What do modern houses have on the ceiling?

[BL00CowWonders]

My 1960s house has a mixture of swirly plaster and painted textured paper. Is there another alternative?

[financialwizard]

My 2006 house has flat plastered ceilings.

[RoundRobinSparkles]

My 2013 has flat, plastered ceilings too.

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

Yes, just get them skimmed with smooth plaster.

[SqueezyCheeseWeasel]

Much less distracting on lower ceiling heights.

[AstoriaMalfoy]

Mirrors

[RoundRobinSparkles]

*2013 house.

[MillionairesShortbread]

If you have swirly plaster does it cost a lot to skim it?

[BL00CowWonders]

Do you get cracks with plastered ceilings? Or do they settle?

[BL00CowWonders]

Curry and mirrors. My last kitchen had a rather fine pattern of hot chocolate ...

[wowfudge]

The swirly plaster is artex. It may contain asbestos given the age of the house. You can get it tested to see whether it does contain asbestos. If it does and is in good condition - not cracked, etc, it can be skimmed over to encapsulate it and give a flat ceiling or you can have it removed professionally and the ceiling re-done.

If the artex doesn't contain asbestos it can be skimmed over, plasterboarded over or the ceiling completely redone - up to you, your preferences and budget.

Where it is papered, you can take the paper off and paint the plaster or re-paper it with something of your choice.

[Marmitelover55]

My Victorian house did have a pine clad ceiling (think sauna), but now that has been taken down and it has been skimmed smooth

[Longdistance]

My 1999 house has artex swirls on the ceiling. I quite like it, and when we had a leak about 4 years ago, we had the ceiling redone in artex.

We have just built an extension, and as the ceiling will be sloping, I think it's just going to be smooth, but we are doing internal works knocking down walls to make kitchen, diner, playroom open plan, we may artex the ceiling again.

[Sleepyfergus]

Our last house (built c2002) had this aretex stuff. It was vile. I hated it.

We decorated one of the room for my then due dd1. Painted the walls and the ceiling. Came in the next day and half the paint had peeled off the ceiling. Tried again, same thing.

Being very pregnant and hormonal I had a hissy fit, so poor DH spent ages sanding it down by hand. Thankfully it wasn't a massive room. He was covered in fine plaster dust and it buggered up our hoover road you're not supposed to hoover very fine dust like that.

Anyway, after hand sanding, we sealed it with about 3 coats of pva/water mixture, then painted it and was fine.

I don't understand why modern houses have this as it seems to be a feature of the 1970s. Give me a flat smooth ceiling anyday!

[IsItTeaYoureLookingFor]

I have artex in my house. The previous owners thought it was wonderful and had it done in every single room from the hallway to the bathroom! We're slowly getting rid of it as we decorate each room. Its hideous and dated.

Its easy enough to plaster over thankfully.

[SquinkiesRule]

Our 70's house has smooth plaster in the bedrooms and that painted pattern paper stuff downstairs I quite like it. Dh has just repainted it all white it looks good.

[Chasingsquirrels]

1999 - main reception rooms and hallway smooth. Kitchen, Utility & upstairs are "dotty" artex.

My parents have different swirly artex patterns in ever room, and some rooms are a mix of various styles, it is like a master artex-er was on a mission!

[Greencheese]

I recently sold my parents house, bless them, they had put polystyrene tiles on all the ceilings, bet the new owners were well impressed with my old dads DIY skills

[ouryve]

Our 1940s house has artex fans on the lounge ceiling. They were hideous and shiny, when we moved in, but we painted over with a chalky paint and they look a lot better (although there's a few shiny bits that still peep through - it was a painstaking job with a brush to cover it properly, as it was too deep for a roller). Artex is often used to cover up ceilings prone to cracking, as it contains reinforcing fibres and is very flexible.

[ouryve]

This

[CointreauVersial]

Artex is loathsome stuff. Our house was owned by a botch-it builder, and he used lashings of swirly Artex on the living room ceiling to disguise the fact that he hadn't nailed the plaster boards up properly (it didn't work; you could still see the joins). And it was glossy! Like a giant upturned meringue on the ceiling.

First thing we did was get it skimmed, and we are gradually eliminating it all around the house.

[MillionairesShortbread]

Oh yes ours is all glossy - and much of it looking like the peaks of royal icing. I need to paint over it but similarly thought the roler might not be up to the job.

We have the patterned wallpaper you paint too (thnakfully not "woodchip" but still...)

I feel for all those decorators who trained in it and now its not wanted!

[ouryve]

There's anaglypta all over the landing and bedrooms - or rather there was in the boys' bedroom, but DS1 did something about that. The walls underneath were horrific! It's staying put in our room!

[Hulababy]

Our fairly modern house - moved here in 2006 - has artex. I hate it. We have removed in from the bathrooms when they were redone. Next year we are having some building work done so it will disappear from the study and kitchen. I will hopefully get the, to remove it from the living room at the same time as that is ready for decorating anyway. Hopefully bedrooms year after that. Hall/landing will probably stay as it is for a while as it is a 3 storey house so would cost a fair bit to have done.