Artex ceiling: repairing patches

[bruce_phipps]

Steaming off the painted-over-wallpaper in my kitchen has left the edges of the artexed ceiling in disrepair. The artex has melted off/ is peeling off in places.

I was going to patch the faulty bits with polyfilla, then emulsion. But a quicker option may be to patch directly with artex.

Can artex be bought in small pots? I gather it is like thick paint which can be brushed on...

Bruce

PS: Please don't tell me to remove the whole artex ceiling -- I actually like the look of 70s artexed ceilings! One day they'll come back into fashion...

[Tim]

Hi

I had to do a "bodge" on artex due to a water leak from above flat dislodging a bit near a plasterboard joint. I managed to do it "well enough" (TM) with PVA, slightly thinned polyfilla, a stiff brush and a couple of thick coats of matching paint (all of which I had to hand) . It wasn't very good, but I rarely noticed it as it was basically "lumpy and white" and in line with the rest of the ceiling.

Yes - you can tubs of ready mixed artex. You have little chance of getting

100% blend into the original pattern, but if you've only damaged the bit round the edge then with a bit of fiddling you should get a good enough result. If it doesn't go as well as you hoped, I suppose you could probably over-artex the whole ceiling to get a consistent result.

HTH

Timbo

Flares did ;->>>

[Uno Hoo!]

wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

I recently removed a 'room divider' made of veneered chipboard that separated my dining room from the lounge. What I hadn't realised was that the room divider (installed by the previous owner) had replaced an original partition wall. The ceiling and walls had not been 'made good' when the room divider was put up - because it hid the 'slots' where the wall had been. I was faced with having to fill-in and then re-plaster these slots which were about 4" wide and two inches deep. The walls were not a problem but the ceiling was stipple artexed and after filling the 'slot' I was left with a smooth strip right across the width of the ceiling. I originally bought a small tub of pre-mixed artex and a proper artex stippling brush. I found the stuff incredibly difficult to work with, however, and the finished job looked nothing like the rest of the ceiling! I decided to scrape the repair off and try again. This time I bought a bag of powder artex which contained about four times as much as the pre-mix tub but cost around the same! After a lot of trial and error I did manage to achieve some semblance of a stipple effect - although even now you would hardly consider it an 'invisible repair' ! I have since spoken to a professional plasterer who told me that it is almost impossible to 'patch in' artex and achieve an invisible repair. So there you have it. I would strongly advise buying a pack of powdered artex - it's easy to mix and you will have plenty left over if you have to have several tries!

Kev

[Harvey Van Sickle]

-snip-

I've done this to repair an area damaged by water leakage from an upstairs shower. It worked really well, and the patch virtually disappeared once the whole ceiling was repainted.

Mind you, the original in my case was a random stipple rather than a distinct pattern, which I was able to reproduce it by using a wet sponge; if it had been a carefully-patterned ceiling it would have been a lot tricker.

[bruce_phipps]

I have since spoken to a professional plasterer who told me that

powdered

Fortunately, the edges of the ceiling do not have an artex pattern. There is a plain band around 2 ins. wide. As I understand it, I should be able to buy some artex, ready-made or otherwise, sand the offending areas down and just "paint over" with artex. I could then emulsion the whole ceiling, if the new patch was too bright.

Bruce

[Tim]

Ah - that was exactly like my flat. I would think that would be quite easy to get a decent result in that one case :)

Timbo

[John Rumm]

Failing that, stick coving round the edge to hide it!

[Uno Hoo!]

Ah - right. I misunderstood!

Kev

[Lobster]

My only dealings with Artex et al are when I find myself trying to get rid of the bloody stuff; however IIRC aren't the powdered stuff and readimix gunk actually fundamentally different, ie a cementitious material vs a textured paint type stuff? I suspect the results will be very different for that reason.

David

[Uno Hoo!]

Whether or not they have different 'ingredients' I don't know - all I can say is that when mixed up, the powder Artex was identical in texture and consistency to the pre-mixed stuff. I was expecting it to be 'gloopy' so that the bristles on the stippling brush would 'draw' the painted-on mix into the familiar 'spikes'. In fact the mix (both pre-mixed and powder mixed correctly) is very thick and does not 'draw' at all as you might expect it to. To begin with, I found that dabbing at the surface with the stippling brush merely left indentations in the smooth surface - it didn't draw out into spikes at all! After much practice I found that you really have to 'push' the bristles into the mix on the ceiling and then 'draw' it not too quickly. I suppose it's like plastering in general - it just takes a while to get the hang of it. Unfortunately I did not have anyone experienced with Artex to give me guidance!

Kev