Ceiling skimmed, now coming down

jimmylad007

Hi all. I've had an artex ceiling skimmed over. I was pleased to see the back of it and was ready to enjoy my nice smooth ceiling. That was until I started painting it. As I went over it with the paint roller, a patch of plaster just peeled right off. I've also noticed several large patches, totalling around a third of the ceiling where the the plaster is sagging. I fear that if I attempt to paint it then it will peel off in the same way.

I initially thought that the plasterer had failed to prime the surface properly and the new plaster hadn't bonded to the artex. But when I took a closer look, what's actually happened is the artex has come away from the original plaster underneath. Looks like the moisture/weight from the new plaster has pulled the artex from the surface that it was applied to.

So, do I have any rights to get it fixed or get some money back? Yes I paid the plasterer to skim the artex and that's what he did. But as an experienced plasterer surely he should have known that there was a risk of this happening? Where do I stand?

TIA

Fosterdog

The same thing happened to my mother in law, turned out instead of skimming a thin layer the plasterer put mounds on there and the weight pulled it all down, half the ceiling came down overnight. The plasterer denied doing anything wrong so they got a second opinion and the second guy couldn't believe the mess the first guy had made, he put it right and did a really good job and they had to sue the first guy. They won and got reimbursed what they had to pay the second guy.

Your first step will be to contact the plasterer and get him to have a look at it, he may be reasonable and sort it all out.

marlot

Some artex contained asbestos. So don't go sanding it, whatever you do - or at least until you've had it tested.

alumende27

Our house, which had it in every room (sad face) we used couple of methods of getting rid of it. First one was to use X-Tex to remove it (very messy but effective). On the advice of our builder we switched to putting up new plasterboard (fixed through the artex and existing lathe+plaster ceilings) to the joists above for rooms that we were renovating. Much less faff and the rooms needed replastering anyway. In some rooms the artex was already clearly peeling away from the plaster above so I'd never have considered skimming over it.

You may find it useful to ask in the "In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving" forum about whether a builder should have known if it was a stupid idea to plaster directly onto artex.

Le_Kirk

I wanted Artex skimmed in my Ma's house before she sold it and (thankfully) the plasterers I phoned declined to do it as they said it would look nice for a couple of days and then the weight combined with the moisture of the new plaster would pull the Artex off the original plaster. Persuaded Ma that a coat of crack cover ceiling paint would do the job nicely.

m0bov

I am going to be dealing with this in the house I am purchasing, swirly ceilings and walls. So, I gather the general view is overboarding? What about textured ceiling paint?

Mojisola

jimmylad007 wrote: »

I've had an artex ceiling skimmed over.

what's actually happened is the artex has come away from the original plaster underneath. Looks like the moisture/weight from the new plaster has pulled the artex from the surface that it was applied to.

But as an experienced plasterer surely he should have known that there was a risk of this happening?

When we were having some building work done on the house, the builders were having a good laugh one morning - a plasterer they knew had skimmed over the artex on his kitchen ceiling the previous day - that morning, while sitting having breakfast he was showered by chunks of ceiling - the weight of the new plaster had brought down the artex and the old plaster underneath. Obviously, not all plasterers realise the risk of skimming artex.

robotrobo

m0bov wrote: »

I am going to be dealing with this in the house I am purchasing, swirly ceilings and walls. So, I gather the general view is overboarding? What about textured ceiling paint?

Same thing happened in our kitchen.
I Completley removed the artex back to the lat ceiling & reboarded & skimmned , job done properly.:)

[Deleted User]

m0bov wrote: »

I am going to be dealing with this in the house I am purchasing, swirly ceilings and walls. So, I gather the general view is overboarding?

While safer than simply skimming, the extra weight of the plasterboards and remaining Artex can also bring the ceiling down.

robotrobo wrote: »

I Completley removed the artex back to the lat ceiling & reboarded & skimmned , job done properly.:)

Quite.

m0bov

Does coving pose a problem when overboarding?

DoaM

Possibly ... it depends on where the lats are for the boards to be screwed into, and whether the coving covers any such lats. (Assuming you're not removing the coving first).

If you're meaning to add coving, then it depends on the type (hence weight). Remember though that coving also fixes to the wall as well as the ceiling.