Preparing ceiling for Artex.

[amfisted]

Having tried and failed to rescue a ceiling that bubbled when paint was applied, I decided to steam strip the surface down to plaster. Unfortunately, the steamer removed not only the texture but the skim coat, so I'm now confronted with bare plaster which is too rough to paint, and my plastering skills aren't up to applying a new skim.

My preferred solution is to apply a fine rippled texture using Artex (yes I know, it went out of fashion with Kajagoogoo). Question is, how best to prepare the bare plaster surface? Would priming it with Unibond be best?

Thanks in advance.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Seriously consider paying a plasterer to skim the ceiling again if it's beyond you. It probably won't cost much more than spending money on expensive textured finishes.

 

[amfisted]

Food for thought certainly, though that largely depends on how long I can bear to look at the unfinished surface. Given the time of year, I think its unlikely that I'll get a plasterer to come out till well into January, especially for such a small job.

I'll put up with it for as long as I can.

 

[dcdec]

You could line it or apply an anaglypta paper as a temporary measure.

 

[footprints]

Nooo please don't revive Artex the curse of the 70's

Smooth ceilings always look whiter and brighter than textured ones the shadows created by texture make it look dingy, they are murder to wash down when re-decorating too.

Go for the plasterer well worth the wait, "you know it makes sense"

Oh dear I feel quite queasy now, where's the rum bottle? Gosh having trouble pouring hand shaking so badly

 

[amfisted]

I've now started to wonder whether papering it with 1400 grade lining paper then painting would produce a decent result. On further examination the surface isn't too bad, and only spoiled by some light scoring where I've gone into it whilst removing the previous covering. I might get away with that, and it would of course be easier than Artexing.

Although not nearly as much fun.

 

[amfisted]

Well, eventually I came up with an accidental compromise.

I bought some Artex, mixed it up and began to apply it to the ceiling with a brush, then I took my roller and starting adding the texture. This first application resulted in a fine ripple which would obviously be a nightmare to paint. I decided that maybe the reason why the roller wasn't working so well was because I wasn't putting it on thickly or evenly enough, so I took a plasterer's float and started using that to put the Artex on the ceiling.

Standing back after the first application I realised that it looked pretty flat..."might get away with skimming this myself", I thought. So I skimmed the whole ceiling with Artex, and although it wasn't perfect, once the imperfections and lumps were sanded off and it was painted, it ended up looking fairly acceptable.

I still ain't no plasterer, but I feel more confident that if I need to skim another ceiling (especially with actual plaster) I can get a good result. It pays sometimes to have a go, doesn't it?