Freaking out over poss asbestos in house! Help!!

[PussinJimmyChoos]

We have artex ceilings in our house (not our doing I assure you!!). Anyway, today I was watching a property prog and they said that any artex done before 1985 (our house is 1970's) has a risk of asbestos....I don't know when the artex was done and never thought to ask the owners when we were buying the house as didn't consider it a health risk, more a bad taste thing iyswim??!

Anyway, we are going to get someone in to test it but before we do that, thought I'd speak to any other people who may have experienced the same thing?

Weirdly enough, one room isn't artexed and that is the nursery - it was a nursery when we moved in so I don't know whether the previous occupants just skimmed it over or didn't both artexing it at all to start with.

TIA

Puss

asbestos is ok to live with it's once you start removing it that it becomes toxic, though you should get a professional in a soon as poss

i dont think there is any risk unless it is damaged, if you want to remove it , it has to be done by a company registered to deal with/dispose of it.

don't worry. it is only a problem if you try to scrape it off dry and breathe it in. if it is just sitting there i think it is such a low amount (and may not even be there) that it is ok.

we removed ours 'wet' with a stuff which one paints on and then scrapes. it is vilely messy but pretty safe. can also be done with wallpaper steamer but that is messy + hot so must be even worse.

AFAIK it is only really a risk if it is disturbed, so don't poke holes in it or pull it down.

My parents had this problem, and after having the whole house tested, only one room did have asbestos in it, but they have decided not to do anything with it.

We had the bathroom done a couple of years ago (been here for nearly 5 years) and the builder accidentally ripped some of it off when taking the existing tiles off the wall. He never mentioned anything about asbestos risk - perhaps he could see it wasn't asbestos type artex?? We haven't got around to painting in where the tiles peeled the artex off so while its not loose on the ceiling, its exposed at some edges isywim?

I'm freaking about DS!!

It is only a problem if it is damaged.....my DH is a Heath and saftey consultant and deals with the stuff every day. If you do want to remove it though, get a second opinion first

We have just had our huge attic ceiling taken down for this reason-yes it is only a problem if disturbed but that means not ever scraping it in any way,better to get it out I feel.We had a specialist team come and remove it,they have special hoovers etc to stop any dust.We have other artex still in the house but it didn't test positive for asbestos.It looks just the same,you can't tell by looking at it.look up asbestos testing /removal in the yellow pages.Testing is not terribly expensive,removal costs depend on size etc.

Should have been mentioned on your survey too,it was mentioned on ours that the artex could contain asbestos and to have it tested.

You could test it yourself with a asbestos testing kit.
Order it online from soneone like test4 asbestos. They send the kit out to you with all the same protective equipment an asbestos surveyor uses. You can take your own samples and get results back in 24 hours. And its really cheap compared to getting a surveyor to come and do it for you. We used the kit to test the walls in our house extension..No Asbestos Present..Pheww!! Good luck with yours

The asbestos used in artex is not very dangerous and many people belive that it's been wrongly classified. There is also only a tiny amount in it so don't panic.

If you're not planning to remove it there's no point spending money on testing. If you do want to get rid of it the best option is to skim over it with plaster. If you need to drill into it use a good quality face mask and wet it to damp down the dust.