Artex Nightmare. Help???

djdido2

Hi all

My kitchen is decorated from wall to ceiling in Artex. (Yuck). As a single mum, I am trying my best to money save and am tackling as much of the DIY that I can manage myself. Short of attacking it with a slegde hammer, is there anyway of removing this stuff without the house falling down???


I know I should probably get the experts in but I really don't have the funds. Any suggestions anyone please???


Dido

weekendwarrior

It's awful stuff to remove!

There is a little here- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/ARTEX_REMOVAL.htm

Often it is best to get it skimmed over with plaster, but this is something that most people will not attempt. The steamer might work!

djdido2

Weekend thanks for your help. will try the steamer thingy but couldn't even attempt a plaster job.

Cheers

Myrtle

My ceiling was covered in the stuff. I sprayed it with water, left it a few minutes then peeled it off with a paint scraper. Took ages, but it worked. :j

Poppy9

My parents had rough artexed walls on their hall, stairs and landing walls. As they were not living in the house at the time they sanded all the walls down and then put heavy wall paper over the walls.

ormus

it money is tight and its a diy job, then hot water and a scraper will do it. but its very messy and takes ages/days.
i prefer to get the plasterer in and skim the walls.

WestonDave

I've done the steamer version and although it works (if you've got the right artex!) it is hard going. All the steamer does is soften the coating into a sort of rubbery texture which then can be scraped off. You will however need to be very careful not to end up with lots of little scraper marks. You will also need to be very careful working with a steamer above your head as they tend to drop boiling water on you if you aren't careful.

Do not under any circumstances sand it off unless you know exactly what it is, as older types contain asbestos fibres.

George_Bray

WestonDave wrote: »

Do not under any circumstances sand it off unless you know exactly what it is, as older types contain asbestos fibres.

There's a counter argument here, suggesting that Artex type finishes pose no significant health risk - any more than, say, inhaling too much plaster dust:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/06/nbook06.xml

I hope the official H&S findings in 2006 are correct because, years ago, I sanded off a whole load of Artex, completely unaware that it may have included some asbestos.

Regards
George

a11waysindebt

You could try this.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=195977

George_Bray

a11waysindebt wrote: »

You could try this.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=195977

I noticed this special Polycell coating stuff in a shop the other day. It cost £29 for a tub which looked quite large but would probably not go very far. I decided not to waste my money. Anyway, spurred on by this thread, I decided to try removing the Artex from the ceiling in a part of my home not yet done. Using a wallpaper scraper thing with a blade about 3" across you can quite easily plough it across the ceiling and it knocks off all the highpoints of the Artex to leave an almost flat surface. But this is a dry approach and I guess there's a small risk of some asbestos dust so I moved on to an even better approach: I used a cheap hand held steamer device which I bough from Lidl or somewhere for about £10. Aiming the jet of steam at the ceiling softens the Artex ahead of the scraping action. The Artex comes off even easier and dust is avoided. It will not take me very long to remove several square metres of Artex using this method. It is much easier than removing wallpaper. I will then use standard Polyfilla to coat the ceiling with an ultra fine layer, to remove the remaining, minor undulations.

becs

most artex if it was done before 1999 will contain asbestos. I know this because I work for an insurance company and they always test it before doing any work. The majority before this date do contain asbestos so i personally would not touch it, it's not worth the risk.