Would artex ceilings put you off buying a house?

skimper

We've just bought a house & artex is over the walls (really thick) & ceilings in the living room, dining room, hall, stairs & landing! We had a few quotes ranging from £1,000-£1,600 to replaster everything. So £1,000 just to do the ceilings sounds a bit high?

It didnt put us off, but we know when we do get round to doing it we will just be adding value to the house.

Oh and Woodchip in the other 2 bedrooms!

Person_one

onlyroz wrote: »

I doubt I would even look at the ceilings when viewing a property. Don't waste your money.

Took me three years to realise my parents' new house even had artex ceilings.

Definitely wouldn't put me off if it was a good house in the respects that actually matter. Its not one of those jobs that absolutely has to be done straightaway to make the place liveable, it can wait until you're ready/have the funds and make absolutely no difference to your quality of life.

Lunar_Eclipse

It would deter me as a buyer. Whether it would put me off sufficiently depends on other properties on the market. But I wouldn't live with them.

Artex definitely dates a property, so unless the house is 'ideal for refurbishment', I'd spend the money. I'm also assuming that £1100 is a very small percentage of your asking price, given its location, another reason to update it.

Have you asked any estate agents for their opinion and do similar properties generally have Artex ceilings?

stokesley

I've got a few Artex ceilings; by the time I get around to skimming them, they will have come back into fashion and everyone will be asking about the cost of removing laminate floors (think they already have, come to think about it), wood burning stoves, islands in kitchens, industrial-sized cookers, and wallpaper with giant patterns on one wall.

Drachenfach

All the houses we've bought have had artexed ceilings, some of which we've reskimmed, most of which we've ignored.

The current place also has it on the walls, and for extra naff points it switches from swirls to spackle at waist height. That will be removed, as it shreds clothing, bags, and anythng brushed against it.

It's not a selling point, but definitely not enough to put me off a property

moneyistooshorttomention

Gazelle1985 wrote: »

Thanks everyone - some good food for thought!

Would you negotiate down on the price of a house with artex ceilings? We're just trying to figure out whether spending £1,100 (which we think is quite good value) will be recouped when we sell.

That depends rather on the area. In the area I recently bought in = many of the houses more than a little old-fashioned and loads of blimmin' "stuff" of some description or other on the ceilings. Hence it didnt really seem possible to negotiate down because of that (ie as I suspect it isnt regarded as "old-fashioned/problem" here - thought the facts are that it is both).

In an area where it was a rarity - then I might well do so.

So - when I bought this house - I saw it as high priority to normalise the ceilings - as there simply wasnt any point in decorating/carpeting/etc until "the basics" had been done. I normalised my ceilings by having fake ceilings (ie plasterboard) put up throughout the house about an inch or so underneath the real ceiling and having that skimmed with plaster. At that point I could actually get on and do the rest of the work on the house.

jimbog

Artexed Ceilings never put me off - but some houses I viewed had artexed walls!

kinger101

I can't stand the stuff, but it wouldn't stop me buying a house, as I know it's an easy fix. Leaded UPVC windows or a conservatory on the other hand means I wouldn't even look, as it's expensive to put these right.

katejo

No, provided that it isn't wild artex (big swirls as a previous person mentioned. I have mild artex in my terraced Victorian zone 3 house and haven't felt the need to get rid of it.

dragonsoup

Normally I'd say no I wouldn't be put off ( looking up at my own artex ceilings as I type) but we did cross one house off the list ( in Snowdonia as it happens...) that had the most fancy heavy patterns on the ceilings. Quite oppressive and totally hideous and the first thing you looked at in horrified fascination as you walked in.

May well have put in an offer if it hadn't had those ceilings - the owner was very proud of them.