Disaster job

[FredFlintstone]

Evenin' All,

Had a disaster job today - 5 x 4 textured ceiling painted with silk emulsion.

The texture was quite deep so I figured I'd stick a thin coat of bonding over the top prior to skimming.

So, bonding mixed, I layed it on no problems, nice and flat. Went away for a while and did a wall in another room while I waited for it to go off a bit. When I checked it again it was still fairly wet (not much suction there through that silk emulsion although I had scraped it back as much as possible) so waited a while longer while I finished off a wall in a different room.

Came back to skim and it was still reasonably moist but no soft so I thought I'd go for it.

So, skim mixed, I started to lay it on. At first it was fine but then I started to notice the skim bubbling, as if air was escaping from the bonding coat but unable to get through the skim coat. I figured I' started the first coat so I may as well go round and finish the first coat and see if a second coat would get rid of the problem. So, with a little bit of skim left over from the first coat I thought I'd just try a little bit of a second coat. It didn't sort the problem.

In the end I figured all I coud do really was to flatten the first coat and leave it overnight and then PVA and skim it up tomorrow. Hardly ideal and not the proper way to do it but I couldn't really think of any other solution. A bit of a pain too because I've had to postpone tomorrows job until next week now too.

So, anyone had this before? Anyone know what I did wrong? Anyone know what the cause was? I wouldn't mond knowing so I can avoid it happening again - it's a PITA.

I wondered if my bonding coat was still too wet but then the skim was going off at a decent rate so its hardly as though the bonding was sopping when the skim was applied but maybe it was still a bit too moist - who knows.

Anyway, it's knocked me a bit. I'm really peeved tonight (my wife thinks she's done something wrong to annoy me even though I keep telling her I've just had a bad day and it's nothing she's done) and it's knocked my confidence a bit. I hate cocking up. Still, tomorrow's another day and I'll be fine tomorrow night when this job is finished and looking good.

Regards

Fred

 

[onion]

evening fred

i can only think of a few things that might have caused this!

1) it was not painted that well and the artex is coming away from the board i normally do a 1&1 unibond


2) is it a old house it could be distemper

if you phone british gypsum about over skimming on artex they would tell you to overboard it they will not guarntee overskimming, but me and you no it is twice the price

 

[noseall]

bonding always produces bubbling if you try and skim onto it too soon. believe me it's not at all unusual. the bubbles you speak of, they can be popped and trowelled flat, trouble is, more appear!

you just have to wait till it's just turned and is setting firm, so firm that only a trowel edge can mark it. it will go darker, similar to skim.

 

[FredFlintstone]

Cheers folks,

Onion, it's textured but not Artex, just a textured skim coat so it's not down to a lack of a decent coat of paint. I've never experienced bubbling with artex before though - the only time I fell foul of Artex was when it sucked the water out of my plaster almost as soon as the plaster touched the ceiling! That's when I knew I hadn't PVA'd it up enough.

Noseall, that's what I reckoned but I thought the bonding had pulled in enough for me to skim over it - obviously not. There were some dark patches but few and far between and only small ones. Oh well, live and learn. It's just it ain't happened to me before and it freaked me out (well, that's a bit extreme but it took me by surprise anyway).

I'd left it for a good two hours, maybe more, before skimming over it! I guess that background really did have no suction in it at all then!

So, tomorrow I'll have to PVA it all and skim over it. Let's just hope the single skim coat I gave it holds up well enough to take two coat skim - I coud do without taking the lot down to start again!

On the subject of bonding - anyone noticed that different batches of bonding come in different colours. I'm used to pinky brown stuff, similar to finishing plaster. It's all I've seen over the last year and a half or so. Then suddenly a month or two ago I buy six bags of the stuff and it's grey. A couple of weeks later I buy another few bags and it's pinky brown again. Then for the last month or so, every bag I've bought has been grey. Why? Bizarre. Does the same thing though.

regards

Fred

 

[Nige F]

I guess it`s different Gypsum Mines I`ll ask next time I`m in Robertsbridge.......that`s our local one

 

[FredFlintstone]

I guess it`s different Gypsum Mines I`ll ask next time I`m in Robertsbridge.......that`s our local one

Hmmmm, d'ya reckon we could be seeing the comeback of grey finishing plaster at some point then?

 

[noseall]

it is one of the quirks of bonding i guess, as it does regularly vary between grey and pink.

trowelling bonding too much can also cause the surface to have less suction, if you compress it too much. ideally, you should rough it slightly with a nail in a polyfloat by scrabbling the surface, like we used to do in the old days with browning. this helps key the skim.

 

[FredFlintstone]

Cheers Noseall,

I hadn't overtrowelled the bonding coat - it's the easiest thing in the world to lay on a thin coat without troweling too much.

TBH, I hate scratching bonding to key it up for finishing but do sometimes have to do it.

I finished the disaster job today - YAY! I feel a much better tonight than I did last night. I was really down last night and feeling quite useless but after seeing the finished job tonight I feel a bit happier with myself. It no longer looks awful - infact, it looks bloody marvellous.

Regards

Fred

 

[noseall]

top geezer

 

[diyisfree]

If skimming wet bonding then you realy need to lay it on then dont mess with it at all. If you start playing with it you will trap air between the bonding and skim coat, resulting in the little bubbles.

The more you try to correct the problem the worst it gets. leave alone untill the skim is ready for the final trowel then all will come good.

Like everything else Fred, practice makes perfect but once you do master it, you realy cant beat the finish skimming bonding the same day gives.