"Smoothing" ceiling.... (removing artex & plastering)

[ryanjjones]

Well we all know rough artex is out of fashion!

I'm about to gut our en-suite shower room and hence I will be (have been) on here doing far too much research instead of working. Small room - only seen by me & the missus. So a good room to practice on! ;)

The FAQ suggests steaming off the existing artex - so I will do this over the weekend. Then cut holes for recessed halogen lights. If it is still rough I'll sand it fairly smooth.

But before painting I assume it'll need a thin skim of plaster. Is it plaster or is there something else to use? And does this just bond to the plasterboard or does it need some form of preparation/adhesive?

Cheers!

[chris French]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Personally I never could face doing that in our house.

If it does then the steaming sanding would have been a waste of time..... You can just skim Artex, though remove the largest nobbles

Well yes, finish plaster is the thing to use, but if the room is small as sounds, then Polycell do some sort of ready mixed plaster skim stuff that might make more sense for small job. Getting a good finish on ceiling, even small one can be frustrating though.....

In this situation I'd probably coat first with diluted PVA to help the bonding.

But if I was doing it, I'd forget removing the artex etc. anyway. I think I'd just whack up another sheet of plasterboard over the top and decorate directly onto that. There is no need to skim (unless my tame plasterer could fit it in easily I'd not bother in this case) unless you want to. Use taper edged board and tape and fill the joint(s)

[ryanjjones]

Due to your comments, my dad saying "Eek! Don't do it" and a mate saying "oh ohhhh" - I am going to live with what I have! A lick of paint and leave as is.

TBH - work vs. reward isn't really going to pay back here. Rest of house is the same artex - so it still looks like it fits.

The time is best spent doing the rest of the job properly.

Thanks!