Bubbling When Skimming Artex

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Stevewils

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Had a bit of a disaster over the weekend.

I needed to skim over the Artex in a hallway. I applied two coats of 50:50 PVA, first coat until dry, second coat done just before the skim. When I started to skim I noticed some largish bubbles, about 4/5 cm in diameter, appearing over the ceiling between the plaster and the artex, where the skim is coming away from the ceiling. Any idea where I went wrong?

I guess I also now need to redo the whole thing.
Do I chip away the bubbling plaster, then reapply PVA and just try again?
How many coats of PVA?
How many coats of PVA to the majority of the plaster that is OK?

Thanks for any advice,

Syd.
 
Yep, overboard it. Have peeled whole ceilings off before when it starts bubbling. Only overboard now - you don't know what's under the artex.
 
The Artex is rock solid, it is the multi coming away from the Artex almost straight away in bubbles. I thought I had just made some basic PVA error.

Would you still overboard?
 
Have people not heard of Thistle Bond-it.........Feb Blue-Grit?
Both of these will work over your background.
Can't believe people still use PVA over paint and artex.
 
Pva is fine Carl over paint and artex if you know what you're doing, the G** grit stuff needs to be done the day before ,still no guarantee with grit though,
 
The artex can be solid as anything but if the paint on the artex is ****** you'll never win. Micro/wba/bond it etc are all great. As long as the substrate is solid. Overboard it.
 
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Artex is pimples.

There are about 5 patches (4-5cm) where the multi has come away from the Artex, at the time I thought it was a suction problem with the multi not stocking, but then again I'm no expert or I wouldn't be on here asking for advice.....
 
If PVA was fine over paint and artex,there would be no need for gritted bonding agents in my opinion..........PVA should only be used in plastering to control suction,not to provide a key.......and that is Stevewils' problem.
I've used Thistle Bond-it (gypbond) and now Feb blue grit for years without any problems and I know that by using this i can guarantee to customers that they wont be ringing me in 2 weeks time telling me the skim is coming off on their paint roller.
 
Carl, absolutely spot on. In my naivity I was using PVA as a key for the multi. Search on this forum for "Artex" and there are still people recommending using it, which is why I did.

For the job in hand I will overboard it, it's too patchy now to try to recover it.

The two bedrooms that have the same Artex I will use Feb blue grit or similar.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
 
Is the artex painted steve??? What did we use before grit loaded bonding agents? Used pva on painted artex..bonding and finish........as everybody says on here..."never had a problem":RpS_biggrin:
 
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Not sure if the Artex is painted or not.

The bottom line is that PVA on its own was not enough, lesson learned the hard way.
 
Fatarm said:
Is the artex painted steve??? What did we use before grit loaded bonding agents? Used pva on painted artex..bonding and finish........as everybody says on here..."never had a problem":RpS_biggrin:
Click to expand...

we used unfinished back in the day before unifinish came on the scence
 
No worries SteveWils..........I don't know what this fascination with PVA is to be honest,I very rarely use it now only on high suction such as plastering over dry Gypsum backgrounds.....majority of the time I use Blue-grit on all my re-skims,will control your suction enough on a moderate wall and gives you a far better key,plus I give my customers the option if they want to apply it or not as well and the majority of the time they are more than happy to apply it,it saves them on extra labour costs plus I can just turn up the next day or whenever and crack on skimming on it straight away.
Best of luck with your projects!
 
Didnt know blue grit was for high suck?
Thought it was for low suck?
I must be using it wrong..doesnt kill any suction for me:rolleyes)
 
Where did I say Blue-Grit was for high suction?
I use it for moderate to low suction.........to much PVA in yer eyes Fatarm :flapper:
 
carl-the-plasterer said:
Where did I say Blue-Grit was for high suction?
I use it for moderate to low suction.........to much PVA in yer eyes Fatarm :flapper:
Click to expand...
You didnt say it was for high suction,to much grit in yer eyes carl The op says"When I started to skim I noticed some largish bubbles, about 4/5 cm in diameter, appearing over the ceiling between the plaster and the artex, where the skim is coming away from the ceiling." Ive assumed too much suction.
Its bubbled up straight away?ive had that on artex thats not been painted or emulsion paint. Seen same kinda thing over distemper.
If the background is really dry i think blue grit is ****..imo
 
you wont have problems with pva if used properly,, how do you think plasterers have managed before all this other stuff came out
 
I tried PVA, 2 coats, first one until dry, second one still tacky, and it didn't work.

It was Einstein that coined the definition of stupidity - "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!"

Unless I know why the PVA didn't work, I have to try something else, "it has always worked for me" does not fill me with confidence to try the same thing again.

The advice that has come through above is that blue grit is the way to go, so that is my plan of attack.

Thanks to everyone.
 
You do get bubbles come though when covering art ex,my self I always price for a tight one of bonding first as set perfect ,but if multi bubbling a bit ,then iron the first coat in the let pic up a bit then iron first coat in again pushing the bubbles in,then lay down second coat trowels up spot on easy
 
I seal with 2 coats of artex sealer the day before then just skim with multi. I find pva to be troublesome sometimes as don't seal enough. The bond it sealers work well to but expensive. Old artex that's never been painted is the worse. So powdery on surface. Bloody stuff
 
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