Hi, Some time ago I asked about skimming an artexed ceiling, and someone said " give it two coats". What I now want to know is:
1) how long do I have to leave the first coat before giving the second skim. 2) do I have to PVA the first coat like I had to do with the original ceiling before I can give the second skim coat.
I coat should do it,but if your not able to put it on thick then put the first skim on the wait 45 minutes and apply the second skim. Its best to do it whilst the first skim is still slightly managable as it will mix well with the second skim rather than have two thin skims which will tend to crack more easily the thicker you put it on the less chance it has of cracking. Best to PVA the ceiling as there might be grease ect,ect on the ceiling. Personnaly I'd wash it down with diluted bleach first.
We skim Artexed ceilings quite a lot and the way we do it is to quickly knock off all peaks with scrapers, apply PVA to an area and then skim whilst pva still tacky. If the Artex has a deep pattern, a second coat is applied when the first has gone off a bit. Never had any trouble.
ken
You normally follow on the second coat immediately after having finished the first coat. Ideally, the first coat should be almost set, and still fully wet. If you can't do this due to time constraints and the second coat has to go on when the ceiling has dried, then you will need to use PVA between coats.
==================== What do you use for skimming - more Artex or finish plaster?
Cic.
If the artex is still up, I don't think you'd ever cover it and polish in one coat of multifinish, without it ending up too thick for a finish coat. Assuming all the artex peaks such as any stalactites have been knocked off first, the first coat should pretty much bring the the surface level with the remaining artex peaks, but won't be polishable as they'll come through. The second coat adds a polishable layer on top, which is guaranteed to be clear of the artex peaks.
You might do it with one-coat plaster, but I've never used that so I can't really comment on it, other than to say that no professional will use it.
Why? You might want to wash it with a decorating degreaser such as sugar soap if it's really bad, but bleach isn't going to wash off anything that plain water doesn't.
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