What to do about possible asbestos

theartfullodger

Skim it flat then decorate whole room

Mgman1965

Upon purchase of my house with 70's / 80's artex on the ceilings I was advised to just have them all skimmed over for two reasons.

Artex is just Naff now

To be on the safe side just in case containes asbestos. 

Section62

Mgman1965 said:

Upon purchase of my house with 70's / 80's artex on the ceilings I was advised to just have them all skimmed over for two reasons.

Artex is just Naff now

To be on the safe side just in case containes asbestos. 

The 'safe side' would be to have it professionaly removed after confirming it contains asbestos by testing.

Skimming it over just leaves it there for some unsuspecting person to disturb in the future.

It doesn't need to be skimmed over just in case it contains asbestos, the plaster skim doesn't add anything in terms of safety.

FreeBear

Section62 said: It doesn't need to be skimmed over just in case it contains asbestos, the plaster skim doesn't add anything in terms of safety.

And if the artex is not bonded well to the plaster underneath, any skim coat will eventually fall down. It may be just a few days, or it might take a year or two.

Bigphil1474

OP, we had similar on the L3 survey for the house we are buying. I could have written that section myself as the house is a 1960's house and the front room had an artex ceiling, so 2+2 could = 4. Our surveyor said not to skim over as the artex would need some sort of keying before skimming over. As Freebear says, it will eventually fall down, otherwise. Ours suggested boarding over or taking down. Pretty sure I'll just paint it for now. If it does contain asbestos then it would cost a fair amount to have removed properly compared to non-asbestos. We lived with an asbestos containing artexed ceiling in our current house for about 18 years without issue. It was removed by our insurer a few years ago and needed the full air tight enclosure and 3 stage airlock with external decontamination unit outside approach. 

Smalltownhypocrite

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we had similar on the L3 survey for the house we are buying. I could have written that section myself as the house is a 1960's house and the front room had an artex ceiling, so 2+2 could = 4. Our surveyor said not to skim over as the artex would need some sort of keying before skimming over. As Freebear says, it will eventually fall down, otherwise. Ours suggested boarding over or taking down. Pretty sure I'll just paint it for now. If it does contain asbestos then it would cost a fair amount to have removed properly compared to non-asbestos. We lived with an asbestos containing artexed ceiling in our current house for about 18 years without issue. It was removed by our insurer a few years ago and needed the full air tight enclosure and 3 stage airlock with external decontamination unit outside approach. 

Most patterned artex can be pva glued before skimming without scratching. Its only the uneven popcorn type artex that usually needs leveling.