I need to do a few small repairs to the artex on a ceiling, and neet
to try to reproduce the swirls created by the original tradesman.

If I mix interior polyfilla and emulsion paint, I think this would
create something of the right consistency. Anyone tried that?

I'm just trying to avoid doing a long trek to a DIY store to buy a
load more artex than I need!

Harry W

Harry W B wrote:
I need to do a few small repairs to the artex on a ceiling, and neet
to try to reproduce the swirls created by the original tradesman.

If I mix interior polyfilla and emulsion paint, I think this would
create something of the right consistency. Anyone tried that?

I'm just trying to avoid doing a long trek to a DIY store to buy a
load more artex than I need!

I moved a radiator for a lady recently, twas on an artexed wall. When I
took it off, the wall had been artexed behind the rad, but not behind the
brackets! This left two smooth patches about 10" x 2".

I used One Strike filler applied pretty thickly. Fortunately the Artex
pattern was pretty rendom, so I kind of tried to follow it. By the time I'd
moved the rad the filler was pretty much dry, so I dabbed some matching
paint over and you could hardly tell where it had been at all.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 18:50:26 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Fortunately the Artex
pattern was pretty rendom,

Yes, that would make the repair easy.

In my case the repair mix will need to be roughly the same consistency
as the original artex, in order to reproduce the professional-looking
swirls convincingly. They look like they were done with either a float
(twist, then lift) or possibly some purpose-made rubber or sponge -
covered float, using the said twist-then-lift technique. I will have
to experiment.

I was mainly wonderingif the polyfilla+emulsion mix has been tried by
anyone here to good effect. I'm just guessing that it would be a good
imitation of genuine artex, regarding the way it behaves..

Cheers,

Harry W

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:28:42 +0100, Harry W wrote:

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 18:50:26 +0100, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Fortunately the Artex
pattern was pretty rendom,

Yes, that would make the repair easy.

In my case the repair mix will need to be roughly the same consistency as
the original artex, in order to reproduce the professional-looking swirls
convincingly. They look like they were done with either a float (twist,
then lift) or possibly some purpose-made rubber or sponge - covered float,
using the said twist-then-lift technique. I will have to experiment.

I was mainly wonderingif the polyfilla+emulsion mix has been tried by
anyone here to good effect. I'm just guessing that it would be a good
imitation of genuine artex, regarding the way it behaves..

Cheers,

Harry W

==================================
Polyfilla will probably dry too quite quickly for your experiment. You
might consider using 'One-coat' plaster which is workable for at least 30
minutes and it will be cheaper than Polyfilla if you have to abandon the
idea.

Mixing a plaster filler and paint (usually gloss / undercoat) used to be
called 'Swedish putty' and was used before modern fillers became available.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:57:06 GMT, Cicero
wrote:

Polyfilla will probably dry too quite quickly for your experiment. You
might consider using 'One-coat' plaster which is workable for at least 30
minutes and it will be cheaper than Polyfilla if you have to abandon the
idea.

Thanks for the tip. I just happen to have some of the Wickes' variety!
Usefull stuff. It doesn't seem quite as smooth as polyfilla when wet.

Mixing a plaster filler and paint (usually gloss / undercoat) used to be
called 'Swedish putty' and was used before modern fillers became available.

I vaguely remember hearing about that. I wonder if oil-based paint is
better than water-based for this purpose. Whichever one ends up with
the most flexibility and adhesion, long-term, would probably be best
for this job.

Harry W

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:20:34 +0100, Harry W B wrote:

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:57:06 GMT, Cicero wrote:

Polyfilla will probably dry too quite quickly for your experiment. You
might consider using 'One-coat' plaster which is workable for at least 30
minutes and it will be cheaper than Polyfilla if you have to abandon the
idea.

Thanks for the tip. I just happen to have some of the Wickes' variety!
Usefull stuff. It doesn't seem quite as smooth as polyfilla when wet.

Mixing a plaster filler and paint (usually gloss / undercoat) used to be
called 'Swedish putty' and was used before modern fillers became
available.

I vaguely remember hearing about that. I wonder if oil-based paint is
better than water-based for this purpose. Whichever one ends up with the
most flexibility and adhesion, long-term, would probably be best for this
job.

Harry W

===================================
If you have a bit of plasterboard or hardboard lying around, try a few
different mixes to see what you can achieve. Remember that nobody will
notice your patching unless you make a complete pig's ear of it so you
only need a close match and a lick of paint to deceive the eye.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

Cicero wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:20:34 +0100, Harry W B wrote:

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:57:06 GMT, Cicero wrote:

Polyfilla will probably dry too quite quickly for your experiment. You
might consider using 'One-coat' plaster which is workable for at least 30
minutes and it will be cheaper than Polyfilla if you have to abandon the
idea.
Thanks for the tip. I just happen to have some of the Wickes' variety!
Usefull stuff. It doesn't seem quite as smooth as polyfilla when wet.

Mixing a plaster filler and paint (usually gloss / undercoat) used to be
called 'Swedish putty' and was used before modern fillers became
available.
I vaguely remember hearing about that. I wonder if oil-based paint is
better than water-based for this purpose. Whichever one ends up with the
most flexibility and adhesion, long-term, would probably be best for this
job.

Harry W

===================================
If you have a bit of plasterboard or hardboard lying around, try a few
different mixes to see what you can achieve. Remember that nobody will
notice your patching unless you make a complete pig's ear of it so you
only need a close match and a lick of paint to deceive the eye.

I did a bit of Artex patching last week actually, using Wickes-branded
'polyfilla' on its own. Looks fine. Only a very small area though.
The above advice is spot-on: once it's all painted it will not be
noticeable - it's a different ball game to trying to patch a smooth area
where any blemish will stick out like a sore thumb.

On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 09:32:49 GMT, Lobster
wrote:

I did a bit of Artex patching last week actually, using Wickes-branded
'polyfilla' on its own. Looks fine. Only a very small area though.
The above advice is spot-on: once it's all painted it will not be
noticeable - it's a different ball game to trying to patch a smooth area
where any blemish will stick out like a sore thumb.

Yes - thanks for the input. It seems my hunch about polyfilla+emulsion
was spot-on. The consistency was so artex-like that I was able to
reproduce the professional-looking swirls almost perfectly - and I was
applying it to a smooth area, where I had already done some plastering
to fill some large holes. They biggest challenge was finding the right
tool to create the swirls. I ended up using a stiff-bristled
hand-brush (the dustpan-&-brush variety). The repair is virtually
undetectable now, even before painting. You'd need a good eye to find
it. I wish I'd discovered this technique years ago when I did some
rather more botched-looking repairs in another room.

Harry W

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:34:44 +0100, Harry W B
wrote:


I need to do a few small repairs to the artex on a ceiling, and neet
to try to reproduce the swirls created by the original tradesman.

If I mix interior polyfilla and emulsion paint, I think this would
create something of the right consistency. Anyone tried that?

I'm just trying to avoid doing a long trek to a DIY store to buy a
load more artex than I need!

You can buy "repairtex" which is precisely for this purpose. Better
still get rid of all the Artex, it's horrible stuff

M