Buying a house with Artex ceilings design

UltraRevenge

Hello all,

We're buying a house which was possibly built around the end of 1980s. The very first owners bought the house in 1989 according to the Land Registry we received. The current seller is the second owner, who've owned the property since 2003.

We only viewed the house once and had offer accepted. Things have progressed well, and we are weeks away from completion.

The issue I had is that the lender only carried out a 'desktop' valuation and didn't arrange to visit property. So most of the inspection was down to me. For someone who has little knowledge about buildings, the house seems in good condition with no works needed to be done.

The ceilings of the house has this disgusting looking patterns, which I thought I'd get a builder to skim over after purchase. However whilst doing some research, I came to know that these could potentially be asbestos!!!! This obviously gave me more anxiety.

I asked the seller (who is away on holiday) if they've ever had these checked, they seem quite confident that it isn't - but no way to prove it. I've since asked my solicitors, who also seems to suggest that am worrying about nothing, but are happy to ask that these get checked. Probably at my expense, which am happy to pay for.

Anyone with some experience and knowledge about asbestos, would really appreciate your thoughts on this, and how you think we should proceed.

Thank you

foxy-stoat

Asbestos dust is a health hazard if disturbed, completely safe if not. Many older houses have artex ceilings, many have asbestos, many dont.

If your not planning on installing downlighters or taking the ceilings out then there is nothing to worry about. Any plasterer will be able to skim over without damaging the ceiling.

If you do want to remove the ceilings then you need to use a specialist company to test first.

Mojisola

It's very unlikely that artex from the late 80s would contain asbestos.

As you have little knowledge of buildings, didn't you think it would be worth paying for a survey?

ComicGeek

You've only viewed the house once, don't have any experience yourself and you're not getting your own survey completed? I think you're crazy!

We bought a 1989 built house - I've got a lot of experience in construction, but my surveyor still picked up a number of things I missed. 30 years is a long time if the property hasn't been maintained well.

It's possible that the artex is the very least of your worries.

Smodlet

You take me back to when OH and I bought our first house together. We were clueless, did not know what a survey was so did not have one; we had the valuation, right?

It had all this artex on the walls and our first thought was to get rid of it. Skimming never crossed our minds because we would have had to pay for it; scraping it off (think wallpaper stripping x 100) we could do ourselves, so we did. It took weeks. This was in 1999 and we are still here; perhaps the steam kept the asbestos out of our lungs! :eek:

I assume you have found this? If this is the house for you, I suggest you find a way to make it work even if that means paying to get it skimmed. It is not the worst thing you could find. There will always be something unless you buy a plot and commission/build a house yourselves.

Good luck.

ETA: To everyone who has questioned your decision not to commission a survey, I can only say I agree but, with regards to the possible presence of asbestos, all a survey report will say is that there is a possibility asbestos is present, which you already know.

Blackpool_Saver

I can't imagine buying a house after one viewing let alone no survey. Back to square one I think, old house equals FULL structural survey

pinkteapot

If your lender did a desk survey, it means they only did a mortgage valuation survey. These are often desk-based. You should have upgraded it to a Homebuyers or buildings survey when you had the option.

You can still get your survey report done - phone a local surveyor to do it for you. Buying a house without getting a survey done (if you don't have building knowledge yourself) is crazy.

The artex is no problem though - as others have said.

need_an_answer

Smodlet wrote: »

You take me back to when OH and I bought our first house together. We were clueless, did not know what a survey was so did not have one; we had the valuation, right?

It had all this artex on the walls and our first thought was to get rid of it. Skimming never crossed our minds because we would have had to pay for it; scraping it off (think wallpaper stripping x 100) we could do ourselves, so we did. It took weeks. This was in 1999 and we are still here; perhaps the steam kept the asbestos out of our lungs! :eek:

I assume you have found this? If this is the house for you, I suggest you find a way to make it work even if that means paying to get it skimmed. It is not the worst thing you could find. There will always be something unless you buy a plot and commission/build a house yourselves.

Good luck.

Ha ha this was us too although around 5 years before you and we thought that scraping it off was far too much like hardwork...we lived with it for a good 10 years and then finally had it skimmed.

We had it on all ceilings,and up the hall stairs and landing...same pattern ...a little bit like semicircular 12 inch records that all interlocked!

Yalpsmol

Blackpool would you really call 30 years old though?

Smodlet

need_an_answer wrote: »

Ha ha this was us too although around 5 years before you and we thought that scraping it off was far too much like hardwork...we lived with it for a good 10 years and then finally had it skimmed.

We had it on all ceilings,and up the hall stairs and landing...same pattern ...a little bit like semicircular 12 inch records that all interlocked!

Our lovely neighbour at the time actually grazed his hand on the horribly sharp edges of the artex in the hall, bless him. He was an incredibly beautiful human being, Kevin.

That house was a real learning curve though it did not prepare us for this one, which has been an absolute nightmare; at least we had a clue by the time we bought this one.

alex_163163

I wouldn’t worry about it. Just skim over them. We bought a 1970s build with textured ceilings and just skimmed them. The plasterer even moved a light fitting on the ceiling and they weren’t bothered about drilling through the ceiling and we we have absolutely no idea if it contains asbestos. They didn’t even mention it.
In fact, my grandma worked for an asbestos manufacturer for a number of years earlier on in her life. Granted she was in the office not the shop floor but it was likely still in the air/ environment. She’s now 84 and still alive and kicking. So I take it that a bit on my ceiling will be fine!