Best way to cover artex?

wallofbeans

Most thorough plasterer so far just been. He said he thinks the ceiling is lime (?) but is solid. He could skim over it and it will probably be ok but perhaps in a few years it'll start to crack or fall off and you'd have to reboard the whole thing. But it might be fine. He also said he would need to know it's not asbestos before he'd do it and so I'd need to get it tested. 

He said he wouldn't overboard it as he wouldn't be confident the boards would hold.

He recommended reboarding the whole thing. And replastering most of the walls (some places using mesh?) because there are patches to fix and he said that once they start cutting it back, it could get worse and worse - and the easiest thing is to do the whole lot. 

This is totally different than anyone else has said. But he's making a lot of sense. 

wallofbeans

OK. Any recommendations for companies that do asbestos testing?

FreeBear

wallofbeans said:

Most thorough plasterer so far just been. He said he thinks the ceiling is lime (?) but is solid.

Have a look in the loft. If you see this, it is lime plaster over lath... Although... It could be reed instead of lath.

Also pop the rose & back plate off to see just how thick the ceiling is.

wallofbeans

Just had a look in the loft. Under insulation it's solid board of some kind. Covered in a thick layer of dust. But doesn't seem to be what is pictured above..?

https://imgur.com/hmXGDn0

(quite a few walls upstairs are that though)

Bendy_House

wallofbeans said:

Just had a look in the loft. Under insulation it's solid board of some kind. Covered in a thick layer of dust. But doesn't seem to be what is pictured above..?

https://imgur.com/hmXGDn0

(quite a few walls upstairs are that though)

Is it light grey under that dust?!

Or, it won't harm it to get a small screwdriver and to gently 'drill' a hole just into the surface. P'board, as I'm sure you know, will be a thickish paper layer with white plaster showing inside.

If it is p'board, then I'd be happy to have it skimmed, with a layer of scrim first over the crack.

stuart45

It's not lath and plaster. Probably plasterboard covered in dust. 

wallofbeans

Bendy_House said:

wallofbeans said:

Just had a look in the loft. Under insulation it's solid board of some kind. Covered in a thick layer of dust. But doesn't seem to be what is pictured above..?

https://imgur.com/hmXGDn0

(quite a few walls upstairs are that though)

Is it light grey under that dust?!

Or, it won't harm it to get a small screwdriver and to gently 'drill' a hole just into the surface. P'board, as I'm sure you know, will be a thickish paper layer with white plaster showing inside.

If it is p'board, then I'd be happy to have it skimmed, with a layer of scrim first over the crack.

It's hard to tell the colour, definitely a grey or light brown. I picked a layer of paper off though and there's off white underneath, so I assume plasterboard.

Bendy_House

Cool. Skim away, if that's your preference. But have all cracks scrimmed - ask them, "how can you prevent the cracks from coming back?", and see what they say.

wallofbeans

So I can skim ceiling. But with this guy, only if I get an asbestos check first. 

But he'll still be suggesting reboarding the lath and plaster wall, and stripping and starting again with the crumbly walls around window too. He was talking about it being difficult to match the plastered bits to the papered walls that are there and its better to just strip it all back and start again. 

Is he right? Nobody else has mentioned it.

I'm going to email and say the ceiling is defintely plasterboard and see what difference that makes to his suggestions.

Bendy_House

I wonder why he wants it tested first  - I guess he's planning to scrape the highest peaks off first? If so, what happens if it returns 'positive'?

And it's hard for folk to judge how best to tackle the walls - just how bad it is. But the suggestion of using mesh suggests parts are loose and dodgy, in which the rest will surely become so too over time? 

Again, I'd rip it all off, remove the lathe, and reboard. It should go without saying that any external walls should be insulated, and that might be enough to persuade you to do this anyway.