Artex - WWYD?

[smeerf]

We're completing on our first house on Friday. There's a fair amount of work to be done on it before we move in, I'm 34 weeks pregnant so I'll be remaining at our current flat until the work is complete, while my DH will be overseeing/assisting the contractors at the new property (electricians, plumber, plasterer, decorators and my DF who will be doing the laminate floors etc).

The main thing that is worrying me is the bloody awful artex ceilings in almost every room. The plan all along has been to get someone in to scrape down the artex and then skim over it, however from what I've read the vast majority of people don't scrape it down first. We have no idea whether the artex contains asbestos and I'm concerned about my DP being in the building with dust from this flying around (DF is away while this is being done so less of a concern).

We do not have a direct relationship with the plasterer - a friend of ours who is a general handyman/decorator and doing a lot of the work is bringing one in and they'll do the work together. This friend is "99.9999% sure" that there wouldn't be asbestos, and has basically said that him and the plasterer are the ones at risk anyway, so why am I worrying? However he has offered to get some samples tested same-day on Friday for us to put our mind at ease for £150 (I just wish we had known this was an option at the survey stage).

What if the test shows asbestos? This would mean that the electricians we've booked for Monday wouldn't be able to do any of the spotlights we've asked for, the friend would refuse to touch the ceilings, and presumably we'd need to get specialists in at a later date (when we have a baby in the house) at a huge cost.

The worst bit would be the delay - obviously time is not really on our side with this! Anyone have any advice / experience with getting rid of artex? TIA.

I do up houses all the time and have always just plastered straight over artex. I would just leave it to the decorator to sort out.

Thanks EmmaC78 - maybe I am overthinking it.

I'm just worried because he's insisting on scraping it down first rather than just plastering it over, which is going to cause dust - if he was just plastering over (like most people seem to do) then I wouldn't be so concerned about getting it tested.

You can order self testing kits online for about £50 for asbestos - really quick and easy to use

I used one of these to check our artex but we are pulling a ceiling down rather than plastering over

Has he said why he wants to.scrape it back?

You could get it boarded and skimmed - they nail plasterboard into the joists, then skim that. I've had it done to cover up nasty textured wallpaper, not artex, but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

We had ours plaster boarded over and then plastered. Slightly more expensive but gave a good finish and artex is hidden far far out of sight where it belongs!

Whymustyoubringinthebirds - thanks for that!

EmmaC78 - DP says friend thinks it's cheaper and quicker to scrape it. We're paying £2k for the whole ground and first floor (kitchen, hallway, living/dining, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, toilet) - it's a small house in South London.

How big are the peaks? Smaller peaks or swirls really don't need scraping and can just be skimmed over. Bigger peaks might need scraping down but they are also the kind more likely to contain asbestos.

How old is the house? Pre-1990 there's a good chance that there is art present; post-1990 it's much less likely (but of course not impossible).

PS that sounds a lot, even for London. We paid approx £100 per room in the West Midlands.

Buxbaum The peaks are small. It's an ex council house, built in 1974.

Hmm. If it's 1974 then I would get it checked. There's a pretty high chance that there is asbestos and I really wouldn't chance it if you are pregnant. The dust is insidious and no amount of vacuuming will necessarily get it all.

We had swirls like this skimmed over. No scraping.

I know it’s awkward when it’s a mate but I’d get a second opinion.

All our rooms are artexed, our plasterer was happy enough to skim over it in the bedroom but said for downstairs where the ceiling is effectively being walked over in upstairs rooms we'd be better plaster boarding then skimming.

Sorry if this is hijacking, but anyone got any experience of doing a rewire in somewhere with Artex ceilings?

And in terms of the companies that come to test, is there a good way to find a good one that won't exaggerate the problem? (not saying that's a given but have heard there are some unscrupulous ones!)

Check incase it's wallpaper that looks like artex, we thought we had artex on every ceiling but it turns out to be wallpaper. We didn't have a clue until the plasterer pulled it off in sheets.

Update - it's textured wallpaper. A bit time consuming to strip off but so much easier to deal with. Thanks all.