artex with coving and plasterboarding

suered

All, another question, if I may. Artex ceilings with coving. I'm assuming the easiest thing to do is plasterboard over and then skim? But do you have to take the coving off first or do you just bung the plasterboard up anyway? Can you skim without plasterboarding?

Thanks again

A.Penny.Saved

How about scrape off as much as you can and then skim over?

Take care though because in some cases artex can have asbestos in it, although after taking advice myself, the risk is fairly insignificant due to the artex nature. Wearing a decent face mask and full body disposable overall should be enough.

I have this terrible artex in most rooms in my home and I positively hate the stuff. Mine is a mix of a quite low pattern and peaks no more than 2mm and in other rooms it protrudes about 5+mm from the ceiling.

Due to woodwork, I might have to remove it entirely before skimming.

Damn awful stuff.

suered

APS - how would you do the scraping? manually or could you use a sander type thingy? How deep is a skim?

I'm full of questions today - just wish I had a timemachine to go back and shout NO NO NO at the people who put the artex up and couldn't measure doorframes accurately..............

societys_child

I removed some using a wallpaper steamer and scraper. An advantage is that the steam soaks the artex and there's no dust.

I wouldn't use a sander.

phill99

Plasterers would only ever scrape the worst nobbly bits off and then skim over it. They wouldn't replace the plasterboard or even stick more on the top. They also don't use a sander.

Everyone is trying to make a straightforward job very complex.

dodgydl

phill99 wrote: »

Plasterers would only ever scrape the worst nobbly bits off and then skim over it. They wouldn't replace the plasterboard or even stick more on the top. They also don't use a sander.

Everyone is trying to make a straightforward job very complex.

I agree with this. We have had 2 bedrooms and a lounge skimmed because we hated the Artex. They just scraped the worst off, PVA'd and then skimmed over top. Now you wouldnt even know it was once there.

With regards to taking off the coving or not. The plasterer said it was ok to leave it in one room as he could skim right up to it and it would still look ok. In the other 2 it looked like the Artex had been applied after the coving had been put up so there was no way it was going to skim and look decent so we had to pull it off in these rooms.

A.Penny.Saved

suered wrote: »

APS - how would you do the scraping? manually or could you use a sander type thingy? How deep is a skim?

I wouldn't use a sander because it would make far too much mess and use a lot of sand paper as well. Something like a wallpaper scraper with a sharp blade. Poundland sell them and they are about 11 inches long and fairly strong. Wear some eye protection and a good mask. Skimming only as deep as required to flatten the surface which will depend upon how much of the artex is scraped off and how high it was to begin with.

If you need more of it off, then a wallpaper stripper will soften it to make it easier to scrape away. It takes a lot longer to do so only do it if it is really needed.

I'm full of questions today - just wish I had a timemachine to go back and shout NO NO NO at the people who put the artex up and couldn't measure doorframes accurately..............

Agreed, it's horrible stuff. It doesn't hide any cracking of the ceiling plasterboard like wallpaper will which is another thing I dislike about it.

societys_child wrote: »

I removed some using a wallpaper steamer and scraper. An advantage is that the steam soaks the artex and there's no dust.

I wouldn't use a sander.

That is how I did my bathroom ceiling. The Idiots who lived here before me put artex in a bathroom where it only encourages mould. It was the very textured stuff, rather than the smoother variety and mould loves it.

It comes down to the circumstances and how much of it needs to be removed. Scraping it reasonably flat might not be that difficult for some artex, however for others it doesn't get enough off. Scraping and then a thin skim after PVAing or a wallpaper stripper/steamer + scraping and after it dries, PVA and skim although it will take quite some time.

For my home there is lots of wood used above doors and I don't want any more additional plaster than necessary to go over the wood which would be needed because the artex is quite high and therefore I opt for using a wallpaper stripper.