Artex ceiling - good way to cover?

travel_freak

Hi there,

I have a small bathroom, about 8ft x 4ft, which has a really ugly Artex ceiling - a particularly big swirly pattern.....yuk!

As I've had builders in to quote for doing other works I asked what it would cost to plaster over that and was told £200. Admittedly I am totally out of touch/unknowledgeable re costs for works like this but it was all I could do to stop my jaw from dropping to the floor! I do know plastering is very skilled and therefore not cheap but all the same!

Had a look at Wilko who were selling a tub of stuff for about £24 - completely forgotten what it was called now but it was made by one of the main paint/plaster manufacturers. Let's say it was something like "Smoothaway". It's aimed at DIYers and is a kind of plaster that you scrape on over the top and it says it fills in grooves etc to leave a smooth finish.

Has anyone any experience of using this at all and, if so, is it effective in covering Artex?

Or does anyone have any alternative suggestions re removal of Artex?

Many thanks in advance

Regards

MickKnipfler

Can't you just put more artex on top? I did it once and just did a swirl patten with a plastic bag

shammyjack

Your builders are ripping you off !

Do not plaster over, rip down the ceiling and start from scratch .

A good plasterer should take no more than 2 hours working time to rip down the ceiling , re-board and skim . If they are doing other work any more than £50 is a total rip off !

shammy

travel_freak

Thank you Shammyjack,

I did think it sounded ridiculous. Unfortunately I look as though I haven't got a clue and I've had countless builders round trying to take advantage of that I think! It's such a nightmare just trying to find someone who is honest, good at their trade and prepared to price a job fairly!

Thanks for your advice about starting from scratch.

Regards

andrew-b

Our kitchen ceiling (approx. 10ft square) had a horrible textured paint on it (similar to artex but not). There are various products available to paint on to soften it up prior to removal but they are quite pricey. One suggestion i've seen is to use a wallpaper steamer and scraper but you have to be careful steam doesn't penetrate through the plasterboard as else chunks of plaster may come down too. The final suggestion which is what we went with in the end is to get a plasterer to "caulk" the ceiling first with plaster to create a smooth surface (in much the same way as you would with your SmoothAway) and then artex on top with the pattern of your choice.

We paid a plasterer £65+VAT for the caulking, £80+VAT for artex and a further £42 for new coving = Total of £208 (less 2p). Took 2 plasterers and a young apprentice little more than an hour!

Andy

03022242

prior to 1999 artex contained some asbestos in the mix, i dont know how serious this could be when ripping the ceiling down?

tra300

We have removed, recovered and replaced atrex ceilings in two houses in the last year (about 8-10 in total) and without a doubt the easiest and often the cheapest is to get someone into do it. If the house has any age to it there is no telling what kind of condition the plaster under that artex is like - it could be hiding all manner of problems and we have not had much luck with steaming it off - if there is plasterboard under the artex it doesn't take much for the steam to penetrate and then you end up with a gloopy mess and still have to have someone in to sort it out. And quite often those products that remove it work out quite costly as you always require far more than what they specify and you have to add in all the tools etc that also have to be purchased separatly and there is a good chance that you will end up not being happy with the results.

We have managed to find a fab builder purely through chance. So ask around. However the most that we have paid (and this was to remove the old, damaged Victorian plaster 17x14ft ceiling and replace it with new plasterboard and skimmed - also skimmed the hall and landing celings) was £180, including materials, and removed a wall. It took him, on his own, just over a day to complete. However we did help out with labouring - the removing of the old stuff and clearing the rubble too keep the costs down.

Just be aware that which ever route that you decide to take it is very mucky job!!

Good luck!!

weekendwarrior

There is a thread on here somewhere about what I think you mean- it is polycell smoothover or something!

It gets slated everywhere and is not much use!

I doubt you will get a plasterer to get out of bed, rip down your ceiling, re board and then skim it for £50


You can try and remove artex by steaming it, but never sand it!

Or you can always artex over the top of it with another pattern.

robv_3

80% of the time added another layer of plasterboard and skimmed over.

I would like to know where shammyjack found a trade to do it for 50 quid. More like 150 -> 200 imho.

withabix

shammyjack wrote:

Your builders are ripping you off !

Do not plaster over, rip down the ceiling and start from scratch .

A good plasterer should take no more than 2 hours working time to rip down the ceiling , re-board and skim . If they are doing other work any more than £50 is a total rip off !

shammy

Excellent, can you get your 'good plasterer' to nip round to my place and do my ceilings for me at that rate???

£150-£200 is on the mark.

Even on your basis of 'two hours' for the whole job, £50 won't even buy two hours of the plasterer's time in most places, let alone materials, tools, waste disposal, PPE, van costs, fuel costs etc etc.

navig8r

Artex its self is fairly easy to remove by steam or mist spraying apart from the mess, its the paint that is put on top of it that causes the problems ..


Dave