Artex Pattern on Ceiling

Harmonica89

I currently live in a block of flats that were purpose built in 1995.

My living room has an Artex patterned ceiling. How likely is it that my ceiling contains asbestos if it was built at this time?

Looking to remove this pattern from the ceiling at one time or another.

Thanks

AnotherJoe

No way to know, even if I said "on average at that time 13.4% of properties had asbestos" that wouldn't tell you if yours did.

Spend £100 and get it tested.

Removing the pattern won't remove the asbestos if it's there. The artex pattern can be scraped off and skimmed but if it contains asbestos it will still be there unless you rip the ceiling down.

Atomix

Pretty sure you can cover the ceiling in a pva bond, then skim, this means you don't interfere with the ceiling in any way....

stator

Use safety gear and take a sample, send it off for testing, £25

Rodders53

Harmonica89 wrote: »

purpose built in 1995.

Google suggests that by then asbestos was no longer used in such textured coatings... for quite some time.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/may/01/asbestos-hidden-health-hazard

jimbog

If it remains intact it is quite harmless even if it did contain it (which is unlikely). Skim over it and keep the £25 for a curry and pint

Freecall

If it was constructed in 1995 then it is very unlikely that it contains asbestos (although not impossible).

If your ultimate objective is to have a smooth, flat ceiling however this is not really relevant. Provided it is not disturbed then it does not represent any form of problem. The usual thing is to either plaster skim directly over it (if it is 100% good condition) or cover in plasterboard and then skim the plasterboard.

Either of these options will be considerably cheaper than attempting to remove it first even if it is asbestos-free.

kinger101

I think they stopped manufacturing the asbestos containing artex in the late 1980s, but it wasn't banned until 2000. So there's a slim chance old artex might have been used on your ceilings.

Unless it's a very deep pattern, can't see why there would need to sand it before skimming anyway.

Freecall

kinger101 wrote: »

can't see why there would need to sand it before skimming anyway.

Don't even think about it.

Difficult, messy, totally unneccesary and possibly dangerous.

just have it skimmed over, paint and enjoy.

:beer:

theartfullodger

Atomix wrote: »

Pretty sure you can cover the ceiling in a pva bond, then skim, this means you don't interfere with the ceiling in any way....

Wot he said!