Wife does not want artex ceilings anymore

You can try and remove the artex- Artex removal But this is often difficult.

Do not sand it down as it can contain Asbestos


You can PVA it and then have it plastered over, if it is a really deep pattern you may need to knock off the high points and if it is really deep it may need a bonding coat first. It is not that difficult for a pro plasterer to do.

oysterman wrote:

She now wants the ceilings smooth.

Quite a big job, lounge, hall & landing. Is it a job for a plasterer , is it straight forward?

Will the ceiling need any work done before doing job.

Hi oysterman

We too had artex ceilings in our house. We initially decided to remove the artex using a steamer. Whilst this did remonve the artex we did have to do it in two stages. The first stage removed the first layer and the second stage of steaming removed the white chalky residue. However, the overall result was not satisfactory as there were a number of scraper marks left in the ceiling which we had to make good after. The ceiling did work out to be quite a good finish but at the expense of a lot of time and effort. For the remainder of the house we decided to skim plaster on top.

So I guess it really depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put in, and how big the house is.

ps it took two days to skim the remainder of our 4 bed house compared to two days to do steam one small ceiling.

Hope this helps

jason_s wrote:

Or you can just overboard the whole ceiling and have it skimmed.

Overboarding is often easiest as long as coving is not fitted !

You give it 2 coats of PVA,first coat you let dry,then the second you let it half dry,so its tacky when you touch it.Then its ready to skim over