Are You Plastering Artex Ceilings Wrong?? AVOID THIS BIG PLASTERING MISTAKE 

So annoying knowing now that when I was a younger labourer, the guy I trusted to teach me, more than likely knew that all those ceilings I was told to scrape or bits to rub down were asbestos, and they just didn't give a shit if it was extra moola for them and more danger for myself.

I've never plastered. First sealing I did was a artex cleaning. I did not take anything off. Just pva and a thick coat of multi finish. I found it easy and a good finish. One coat pva. It was a tiny sealing albeit

Thanks to your videos and other good youtube plasterers, they have encouraged me to have a go. For my first ceiling I was not very quick applying the first coat and run out of time, so can I pva it and put on the second coat another day? Cheers

Suretex in 1986 was the last to stop using asbestos as far as I'm aware. I can name loads of brands like wondertex and decatex that never had asbestos in at the time. The fibre free version of suretex was terrible so we switched to Artex, which I remember the rep saying they stopped using asbestos years ago so I'll guess in the early 80s. Smaller manufacturers around the country might still have had asbestos. It's all very gray and a worry. Millions of tons of the stuff we can only cover up. Just no room to dump it.

We’ve all done it fella, I’ve scraped back dozens, both before I knew about asbestos, and also after in empty properties. Does it contain asbestos yes, but also bear in mind that the percentage is really small. How many of us have been on a job where the chippy has been cutting mdf next to us, which is another carcinogen and is banned in America? Most of what we touch as tradesman is harmful and generally it comes down to common sense

Exactly way to do it. Spot on mate 👍👍

I had to put 3 coats on a celling last week as couldn't touch the azzy artex its still up i put 2 coats on and there was bits still on show so wetted up wat i had left and give it a 3rd ended up a really good job

What you say here isn't right. The law banning asbestos in Artex came into effect in 1st August 1999, however UK artex had been voluntarily asbestos free for several years before this date. It fair enough to take extra precautions just in case but it's really only a problem on ceilings up to 1990, and even then the amount of asbestos used is blown out of all proportion by the HSE people, like they started to do with silica dust 10 years or so ago.

i switched from pva to sbr few months back but i gone back to pva ive had some blistering in my multi going over bonding even going over bonding day after also had bit of slide in gear like it not taking perfect to sbr i let the bonding dry enough even skimmed over day after and have allowed the sbr to fully dry before skimming so im not sure what happened only happened couple of times in few tiny spots but it made me go back to pva with no further issues since

Great content Blaine. I have binged watched your videos and finally gave plastering a go for the first time today. Thanks for the confidence and tips. It actually went quite well but timing was an issue. I was slower than expected getting it on the wall. I choose the most simple wall in my house (fresh plasterboard) but it did have sockets and other things that further slowed me down. Long story short I had to abandon the second coat so treated the first coat like a finish and got it as smooth as possible. I don't have time to give it a second coat tomorrow, could I wait a few days for it to dry then PVA and go for the second coat? Hope you don't mind me picking your brain Cheers

Only thing is it hangs about I do a coat of bonding tight with mucky water then two tight coats of multi 👍

So what were the test results?

Hi have you ever overboarded a ceiling that has polystyrene tiles still on it? A client is asking and I’m unsure if that would be a problem or not as it would save removing them . I know it’s not related to this video but I trust your opinion and like your channel many thanks

have kicked down many artex ceilings down over the years 😮 silica fibres in modern boards are very bad too.(silacosis) wear a p3 mask when theres any dust in the air. extraction fans are great to help keep dust down

What’s the best approach for spikey droplet artex? Are you able to just chip them off and then follow this process or should this also be avoided.

Good to see you mixing up with a mask on / I’ve no idea why we thought … years ago that it was ok to mix with out a mask. Yes I’m one of those who scraped back … without a mask but I still see young guys not using masks 😡

New subscriber here, enjoying the content and looking forward to giving plastering a go for the first time. Ive got some artex ceiling myself and just wondering what the advantages/disadvantages would be to overboarding with new plasterboard first, rather than directly skimming the artex?

Nice work Blaine rember last artex ceiling we did shot of pretty much on contact 😳😬

Hi blaine . What about when the artex is really deep. Sometimes the spikes are 1cm deep

When the ceiling is drying/dry should you be able to see any artex or not?

Great vid Blane , I’ve got the exact same thing tomorrow the joys.. how nice is that water brush tho 😎 what metal spats are you using as I managed to damage my blade in the middle the other day 😮 cheers

Yeah I didn’t get told about asbestos till later on I’m 35 now scrapped loads of ceilings. And a lot with out masks aswell. But not everyone gets affected by asbestos. Hopefully in years to come they can do more to treat it. I mean with a.i tech now and they can put people up into space u would think surly there is something they can do to Cath asbestos in the lungs early and kill it.

Blaine, if you are using a mix of bonding and multifinish, would using one coat plaster be an option, or would one coat not be the right mix of the two types of plaster?

If you want SBR to pull a bit quicker, just add water.. The amount of water you add like with PVA is based on the background.. and your own experience and judgement.

I have had issues with artex bubbling under plaster sometimes. Is there any way to stop this.

Why is the plaster brown in every plastering video from the UK? Here in the US plaster is usually white or occassionally very light gray.

Hi, did you dilute the PVA?

Something I wish someone would make a video about as an experienced plasterer is the concept in the customer's eye. How some customers feel the ceiling should be perfectly flat. When they pull out their hidden 3 m level. It's something that comes up about once a year, they feel when I skim something, It should be perfectly flat afterwards. It's all about preconceptions and of course how much time they're willing to give you.. Of course we can get a ceiling flat.. But are they willing to pay for the extra time to do that? Obviously when we quote to skim something we are not skimming things perfectly flat, that was not flat when we started. It's basically impossible. The skim is only 3 mm despite trying to explain this to customers before I start jobs it still comes up occasionally.. also, my other question is when a customer does actually build something perfectly flat, how perfect are you expected to be? We are only human. There is a limit to what we can do and it's something that often causes me trouble.. again only once a year or something but really how perfect is perfect.. how do you deal with this situation?. I did one of the best jobs of my life this year. I was so proud of it and the customer had his 3 m level out and was complaining about one or 2 mm differences in a wall spanning 8 m. I really don't know how to deal with this. Advice would be greatly appreciated from all of you. I did warn him that he'd made the war more perfect than I was able to skim and did try to do expectation management on that. I was really sad afterwards cuz I'd worked so hard. We ended well and it was all good but you know what I'm saying.. He made me feel bad even when I had done one of the best jobs of my life.

Blaine what sort of depths can you take out with adding the bonding into the multi?

Hi Blaine can you just use bonding alone as the first coat , then multi over that or is it best to mix it in with the multi finish thanks

Scrape and Skim strait over iv done this loads just messing on good pp3 mask

Would over boarding be a better solution?

As one old RU-vidr used to say the magic mix. Bonding and mult..

Bonus song :)

You didn't show the results from testing the Artex

Hope you and your family are well Blaine. Where's your safety glasses eh?

👍👍👌

Better the Noggin than in the 🐂👁️

SBR is the game changer. Only tried it after 20 years this year.. there's no going back to PVA. I was terrified to try it. Like with PVA you need to get to know it but it is extraordinary.. annoyingly when I first started plastering 20 years ago the guy I was working with on a site told me to use SBR and it took me all these years to get around to really going for it.. I wish I had understood this better at the time. The big thing is the fatigue on your body and the extra time it gives you, especially in domestic Plastering. You're not being paid for square metres. You've been paid for a good finish so you've got all the time in the world to nail it. So much less stress on the body and hopefully a longer career as a result..

It takes 30 to 40 years for asbestosis disease to be apparent the fibres are about 700 times thinner than the average human hair

U dont have much room to spare with coving

Do you know whether polycell poly ripple from late 1980s contained Asbestos? Great vid!

How ya getting on with the 14” nela carbon m8, you recommend? Thx

Nothing worse than furniture when doing a lid

Hey Blain long time love the vid mate very useful hope u abd family r well mate

Random comment but were you working in Pett/Fairlight a few months back? Was in the only co op for mile and recognised the full ox get up 😂 pretty sure I had a little fan boy moment when I realised and called the boys (been making the labourer watch your vids as he’s desperate to get on the trowel)

Been scraping artex ceilings back for years and still scraping them back the dust is probably worst off mixing the plaster rather than the artex ceilings because they have been painted and painted over not much dust off the artex let's have it rite do you want to be putting thick coats of plaster on were it could come off the ceiling because of too much wait cos it's going on to thick or give it a quick scrape and get on with it I get what ye saying over the absetus etc but if we listen to the experts and go by the book they would have us in bed for 7 o clock av been scraping it back for over 40 years and am still in reasonable condition iv been on jobs were it couldn't be scraped back really heavy artex and it came down on us and it's a pain in the arse get ye mask on get it scraped and get it skimmed that's my motto orther wise ye just giving ye self a head ache with it

Any air pockets a sponge float would get them out only reason I use it that and edges gives a nice crisp edge

Scary to think how many of us have scraped back old artex in our time. Never got told about asbestos in artex untill later on in my plastering career. Been at it 20 years! Bonding and skimming ( magic mix ) is the proper way 💪🏻

Looking up at my swirly ceiling while watching this...

I think it did from 60s 70s

How long did it take Blaine, each of the three bits... pva, bonding finish mix, top coat?