Artex ceiling?

louisera

Hi all,

My partner and I are getting the keys to our first house next week, and we have about six weeks before we fully move in, so want to get the old fashioned upstairs redecorated ASAP to avoid faffing with furniture after.

We want to re plaster the nasty old cracked Artex ceilings, however a friend with some insight has said because the house is 1920s there's a chance there'll be asbestos with lath and plaster underneath, so completely stripping it back is out of the question.

Does anybody know how straight forward it would be to just plaster board over the ceilings - slight issue is that the bedroom ceilings slope a little on the outside walls due to the design of the house, so aren't just simple flat ceilings.

Is this the right approach and would a plasterer be likely to be happy to do that all themselves?

Thanks!

FreeBear

Over boarding is all well and good if the screws hit a ceiling joist first time, every time. But it will increase the amount of weight on the timbers.
Depending on when the Artex was applied, it may contain asbestos, it may not - The only way to know for sure is to get a sample tested.

Taking down a lath & plaster ceiling (which it will be if the ceiling is original), is a messy job and generates quite a bit of waste. Lime plaster can be recycled as hard core, or ground up and mixed with fresh lime for a render. The laths, best used as kindling for the fire. One advantage of taking the ceiling down is you can check the loft insulation and add more around the edges of the room - The area right under the eaves is always difficult to get to and is often missed.

Just finishing off a box room here in a late 1920s house - Took the plaster off all the walls & ceiling, insulated everywhere, and have put plasterboard up. Once finished, the walls will be flat and smooth, and the room will be so much warmer. If you have solid brick walls, and you have the funds available, you might want to consider insulating the walls.

ashe

Our old house had awful fan shaped artrex ceilings. The plasterer just skimmed over it. Don’t know if there are any issues with this as a solution but we didn’t have any problems with it up until we sold.

FreeBear

ashe wrote: »

Our old house had awful fan shaped artrex ceilings. The plasterer just skimmed over it. Don’t know if there are any issues with this as a solution but we didn’t have any problems with it up until we sold.

If the artex has been applied over the top of distemper (quite possible with a 1920s ceiling) or any other flaky/dusty surface, the fresh plaster may well fall down. Any cracks are likely to propagate through the skim even if they have been filled & taped.
If the ceiling was plasterboard & artex from new, then skimming would be the way to go. A lath & plaster ceiling that is 100 years old, with artex and god knows what else, is courting trouble.

ashe

House was built in the 70s for us, had no trouble with it

FixerUpper

Ashe, when you say "we didn’t have any problems with it up until we sold" does that mean it causes issues when you were trying to sell?

Thanks

Spender£

If it bothers you get a spreader to scrape off the spikes and skim over, due to the 1% asbestos that might be in the artex it is better off not being disturbed otherwise it releases spores.

renegadefm

You can work out where the ceiling joists are by stabbing holes in ceiling and when you hit resistance you know you hit the joist, then mark the wall so it should follow a straight line down the room. And continue this method until you work out where they all are and cover it all up with plaster board and get it plastered. 

ashe

FixerUpper said:

Ashe, when you say "we didn’t have any problems with it up until we sold" does that mean it causes issues when you were trying to sell?

Thanks

No, we just didn’t have any issues between doing it and moving out. Nothing mentioned at survey, ceiling was nice and smooth. Tbh did alright out of it as was a fairly new business but he had good reviews - he did my living room walls x3 and the ceiling plus the staircase wall and ceiling for £100. It was quite a large room too! 

FreeBear

renegadefm said:

You can work out where the ceiling joists are by stabbing holes in ceiling and when you hit resistance you know you hit the joist,

Works with plasterboard, but on an original 1920s ceiling, you won't know if you've hit a lath or the joist. In addition, lime plaster is pretty tough stuff. A metal detector would help in so far as roughly locating the joists, but if the nails used to secure the laths are bang on central, it is still hit & miss as to plasterboard screws hit the joists as well.

renegadefm

Sorry forgot its a lath ceiling. I put up plasterboards just by screwing the plasterboard up to the laths, it was quite strong enough to hold up the plasterboards. And then I got someone to plaster it. Its still there now after 20 years.