Artex, sanding it off?

Hello,

Could anyone give my carer some advice, they may be moving into a house shortly, the ceiling are all artexed, she is on about having it all sanded off - her fiance will be doing it.

Have any of you done this? Personally I think it would be cheaper and easier just to pull the ceilings down and re-plaster boarding the place out. (It is in all the rooms.)

Ian

Get it skimmed over by a professional.

Hi Ian,
Artex until recently was made with asbestos and should never be sanded off, I think the change over date was mid eighties.There is a gel available on the market to enable you to safely remove it with out all the mess and risk of asbestosis etc . If you want the supplier PM me for details.
Abbies OH.

abbie is right unless you know which year it was put up don't take it off .....skim over it its quite cheap to do

Have to agree there,you are supposed to have it tested to see if there is asbestos in it before you work on it.We had to have that done in our kitchen as there was artex hidden behind wood panels.

Abbies right Ian.Artex used to contain asbestos as a binding agent and sanding is a definette no no.It maybe messy,but thats why its always pulled down or skimmed straight over the top.Asbestos is perfectly safe when left alone and never causes any problems-until its broken up and causes dust.

A good plasterer would charge around £150 to skim over a 15 square metre ceiling for example,but for that you will expect a near glass finish.If they decide to skim over the top-tell them to brush a 50/50 PVA & water mix to aid adhesion and isolate any previous paints used.

The plasterer I had in recently would not "skim over" one of our artexed ceilings? I can't remember why exactly, but he insisted on doing the normal 2 coats of plaster? That was a big room at a cost of £840 just for the ceiling down to the picture rail! He then did a whole room, which is quite small for £440, again 2 coats, even though it was already plastered but rather badly (by Dave! ). I still have artex out in my boot room which we will eventually get rid of, and he told me the best way of getting it off was to soak it really well and then it scraped off easily?? Haven't tried it yet though! What about plasterboarding the ceiling with the artex (like we had to do over ours) and maybe a plasterer would do a skim coat over the plasterboard? All I know is, a good plasterer would not skim over existing artex, they will want it plasterboarded over, and quite honestly it's much easier that way than trying to get the darn stuff off!

Hi,

Thank you everyone, god I'm pleased I asked the question I am so so pleased you have told me about the asbestos. I will tell her straight away when she comes in. She has had a word with a plasterer and he say's if the artex isn't too deep he can skim it overwise it will have to come down. But I will tell her just to board over it. As if she wants it pulled down it will cost her a fortune, with all the precautions needed if it is asbestos.

Once again, I can't tell you how gratefull I am to you all.

Thanks

Ian

Ian if it's to deep to skim over with multifinish get the plasterer to go over it first with bonding and then have it set.

My plasterer charges £8.00 a S/M plus materials.

That should give you some idea of the overall cost.

Have to agree with the above spoke to my cousin who is a plasterer and he told me what everyone else is saying.

Do not sand it off, or let anyone else do it.

If DIY, skim over the top first bond with 50/50mix of PVA and water so you have something to adhere to take it down - but either way do it before they move in the house, as it can get messy. And it can look reasonable to good.

He said he would take a job to skim over artex. But would do an almost mirror finish but thats purely because thats what he does for a living.

My tip: Something to bear in mind if they do it themselves is skim it or pasterboard then put a decent thick paper on you know the white blown vinyl types they would hide a multitude of sins look good and can be emulsioned.

Karen