is best if I went down that route?

 

[NickB_99]

Which bonding agent would you say is best if I went down that route?

Personally only used wickes bonding agent, as easy access for me to get as a diy.
There are others too you can probably get without much more trouble (thistle bondit, blue grit etc).
The stuff's not cheap, but given you can skim dry, I find it easier, as it removes one variable of timing pva to be tacky - and saves some shoulder stamina as it can be done day before!

 

[Czar]

Ok, I got the Wickes bonding agent in the end and have applied that today - it's ideal being pink as I can see exactly where has been covered, unlike with water/pva. I'm going to give it a coat of bonding tomorrow and then two coats of multi.

One more question about the Wickes WBA, is there any reason why I couldn't coat the 2nd ceiling with this stuff, then Bond and skim a couple of weeks later? I guess what I'm asking is, is there any maximum time span between applying something like WBA or Bond-it, and then plastering it?

Thanks in advance...