What on earth can you do with Artex ceilings??

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I hate the stuff. I honestly think that every single house I've lived in has had various incarnations of the stuff - swirly like philly cheese, spikey like Christmas cake icing, undulating like - well, I always thought the Artex effect on the bedroom ceiling of my old flat reminded me of intestines.

We have spikey Artex currently (bequeathed by previous owners) and it always looks grubby. Cobwebs get stuck on the points, as do fragments of the feather dusters we use to try and remove them. I had some success with a stiff broom when we were cleaning up to put the house on the market, but it means thousands of fragments of the spikes falling on the brush-ee, an instant hairwash and vacuum (me and the floor), and if you're unlucky, a trip to the doctor to remove the bits from your eye.

Really, it's ghastly stuff. Whatever possessed people, etc.

We're hoping to move into a house that, yet again, has the stuff on all the ceilings. Not a big fan of polystyrene tiles. What else can you do to get rid of it or disguise it? Can it ever be skimmed over by someone with, say, a PhD in Advanced Plastering?

Eandh I'm in Kent as well. And actually there is swirly artex on our ceiling. It's rented though so nothing we can do about it!

We bought a large bungalow last year that was lavishly and swirlingly artexed. The ceiling in the living room was actually GLOSSED as well, so it looked like a shiny upside-down meringue. I think they used loads of artex to cover up the fact that most of the plaster boards didn't line up properly, and many of them had sagging corners.

I thought the whole lot would have to come down, but a friend of ours is a MIRACLE plasterer. He basically scraped off the really spiky bits, fixed the boards properly and taped the joints, then skimmed with new plaster. Voila, ceilings as smooth as a baby's bottom!

My mother went for the steaming route, spent an absolutely filthy two days removing her living room ceiling artex only to be told it would have to be re-boarded anyway. Frankly, she was not HP.

Thank you so much, Eandh. I'm somewhat phobic about asbestos so am naturally dreading the process. Interesting to hear that they sucked it out of upstairs windows? I thought they would be dragging contaminated bags through the house and I would be hoovering manically for the next 15 years. Although I do know that they are very careful. (All thanks to the work of trade unions, mainly, I believe - otherwise we'd all still be breathing in the stuff.)

I'm not in Essex or Kent, alt hough am in London.

sucked out through downstairs (had a hole thing in one of the sheet things) they just taped up all the doors upstairs to make sure our bedrooms were safe and protected

yukyuk yuk

Thank you...

If you want the companies name is was Aspect and website www.aspectcontract.co.uk, the guys who did mine said they travel up to 300 miles to do some jobs!

queenofdreams - we are in the county town of Kent think there are a few Kent Mnetters on here!

Thank you - I will definitely look them up!

hmm, might shout out for a meetup sometime then

TYV - LOL - at least you didn't take him at his word, imagine if you had?? Hopefully someone has reigned in his enthusiam and upskilled him a bit by now

Deux - I don't know, but I will look into it. It might just explain why there are always about 15 adverts for guys doing Artex every week in the local paper... I am always gobsmacked that they are advertising to do it and not to skim over it!! But maybe they are and just not making it clear. I'm sure if this is what they are doing, one decent sized advert telling everyone would have them booked up for the next year!!

Linspins - that seems like a good price! How big is the room & what area are you in??

QoD - I did think Swiss Villa ??? not two words I'd normally link together...

LPW - I hope he did/does know about it, would be good to check though

Today, I actually took notice of a sign I see everyday on the outside wall of the building - it says 'Asbestos'. It's a council type sign so I am assuming it's meaning the pathway...? So, it's very very likely that what I have inside the flat is asbestos

MH - thanks for that. I looked up courses earlier in the year, I was hoping to find a nice little weekend course in a warehouse, where I could learn and make a nice mess somewhere else However, I don't want to spend 6 weeks to do it, so gave up on the idea... for me, it's a bit like playing the piano, I want to be able to play it - but I don't want to learn to play it!! and I don't think I'd be very good at either in the end anyway!!