Artex - plastering over?

[HaveAGoodDay]

So we're in the process of buying our first house, although its STC at the moment so not definite as yet!

The lounge (which is quite large about 19ft x 11ft) is wall to wall artex. With those large photo wall daydo (sp) frame thingys. We are assuming that it can be skimmed over? Also the artex doesn't stop there it's in the hall & runs up the stairs. Proper artex fetish. So a lot of re- skimming over it to have done. And it goes without saying that the ceiling in the lounge is artex!

Thankfully the bedrooms escaped it!

We had stippled artex on the ceiling throughout the house that we bought and had it all skimmed with plaster. It was a very dusty process though (plasterers mixing up the plaster from the dry plaster mix).

My house was covered in artex. Over the years I got people in to skim over it. There is some rule about what thickness of plaster they are allowed to apply - which was a problem for the bedroom as it had deadly peaks, but it is all mercifully gone.

We have just done this in our dining room, now have lovely smooth walls! Cost about £500 but had really big peaks to cover.
Very dirty work and the plaster took ages to dry out good luck

We've just had one of our ceilings skimmed and as pp says, it will depend on the thickness of the artex as to whether they can skim over it. Luckily ours were just small peaks so could be skimmed. Otherwise I think they have to put plasterboards over the top.

Yes in some houses they went artex crazy - bizarre trend

We have stippled artex in most rooms of our house. So far have had the living room ceiling replastered, which involved scraping off the worst of the stipples, applying some kind of coating and then the plasterer skimmed it. The scraping created a lot of dust, and you might want to be aware that some artex (pre 1990s) contains a small amount of white asbestos. We had ours tested and it was ok. If it had contained asbestos, it probably would have been better to plasterboard over the ceiling, which is a bigger job as the coving (if you have that) would need to be removed and replaced.

Had to have our kitchen ceiling plaster boarded and then skimmed. It cost about £300. The room is 11 feet square.

Just had the bathroom ceiling skimmed. They knocked off the really deep peaks. Looks good.

I struggle to understand why Artemis so 'bad'. If it's the swirly circle artex, yes, it agree, it's horrible, but the dimple stipples artex looks OK to me. Bit of a herd mentality I think.

I've been wondering when artex will make a come back!!
Seriously, these things come round in circles and it's about due.

Life was so easy in the 80s - curly perm, leggings and baggy T-shirt/sweatshirt, and artex to just pop a bit of paint over when it got grubby/scribbled on.
Don't know how we all manage now.

Skimming over is easy and not very expensive. Might cost a few £hundred per room, best to get it done while the house is empty. Ask around for good local plasterers and drive around looking for houses havung work done, ask the owners a month later.

If the house was built prior to, say, 1945, it may have L&P ceilings which are cracked and sagging and were concealed by the artex, so it will be better (but much much much dirtier) to pull them down and put up new. It will be very very very dirty.

I think that's what we will do, once the sale is finalised, probably get the plasterers in before we move in. I could probably live with the ceiling for a bit....but then again if its done all in one go! Yeah was concerned about the asbestos side of it as well, so we'll have to see about that too but as far as I'm aware it's only if you're chipping into it it's dangerous? But definitely have to play it safe. I should think the plasterers would know what to do?

We're having a complete survey done of the house but they don't go into things like asbestos etc.

You can get it tested for asbestos - just Google and find your local lab. We just took a small sample off and took it to the testing place - cost about £15 per sample. I don't think it contains much asbestos, and it is the least dangerous type, it's just creating so much dust that would be the worry. But you can always get it plasterboarded anyway.

Listen to piglet john. Artex may be hiding a multitude of sins. Just had 5 ceilings down that were horsehair and lathe-an absolute nightmare. I cannot describe the dust and dirt, good luck!