Artex - all over my house - how do I get rid of it/ cover it?

[chewitt]

Help - its horrible!

anyone?

I asked a builder about this today (my house also covered). He said as long as it's directly on rather than on paper, then it's a matter of applying a coat of new plaster on top. He thought my house would take about 1-2 weeks to do.

Sounds v expensive?

if it is more than 30yo then may have asbestos in. if younger then can be removed, but is a very sticky and unpleasant job. we had it all over a victorian ornate cove/rose ceiling and it is gone now.

it was terrible.

My mum had to remove Artex from a bathroom years ago from vague memory if its very rough sand it down with an electric sander possibly afterwards using a steamer.
I've got a whole hallway to rid of Artex so I feel your pain.
What on earth possessed people to use such a horrible stuff!

Mine is absolutely everywhere. DH is talking about just painting over it but I can't stand it. I think we may have a few barnies over this one...

Skimming is the cheapest easiest way- a thin layer of stuff (??) is applied over the artex to create a smooth surface.

Chewitt my DH thinks we should paint over it, no way its just awful there may well be all out war in our house over it!

Combust is the skimming done with plaster or a special sorta stuff?

will google it, ta

you skim with plaster....

My DH told me that even if you PVA the walls first and miss a tiny bit, the damp can get in and all the skim will fall of. Is that true?

Chewitt i have had just the same hooha at our house with our hall,stair and landing covered int he stuff,i had it priced and apparently they need to remove it first then skim the walls we were quoted 5 days work at £1000.

I promptly got myself a steamer and set about the artex myself not having a spare £1000 lying about it is soooooooo messy but not as hard work as i imagined,hard work but not as bad as i expected once you get the heat going,as long as you work with the artex wet,dont sand it and dont try to chip it off dry as thats when its dangerous

Skimming over the textured coating with plaster is the best option. It is not normally necessary to remove the coating first unless it is particularly bumpy.
The problem with removing textured coatings yourself is that it was probably put on in the first place because the walls were rough and cracked. So you could waste loads of time removing the artex only to find the walls need skimming anyway. Skimming also avoids exposure to asbestos which was used in textured coatings until recently. There are some diy products available which could be worth a go on small areas.

Plasterer.

We have it on ceilings and recently a decorator tried to persuade us to let him get plasterer in to cover it. Couldn't see the point, I mean when does anyone notice your ceiling? Only time I notice it is in bed (and then not every night).

We had virtually all walls AND ceilings in our house skimmed/replastered due to Artex everywhere. This was 2 years ago, and so far nothing has fallen off - and it looks lovely - well worth the investment IMO.

We tried that stuff from B&Q that claims you can use it to cover up artex - it was absolute pants. Plastering is the only way but well worth it IMO.