Removing Heavy Stippling from Ceiling

Bananabubs

Anybody out there got any tips or advice for removing Heavy Stippling from Ceiling and Walls (Yep,:eek: It's Bad!!) Anybody come accross a Good and Cheap Plasterer for this Job? Location is Rathmines, Dublin. Thanks....:)

miles teg

My ideal advice would be to sell up and buy a place without stippling. My whole house is covered with that sh1t and is the bane of my life. Anyway, from my experience, 2 diy ways to remove it are:
1) sand it down. You'll need to get a heavy duty dust mask (and goggles, remove everything from the room and seal it, the dust clouds produced are unreal. You'll need to make sure you don't sand too hard as you'll sand into plasterboard and destroy them. Also, scrape as much of the stipple away first. Makes it easier and less dusty.
2) Use smoothover. You'll need to scrape the stipple first and applying the smoothover is tricky to get right. You'll end up having to sand it a bit in the end anyway, but not as much as the first option.

Both methods require a lot of time and effort, and depending on the size of the stipple area, you'll end up asking your if it's really worth it. Start with your smallest room/area first. After that, you may well just decide to fork out for a plasterer.

patrickolee

Had stippling on the ceiling before. Plasters tried to bond and plaster over it, but it all fell off. The builder came in and ripped to the lot down in about 15 mins with what looked to me like a large flat shovel. Then they just skimmed over it. Looked a damn site easier than removing wood chip wallpaper!

dools

we had this done in our last house. The builders screwed sheets of plasterboards up on the ceiling and skimmed over it. Would that be an option?

nomis99

Oh Oh i bought an apartment in rathmines last year and it had just this problem, when we attempted to have it removed we found it was there for a very good reason !!! I'm not in a position to explain further but I advise you to leave well enough alone and maybe work a 70's theme instead.

miles teg

nomis99 wrote:

Oh Oh i bought an apartment in rathmines last year and it had just this problem, when we attempted to have it removed we found it was there for a very good reason !!! I'm not in a position to explain further but I advise you to leave well enough alone and maybe work a 70's theme instead.

How are you not in a position to explain further? Out of interest, how did you go about removing it?

Fatty

The apartment I bought could be a the bleedin' headquaters of the international stippling fanciers association. The lime green stippled walls sent the last owner into a mental home and the fookin ceiling is bleedin' pebbel dashed. Its like that cool shirt your dad threw out years ago. It was Hick at the time but hick came back into fashion..not sure if this applies to stippling tho

nomis99 explain further please!

F.

Raytown Rocks

dools wrote:

we had this done in our last house. The builders screwed sheets of plasterboards up on the ceiling and skimmed over it. Would that be an option?

Had the same thing done in my own house many moons ago.
Thin plasterboard, screwed in place and the skimmed.
The builder done it very quickly and there was a lot less mess.

chef

JohnBoy

is it true that part of the reason for stippling is that it's infinitely easier and hides a world of bad slabbing?

GreeBo

its quicker and easier
I dunno about hiding bad slabbing, its pretty hard to mess up a slab (other than joints I guess)
What it means is that pretty much anyone can do it, they dont need to be able to skim so its cheaper for the builder.

I had my stippled ceiling removed yesterday. they ran over it with a trowel to remove the larger bumps and then skimmed it.
Looks infinitely better, even before paint.

If you PM me I can give you the details of the "foreman".

looksee

Are we allowed to speculate on what nomis99 found? Our builder pulled down the stippling, plasterboard and all, and re-slabbed, but the plasterboard was damaged in one area so it was the logical solution. (had the electric wiring been led across the ceiling and stippled over nomis99?)

GreeBo

I cant imagine Stippling would hide wires...unless its more of a pebble dash...
any update nomis?

Kebab

We put plasterboard onto our ceiling to cover the stippling then got a guy in to skim in - looks great now

BaZmO*

JohnBoy wrote:

is it true that part of the reason for stippling is that it's infinitely easier and hides a world of bad slabbing?

Not necessarily to hide "bad slabbing" but it does hide any imperfections with the plastering over the slab is finishing.

A mate of mine recently got his whole house renovated and had to tackle the stippling problem too. He hired an industrial wallpaper remover and used that along with a paint scraper to remove the stipple and then got it re-skimmed. It's extremely messy and time consuming but it did look the business when finished and it was a cheaper option than re-boarding and then skimming which he had to do in other parts of the house because of time restrictions.

Both options will work it just depends on which way you wanna go.

redman

I did a strong bond application and then got a great plasterer via Carpenter on here and he did a great job. Still great 1 yr on!

Redman

Bananabubs

Thanks for all the Tips Everybody.....Once we're in we'll get down this heinous Job!!! Till Then Keep It Comin'.....Any Stippling Support Groups out there??!!!
Bananabubs.

Why does it look so easy on the YouTube?

Is Irish stippling a particularly stubborn strain?

Chemical Byrne

be careful. I heard somewhere that stippling has got aspestos in it.
If you're going sanding it make sure to leave all the doors and windows open, then hoover it and keep children out of the area for at least a week to allow any dust to disperse.

How risky would it be for me, a DIY dyslexic, to starting scraping this stuff off myself? Will I be left with a messy job that I need to hire someone to fix (i.e. plaster over)? House was built in the 1990s so hopefully asbestos free

Chemical Byrne

Are you sure its the 90s? I thought stippling was well gone by then, more of a 70s or early 80s thing I thought.
They only did it to cover up irregularities and unevenness in ceilings anyway. Same as textured wall paper, to cover up a bad wall.

Definitely - early 1990s. Actually had it on a rental previously (bathroom only) and that also dated to 1992.

Any ideas of the cost of getting someone to take it off?

delly

Necro thread, start afresh if you please.