artex ceilings - help!

[MizZan]

OK - we are looking at buying a house (offer accepted at way too high a price, but that's another story) which has artex ceilings in most of the rooms. it's a 1930s ex-council semi so not a gorgeous house by any stretch, but we're looking to update and extend it and as part of that, we would definitely want to remove these artex ceilings. ceilings are fairly low anyway so we would rather not just plasterboard over it, as it's going to start feeling claustrophobic.

however I have only just found out that artex often has asbestos in it, and as a result this may be a long or costly or potentially dangerous-to-health-of-our-kids job. does anyone have experience of this? note we haven't got 100% proof of the artex having asbestos but the owners said it has been there for at least 20-30 years so it's certainly likely.

anyone know about this/have experience in it? thank you!

You can ask your local council about this. Asbestos is found in alot of properties, it was found to be dangerous in the early 1980 and before this it was pretty much put into anything, coating of pipes, plaster etc. It's a PITA to remove and requires specialist removal as it's found to cause lung cancer called mesothelioma, it's thought that one strand of asbestos causes this, it takes years to develop though. There are different types of asbestos, white and blue IIRC, one is less hazardous then the other. The asbestos fibres are released when something is chipped. You really should contact the local council for their advice.

TBH I have never heard of the asbestos connection.

I have had artex and the best option is for a plasterer to cover it with PVA glue and then too skim it.

We bought a 1930s ex-council semi and did it up. Ours also had Artex ceilings. Our builder said we'd find it hard/expensive to find someone who would be willing to remove it as they might be potentially exposing themselves to the asbestos. He also said that as long as you don't mess with it, it's apparently OK, ie, won't come out and affect you. I can't guarantee that my info is 100& correct, obviously. But the implication was that taking it out would be more troublesome (re: potential health concerns) than just covering it up. So we covered it up. We only lost an inch or so, I think.

Probably no help at all, am I? Sorry.

We had Artex on every conceivable surface of every room of our (3 bed House) -we had a plasterer skim the whole lot at a cost of about £3000

we have artex plus asbestos ceilings in our 1930s house and have also taken the best left alone approach.
We wait until our plasterer accidentally puts petrol in his diesel van then we / my dh rescues him and he comes round and plasters another ceiling

You don't lose much in height, the skim isn't too thick as mochan says. The trick is masses of pva beforehand though or the plaster will fall off.

this is also an excouncil 1930s semi. i don't think i am comfortable with the leave well alone approach. we are paying a huge amount for this place and it needs to be something not dangerous and that we can sell on.

We has this (in what sounds like a very similar house), and in the end we boarded over it. I was very distressed at the prospect of losing height, but you really don't notice. We haven't shied away from messy or tedious jobs, but I'm really glad we went for the boarding option here.

I don't think it's right that one strand of asbestos can kill you; I think you have to breathe in a fair bit of it. To some extent it's in the air, given the amount that used to be used in building work. Would welcome any sources of info on that score, though! Lots of houses have some somewhere.

This has some info, which is faintly reassuring - there is asbestos in the air and soil around us, and most people aren't affected.

Wikipedia: "Long term exposure to asbestos is more likely to cause health problems, as asbestos exists in the ambient air at low levels, which itself does not cause health problems."

Not that I'm staying awake worrying or anything.

thanks for all the replies. As we would be doing a fair bit of work to the house including a loft conversion and rerouting a staircase, I think quite a bit of the artex'ed ceiling area would be "disturbed" so that's where the risk lies, if there is one. I think we probably have to get an opinion from a specialist of some sort, I don't know if we could just get a regular builder to come around and take a look, maybe as a prequal for doing the actual work for us later or something.

Interesting, I didn't know about Artex having asbestos but seems if it is older than 25 years it is likely to

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artex

According to this most artex doesn't contain asbestos, even if it was done pre-1984 when it was banned from being added. When it was permitted to be added, it was only up to 2% and there is no measurable risk to health from artex with asbestos in.

I never understand why people worry about artex ceilings. I never ever notice peoples ceilings and then when peopl start talking about it I think next time I go to someones house I must check if they have artexed ceilings but I never remember!

I suggest you take a look at www.hse.gov.uk the health and safety executive website. It has lots of info re asbestos in the domestic environment and how to deal with it.