Interior Crepi

[CeeJay]

I have a grotty wall in the kitchen which needs some renovation, so the boss went out and she bought a large bucket of interior crepi and said "There you are, no excuses now, get on with it".

However I have never used crepi before so don't know the best way to put it on. I eventually want to end up with some form of stipple effect. Also on the bucket it says Crepi Decollable, what does this mean? Any ideas gratefully received.

[Sunday Driver]

Everything you need to know about using crépi:

http://www.brico.be/wabs/fiches/pdf/fr/3-4.pdf

 

 

[pachapapa]

If you dont like it. it can be stripped off relatively easily along the wall-crepi interface without detaching bits of wall.

[Patf]

We used it on bedroom walls and found that it attracts dust, flying insects etc which makes it look grubby.  Needs to be vacuumed off.

So might not be a good idea for the kitchen.

[Théière]

Whats wrong with the original wall, grotty?

[idun]

I have done all sorts of effects but the smoother effect done with a trowel and wide paint scraper leaving small lines was the easiest to maintain. Bit like a pub wall. So it would depend where you wanted it, it was fine for us.

[Quillan]

My front room is covered in this stuff and it is a pain in the anus for the reasons given previously so I would strongly advise not to do it. Painting the stuff when it get old is a nightmare, you really need to spray it unless you have extremely strong wrists, a very shaggy roller and loads of paint as it sucks it up like a sponge.

As a side issue has anyone ever got ride of the stuff by plastering over it as removing it would be a big problem?

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Quillan"]

My front room is covered in this stuff and it is a pain in the anus for the reasons given previously so I would strongly advise not to do it. Painting the stuff when it get old is a nightmare, you really need to spray it unless you have extremely strong wrists, a very shaggy roller and loads of paint as it sucks it up like a sponge.

As a side issue has anyone ever got ride of the stuff by plastering over it as removing it would be a big problem?

[/quote]

Just heat it and scrape it off...job done...all in the link.[:P]

DECOLLABLE

Une particularité appréciable de ce crépi est qu'il peut être décollé très facilement, ce qui vous

permet de modifier ou rafraîchir régulièrement la décoration de votre intérieur. Dans la plupart des

cas, il suffit d'enlever la couche ancienne avec une décolleuse à vapeur et un racloir.

[CeeJay]

Well........actually started on half the wall, left to dry for a bit and started stippling with a roller. Stood back to admire handiwork and saw that in front of my very eyes it started to fall away from the wall!!!. Closer examination revealed that behind the layers of paint there was paper which had soaked and drifted from the wall! So, 1 step forward and 5 back, would it be cheaper to get someone in?

[Quillan]

[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Quillan"]

My front room is covered in this stuff and it is a pain in the anus for the reasons given previously so I would strongly advise not to do it. Painting the stuff when it get old is a nightmare, you really need to spray it unless you have extremely strong wrists, a very shaggy roller and loads of paint as it sucks it up like a sponge.

As a side issue has anyone ever got ride of the stuff by plastering over it as removing it would be a big problem?

[/quote]

Just heat it and scrape it off...job done...all in the link.[:P]

DECOLLABLE

Une particularité appréciable de ce crépi est qu'il peut être décollé très facilement, ce qui vous

permet de modifier ou rafraîchir régulièrement la décoration de votre intérieur. Dans la plupart des

cas, il suffit d'enlever la couche ancienne avec une décolleuse à vapeur et un racloir.

[/quote]

Unfortunately my interior crepe is the same as the exterior and this system of removing it will not work. It is directly on to the brick work both inside and out although the inside walls are terracotta as opposed to concrete block on the outside. The only way to remove it, so I am told by a French builder, is to use a hammer and chisel but they may of course be wrong. I have tried a small section behind a cabinet and the above method does not work. Seems I may have to have the walls skimmed and assume you use some sort of bonding first but I don't really know which is why I asked.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="Quillan"]

My front room is covered in this stuff and it is a pain in the anus for the reasons given previously so I would strongly advise not to do it. Painting the stuff when it get old is a nightmare, you really need to spray it unless you have extremely strong wrists, a very shaggy roller and loads of paint as it sucks it up like a sponge.

As a side issue has anyone ever got ride of the stuff by plastering over it as removing it would be a big problem?

[/quote]

Just heat it and scrape it off...job done...all in the link.[:P]

DECOLLABLE

Une particularité appréciable de ce crépi est qu'il peut être décollé très facilement, ce qui vous

permet de modifier ou rafraîchir régulièrement la décoration de votre intérieur. Dans la plupart des

cas, il suffit d'enlever la couche ancienne avec une décolleuse à vapeur et un racloir.

[/quote]

Unfortunately my interior crepe is the same as the exterior and this system of removing it will not work. It is directly on to the brick work both inside and out although the inside walls are terracotta as opposed to concrete block on the outside. The only way to remove it, so I am told by a French builder, is to use a hammer and chisel but they may of course be wrong. I have tried a small section behind a cabinet and the above method does not work. Seems I may have to have the walls skimmed and assume you use some sort of bonding first but I don't really know which is why I asked.

[/quote]

I did add a smiley...

What you have on the wall sounds like an "enduit de montmorency", frequently found in old houses principally due to its ability to absorb humidity( plaster element) and the property of allowing the wall to breathe ( non hydraulic lime element ).

A link to this type of enduit in link below, it looks a bit like digestive biscuits but that will depend on sand or colorant used; if you spray some water on a patch it will dry almost immediately. It is very "refractive" and difficult to get anything to stick on it.

http://www.platre.com/platre/Document/EnduitDeMontmorencyInterieur/doc?type=DataSheet

[Cendrillon]

CeeJay....don't do it!

We, like Quillan had some of the old style crepi in our house, it was all over the ugly fireplace, chimney area and looked like old fashioned Snowcem ...................ugh![:(]

 We considered various ways of getting rid of it. In the end we have had the fireplace removed and now have a beautiful woodburning stove in its place. [:)]

Possibly your more modern crepi is better but never in a million years would we have chosen the crepi - Snowcem finish.

[nomoss]

[quote user="Quillan"]

My front room is covered in this stuff and it is a pain in the anus for the reasons given previously so I would strongly advise not to do it. Painting the stuff when it get old is a nightmare, you really need to spray it unless you have extremely strong wrists, a very shaggy roller and loads of paint as it sucks it up like a sponge.

As a side issue has anyone ever got ride of the stuff by plastering over it as removing it would be a big problem?

[/quote]

One room of our new house has very thickly textured crépi, with a very rough and sharp edged finish, and seems to be of the exterior variety. Small pieces peeled away are quite thick and are fairly flexible. Attempts to peel away larger sections resulted in chunks of plaster also coming away.

Rather than strip it all off and re-plaster, or plaster over it, I have ground down the high parts of the finish to a much more moderate, wavy texture, using disques lamellés from Brico Bati.

It took much less time, and the discs lasted longer, than I expected. The particles ground off were quite heavy, and fell to the floor without much fine dust, but I used a high quality breathing mask with appropriate filters.

The result, once primed and painted, is far more pleasing, and less prone to collecting dust.

[Quillan]

Sounds to me like you had the same sort of stuff as me then nomoss. Mrs Q and I were quite horrified when we saw it seeing as the previous family had five kids, we could only imagine the damage it would do if you fell against it with bear skin.

I would be interested to see what the finished product looked like, perhaps you could post a photo or sent it via email. Our room it about 12 by 7m with a cathederal type ceiling so there is quite a few square metres of the stuff which is what has been putting me off. We painted it a few years back, it gets through rollers very quick and took us about two weeks and four coats of paint. This has taken off some of the 'sharpness' from the surface but I don't relish the thought of doing it again even though in theory it should be easier this time.

Did you find out about plastering over it, like can it be done for instance? I quess the cost of plastering, assuming it can be done, would have been one of the major issues?

[dexter]

The previous owner of my place put it on the walls of the bedroom and part of the landing, as otthers have said it was full of dust,flies and spiders and looked grubby even after a good going over with the hoover. I studded out the walls, insulated and plasterboarded them and got a local plasterer to skim them. I`d left the chimney breast un studded and expected that he would skim over it as well  but he said it would be quicker and cheaper to dot and dab plasterboard to it as the surface was so rough that it would need much more than a skim coat to get a smooth finnish. The end result is fantastic with nice rounded corners on the chimney breast.

Dexter 

[nomoss]

Quillan

I can take a couple of pics next time I'm at the "new" house, but you can grind it down fairly easily to any texture you like. Still much easier than removing the whole lot.

The house is empty at the moment, so dust is not a huge problem. If you can isolate the room, as I said the dust is heavy and quickly settles, but any contents should be removed or very well covered.

I started just taking off the highest parts, which as you said, were sharp enough to cut bare skin. When I saw how easy it was to grind I decided to take down the major, more or less vertical "stripes", until almost flush, controlling the new height to about a mm or so, to keep an even appearance all over the wall.

Originally my builder said he could plaster over it, but I reckoned it would take at least 3 coats, and would take us even more over budget. He charged us 200€ to smooth plaster one small wall  (about 5 m2, 2 coats) over lightly textured crépi, in the present house, and there was about 10 times that.

I put armature and plasterboard over the wall we wrecked by trying to remove the horrible stuff, and the other 2 walls of our new dining room, so that they match (the third wall is a new stud partition to create the new kitchen).

The kitchen walls are the ones I ground down; but I cheated in that I didn't grind the parts which will be behind the wall units. I have one bedroom, unaccountably with the same horrible crépi, still to do.

 

[nomoss]

Pretty difficult to get good pictures of white crépi!

This is the only wall in the dining room I didn't cover with placo, the bit in the photo is about a metre high. Ground down, undercoated and painted white.

The texturing is about 2mm maximum, probably nearer 1mm. Originally it was up to 10mm at the biggest "spikes"

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/PC080002.jpg[/IMG]

 

This is a section of the kitchen wall in a corner. Ground down section is on the LHS of the picture. Original texture left where the base unit will be sited, about 60 cm deep. All the masonry pillar on the RHS is original crépi, as it will be covered by a tiled splashback. LHS used for roller/brush cleaning (white paint), RHS untouched and is much rougher than it looks in the picture.

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/PC080004.jpg[/IMG]

 

Edit: Revise descriptions slightly

[Quillan]

Thanks for that, it looks quite good, sort of like a form of, dare I say, artex. I think I might try on a small area behind something to see how difficult and messy it is.

I have a contact for a French plasterer who charges 120 Euros a day and I have to supply the plaster. He did a wall in my kitchen and it's very good but I have yet to ask him for a quote on the lounge.

[idun]

What 120€ a day? in the 80's and early 90's artisans always charged 2000ff a day, so how can yours work for that with all his charges?

[Quillan]

I don't know, with so much unemployment down here I guess they are very competitive for any work, but as long as I have a facture I don't care. [:D]