Artex removal

[schooloflostsocks]

I have a bathroom ceiling that was probably decorated in the 1970s and has awful rough artex, now full of mould and cobwebs. I hate the idea of boarding over it- chances are there's already a lath and plaster ceiling above it and that would be the third ceiling. I don't want it enclosed up there with all that mould and dirt.

I'm worried about artex. Builders don't seem to care about this

what should I do?

My house was full of artex. Be warned that it often contains asbestos so it’s sensible to have that tested before you decide what to do.
We skimmed the bits without asbestos, and had the asbestos artex ceiling removed, although I do wonder if that would have been better skimmed too. It means that you can’t ever drill into it.

We had pretty much every type it was possible to have , icing like spikes, attempts at “rough plaster”, half circle patterns etc. Having it skimmed over to a smooth finish would be much easier than boarding over it.

How do you have it tested for artex? I have sent off some lagging stuff from the loft to get t it tested in the past but I don't want to just break bits of the artex off as this will create potentially hazardous dust

@Christwosheds ours is the icing spikes type. Flippin impossible to clean. I hate the idea of it being skimmed over with all that dirt and cobweb and mould encapsulated in my bathroom forever!

For info.........
Artex ceased to contain asbestos from 1984 onwards.
All materials containing asbestos were banned in 1999.

@Cesarina hmm that's interesting because I would guess the redecoration was done in the 70s but it could have been 80s. It's a shell sink and shell toilet were they an 80s thing?

obviously no guarantee the ceiling was done at the same time as the sink and toilet installation

I just had all my artex skimmed over. It looks lovely. I detest artex.

I had to look up "shell" sinks and toilets, and it seems they were popular in the 70's and 80's.
But as you say, you don't know if they were installed at the same time that the ceiling was done 🤷🏻‍♀️

We had the plasterer skim over the textured ceilings after I gave them as good a clean as I could wearing full PPE just in case!

My house was built in 1988 and contains asbestos in the ceiling (tested). Apparently the builders were using up old stock of artex for a good few years…

Yes, that's a problem isn't it?
Looks like the only way to know for sure is to do what you've done and had it tested.

I’ve bought some Plaster stuff that you can just roll on with an ordinary roller. It’s taking me hours and it’s quite painful, but it is quite effective and a lot cheaper than getting a plasterer in

I’m thinking of getting my ceilings plastered to remove dated swirly Artex. Anyone got a rough idea of price, please?

I live in Somerset and I paid £300 for the entrance hallway, living room and kitchen/diner and £600 for the upstairs rooms bathroom, 3 bedrooms, hall and bathroom. Small rooms.

Thanks @Gettingbysomehow

Has anyone ever sanded them
Down? I have a good friend who is a wizard at DIY who just told me to hire a long handled sander and do that to get rid of them. I've watched a few TikToks and it appears to work well

@Ostagazuzulum do please read up on the possible asbestos risks first!

People who have had theirs tested- did you do DIY kits that you sent off and if so how did you get an artex sample off without causing dust?

I've got a quote for removal of the ceiling plasterboards with certification for doing it safely about £650

Ideally I would test it first before doing this but I haven't figured out how.

You can get a company to come out to test. I had all mine upstairs plus hall tested ahead of building works so I want caught out when building started.

i even tested flat ceilings as I knew someone had previously skimmed over artex and it had delayed some previous works downstairs when they’d discovered the artex under and it had to be tested before they could resume work.

it cost me £160 for all testing, sampling and call out. That was 8 ceilings. We tested 5 of those, the other 3 were drilled and found not to have Artex so not tested. It took less than a week for results to come back.

they were all negative (as were ones downstairs that had been tested a few years ago). But I know I’m safe and building works could go ahead and stay on track.

yep I have some ceilings I had to touch up with paint where they took samples.

you could do testing yourself, but you’ll need pull PPE. that means all in one suit with hood, face mask and googles and gloves. You then scrape off into test vials you order from testing company. Frankly I was happier to pay someone to come and do it.

I'm thinking for the price of getting someone to come out to test it's hardly worth it, might as well just pay for safe removal

I just had my 23ft lounge ceilings and walls skimmed, took 3 days paid £1050 and am very impressed with the work. One guy on his own turned up at 8am each morning didn’t leave before 4.30. Another guy quoted £1400.

I would probably have artex boarded over rather than skimmed. I think that is a better longer term solution.

The extra weight of the plasterboard would be screwed in to the rafters, rather than the weight of a layer of plaster on the existing ceiling covering- condition of which may be suspect in some areas.

Had a good chat with DH about this. He favours over boarding really but we are both worried about how that is done (do they drill into the existing ceiling?) and also how a large decorative board and light fitting we want taken down from the ceiling can be removed without creating artex dust. Also it's fully tiled right up to the artex so removing the tiles will inevitably crumble some of the artex too.

Really unsure what the most responsible thing is to do

If it were skimmed would that be done after re- tiling or before? Can you skim the kind of artex that's like big icing peaks?

Budget £500-800 a room for a good job. Just had it done.