Artex ceiling

james2012_2

All the ceilings in my house are done with artex, I think that is what it is called, swirls and blobs.

Is there a cheap and easy way to get rid of it, as I prefer smooth ceilings, or should I just learn to live with it?

crazyguy

Artex is a nightmare to get rid of and can pull off lumps off plaster board when attempting to remove it !

Best bet is to get it skimmed over with plaster

ic

Live with it and spend your money better elsewhere.

Engeroosi

Or take the ceiling down and put fresh plaster board up. You may be able to put plasterboard just up to the artex if u can find where the beams of wood are.

Newbird

We had ours plastered, well, skimmed over. Looks fine, its not too expensive if you can find someone to do it for the
right price, ask around locally for a decent plasterer, hope fully you may find someone wanting the work that is willing to do it
for a reasonable price for you. Good Luck.

Mojisola

Newbird wrote: »

We had ours plastered, well, skimmed over. Looks fine, its not too expensive if you can find someone to do it for the
right price, ask around locally for a decent plasterer, hope fully you may find someone wanting the work that is willing to do it
for a reasonable price for you. Good Luck.

It depends on how well the artex was put up. I know someone who had it skimmed and the extra weight of the plaster brought the whole thing down. It got rid of most of the artex but wasn't the best method!

muckybutt

One very important thing to bear in mind before you any sort of ripping it down etc is how old is the house and approx age of the artex ?

Old artex used to have asbestos fibres in it to help as a binding agent so it is upmost importance that if its pre 2000 DO NOT BREAK the artex.

Far better to either overboard the ceiling if its really rough artex or if you can reskim the ceiling with plaster. Skimming over the plaster is allowable as you are then "maintaining" the asbestos by encapsulating it further, just be aware though if you ever put downlighters in at a later stage then get it tested before you do any work.

phill99

Engeroosi wrote: »

Or take the ceiling down and put fresh plaster board up. You may be able to put plasterboard just up to the artex if u can find where the beams of wood are.

Thats very MSE when just having it skimmed will be a thrid of the price!

keystone

muckybutt wrote: »

so it is upmost importance that if its pre 2000 DO NOT BREAK the artex.

Funny how we get the equivalent of what the forces euphemistically call "mission creep" when emotive subjects crop up. Try late 1970s/mid 1980s not 2000.

Cheers

[Deleted User]

You can re-artex it in a slightly less worse pattern. One house we use to own had this amazingly horrendous wave pattern on most of the ceilings. We ignored it in all the rooms except for the bedroom where when lying down it gave you the heebie-geebies it was so dire.

So I went out and bought some more artex and a bobbley pattern roller brush. I then applied a few thin layers of artex over the original artex so that at least we had just a bumpy ceiling instead of a wave patterned one. This is not easy to do and will give you arm muscles like a weight lifter - it is cheap though.

BillTrac

My kitchen had an artexed ceiling when we bought the house (Victorian house). Lath and plaster behind the artex. Dreadful ceiling to keep clean in a kitchen...:eek:

I was concerned that if I just had the ceiling skimmed the weight would pull the plaster down. So I located the joists and screwed battens through the ceiling to the joists , plasterboarded to the battens and had the plasterboard skimmed.

Now got a nice smooth ceiling.

Luckily the ceiling is 8ft from the floor, so losing an inch or so isn't a problem. Might be more difficult in the low ceilinged rabbit hutches getting built lately...:rotfl: