Polycell smoothover - pile of kak

prettypennies

Polycell people rang me the other day to discuss my disappointment with smoothover. They are sending me a voucher for dulux products with the equivalent price of the smoothover. Not bad as I had already returned the remainder of the tub to Homebase and been refunded in full!!!!

Poppycat

Thanks for warning I was tempted to get this and saw reviews on a reviewcentre seems to be not very good reviews

tecstar

Well I think its fantastic! Granted, I didn't use it on a ceiling and I used the Smoothover for Damaged Walls - remember there are 3 kinds of Smoothover. Afetr doing my walls I imagine that doing a ceiling is a lot more trouble and I would only use it as a last resort only because of the effort involved.
I stripped the embossed paper from my walls then realised why I put it there in the first place. The walls are old plaster with horsehair, and as well as having scrapes and chunks knocked out here and there is covered with what I guess is old paste - yellow and slimy when wet, but dried into patches on the walls. Initially I was going to hang lining paper, but then thought I'd get it skimmed. Although i'm a dab hand with a float I knew that complete walls would be a big challenge for me. Due to time constraints I decided there must be a product out there that I could use and came across Smoothover for Damaged Walls. For those who dont know its a bit like polyfiller, but drys a harder.
I knew i would be applying it in a slightly thicker layer than Polycells demo video showed (nice pink plastered walls with the odd gouge in!) but the end result was fabulous and I have painted straight over it. Heres a few observations:
Use a water spray to damp the walls. Although its a lot more workable than plaster it helps. Bend the tips of the spreader as the instructions suggest. Along the edges of walls (corners etc) try cutting in as you would when you paint. Technique is everything. Although you can go over it a few times with the spreader, try to get a good finish in the first few sweeps- remember you can sand it when its dry. Spread it in an arc. I ended up having to do a lot more sanding than I expected to, but I was applying it relatively thick and you can get dragging as you go over it. It is very easy to sand and you only need to rub lightly. Although it is paintable I went over it with white emulsion first, to check if any of the horrible stuff on the walls soaked through, but it also helped me find any bits that weren't quite flat. I ran out of the Polycell so for the last bit I used Wickes own version which is grey. I have to say although it was nearly £10 dearer the Polycell Smoothover was much much better. I had to add loads of water to the Wickes and it needed a lot of stirring to get it in a workable state. It seemed to dry out quicker as well. Also when I sanded it it needed a coarser grade of sandpaper as well.
Well, thats my experience. I would definitely use it again for walls.
I think its nice to get the good comments as well as the bad.

Terrysdelight

tomstickland wrote: »

Messy this, but I recommend buying a £15 sander from Wickes and a large container of "plaster skim" for around £5. That's ready mixed finishing plaster in a tub. Also buy a plastering trowel.
Whack the skim onto the ceiling any old how. Let it set. Then sand it as smooth as you can.
Repeat a number of times, filling in the low patches each time.

Makes hell of a mess but you can get a smooth ceiling this way.

Other option is to rip the whole lot down, nail up some plasterboard and pay a plasterer to skim it for you.

That sounds interesting - I suppose you could do this sort of thing on walls too?

tecstar

Terrysdelight wrote: »

That sounds interesting - I suppose you could do this sort of thing on walls too?

But how easy is it to sand? Smoothover is very easy to sand. Can you sand plaster very easily and get a good finish?

System

We had a water leak in our bathroom which slightly affected the ceiling in the room below. The joints and paint in the plasterboard became bubbled and DH thought we might have to get a plasterer. However when it dried he sanded the affected lines down and use one of the smoothover products and it was an excellent job.

I think this product is only really suitable for small jobs such as ours or cracks etc. A plasterer is what is needed for anything bigger like covering a textured surface.

high-rise_andrew

Grateful to everyone who has posted on this thread. I have been considering using either hate PolyCell Smooth Over for ceilings or the B&Q stuff. They sit next to each other in our store but after reading this thread am unsure as to which would be the most useful tin for me? I live in a high-rise towerblock(7th floor out of 18) with hairline fractures in the lounge ceiling, NOT cracks. Nothing to fill-not wide enough.
Just checked B&Q online and they stock: PolyCell Smoothover, Polytex, Polyripple(don't like ripple effects lol) PolyCell Crack Free Ceiling Paint & B&Q Flexible Ceiling Paint. Would it be best for me to save the pounds and go with the B&Q Flexible Ceiling Paint coz I intend to paint over it anyway with Craig&Rose afters?? Many Thanks to you all:D

George_Bray

high-rise_andrew wrote: »

Just checked B&Q online and they stock: PolyCell Smoothover, Polytex, Polyripple(don't like ripple effects lol) PolyCell Crack Free Ceiling Paint & B&Q Flexible Ceiling Paint. Would it be best for me to save the pounds and go with the B&Q Flexible Ceiling Paint coz I intend to paint over it anyway with Craig&Rose afters?? Many Thanks to you all:D

I see paint and fillers as different things. I found it quite easy to smooth (de-Artex) my ceilings - three rooms done with a few more to go. It's not the most pleasant job, but I see no reason to call in a plasterer when I can do it myself and avoid possible adverse implications of the weight of about 3mm of plaster, which I guess a plasterer would use to skim a ceiling (or wall).

Here's what I did:
1. Decide whether I thought my Artex ceilings contain any asbestos. I decided it was unlikely and it's not the most dangerous type or quantity of asbestos anyhow. I wasn't prepared to pay £100s for an analysis of the Artex.
2. Wear a mask and use a wallpaper scraper, metal tool thing to scrape off all the high points of the Artex ceiling. Once done, the ceiling is already quite flat and might be smooth enough for some people. This job is EASY.
3. I then used very coarse sandpaper to get the ceiling even smoother.
4. Paint on dilute PVA solution to stabilise the surface.
5. Apply joint filler compound to say 0.5 or 1mm depth. I found I preferred this to Polyfilla. Either are easier to sand than gysum plaster. I expect Artex could also be used, not to create peaks or patterns but just as a filler. Anyway, apply it as flat as you can, just to fill in the low points, really.
6. When dry, sand lightly until smooth.
7. Paint with flexible ceiling paint if you like. I don't anticipate any cracks so I use only cheap white emulsion.

I would say task 2 was EASY and tasks 3-7 were 'not too bad'. No way would I put up lining paper, panels or replace the ceiling boards instead of doing what I did, and will continue to do. Dust is created by sanding so you need to cover everything up in advance.