DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi

Any advice would be greatly apreciated.

I recently moved into my new home. The bathroom it seems has had many redocorations over the years, i have taken off 6 layers of tiles so far!!

One of the walls is quite bumpy and has a paint finish, on inspection the wall seems to be artex with a diy skim of plaster over the top.
What i want is to be able to skim over and have a smooth finish, can you skim over a painted wall?
I'm reluctant to sand the paint off as i have been told the artex underneath probably contains asbestos.
Would a paint remover be the best way forward?

Many thanks

Hi there,

I was informed to coat the painted wall with a PVA and water mix ( 5:1 water:pva) to first seal the wall and then once it is tacky (part dry) coat it with another mix of pva/water (3:1) this is to provide adhesion for the skim plaster for it to stick to. Again once tacky then do a 2 coat plaster. 1st to layer it on and to get the wall level and then apply the second coat once its become firm (NOT dried out) it needs to be like putty so the 2nd "skim" coat will stick .

Note: this is the norm for a normal wall i.e. non kitchen/bathroom. Trying to do something like this with the bedroom.

It might be a bit different due to the high humidity levels one would experience there. I would imagine the same principles apply though. Good luck.

ps keep your trowel clean, it gives a smoother finish and clean out your plaster bucket after the 1st mix (or fill with water). This is so you won't get any dried bits of plaster mixed in for the 2nd skim coat. learnt the hard way when I had dried bits on my 2nd skim coat!!