Is this Artex?

[LyndaSnellsSniff]

Our house is 1930s and has a textured ceiling in the living room. It seems to have been applied in ‘strips’ and then painted over. We’d like to replace the ceiling (it’s got a crack that is behind whatever is covering the ceiling and plasterer is wary of skimming over the top in case it brings the ceiling down).

I’m concerned that this covering isn’t painted textured paper but is actually a coating containing asbestos such as Artex.

Does it look like Artex? And can anyone recommend a testing kit?

Thanks!

if you can see seams it is probably textured paper as artex would normally have been put on the ceiling then the pattern added to it, is there a way of peeling a tiny bit from a corner of the ceiling that will tell you if its paper backed without causing too much damage

Why do you assume Artex contains asbestos? I've lived in previous houses with artex ceilings, they are dated, and a pain in the bum to deal with when you want to redecorate but they never contained asbestos!

Its impossible to tell from the picture if it's painted textured paper or Artex - which is a textured paint basically. You should be able to tell by the feel of it. Can't the plasterer tell?

Does the pattern repeat exactly? If so it's paper. Looks like paper to me but obvs I can't tell for sure.

That looks like paper. Artex doesn't mean asbestos though. We have had several homes with artex ceilings and none have contained asbestos.

If you can find a little content piece at the edge you could try gently peeling back to see if it is paper. If it is artex it will be stuck solidly.

Thanks all.

I don’t assume if it is Artex it equals asbestos but I have no idea when it was last decorated and would rather be safe than sorry.

Plasterer thinks it’s paper but again, I’d just like to be sure.

Looks like paper not artex

Some textured coating does contain asbestos but this isn’t a pattern I’ve ever seen used. It’s probably wallpaper.

Lots like paper for sure

*looks

All extremely reassuring! I just had a long look at it and there is a repeating pattern. It’s also been matched at the seams.

Until the 1980s a very high proportion of Artex ceilings and walls contained asbestos and even after that asbestos was sometimes used until it was finally banned in 1999. If you have Artex that dates from before 2000 you can’t say it doesn’t contain asbestos unless you’ve had it tested by an expert.

That said I agree with PP who say yours looks more like paper.

I think it’s blown vinyl. The stuff that has a fine foam pattern blown onto backing paper. It’s quite thick and used for covering poor walls.

Scrape your fingernail or a fork or knife down it and it should tear.

Aha! Blown vinyl looks like a contender. I suspect it’s probably holding the ceiling up! 😬

I found out quite a lot of info RE Artex in this blog I found: www.a4asbestos.co.uk/news/artex-ceiling-bristol/

Not really knowing much about it me and the partner just didn't wanna take the risk and ended up calling someone in to sort it out! We were away on the weekend anyway so it was a good time for them to come in to sort it all out over a few days whilst we were out of the house.