Asbestos in Artex ceiling

[ErickBroch]

Hi all,

Had our Survey back, he thinks the ceiling is Artex and recommended doing a sample check. Fine.

I have been reading about it, and it seems many people opt to cover it up instead of replacing? So it isn't disturbed but also you are sealing it in.

Has anyone had this issue before? Would be really interested in knowing what method you took! The house is a little dated so yes ideally we wanted to smooth out the ceilings.

Thanks!

AFAIK artex with asbestos in it is no problem in itself as long as it is not disturbed (like drilling, sanding etc). There are many thousands of houses with this type of ceiling. You can have it skimmed over, but this is quite a messy and intrusive job to have done in each room. We have got quite a few artexed ceilings which are fairly inoffensive to look at, so we have left them. We had the bathroom ceiling skimmed because it was a horrible swirly pattern, but this was when the bathroom was being refitted anyway. It is something that you may chose to do in due course (re plastering, that is), but the artex will not cause you any harm if you leave it alone.
Also, it is only older artex that had asbestos in it. The newer stuff doesn't.

Lucisky thanks for responding! I did a bit more reading and it does seem skimming is the best option like you said, which is a relief as I was imagining huge building work to remove ceilings... phew.

We won't do it all immediately probably room-by-room as we do them up! Thank you for reassurance, I was stressing!