How To Remove Old Artex From Ceiling

Got an Artex Ceiling or Wall in Your Habitation That Y'all Want to Remove?

Do you accept Artex ceilings or walls in your domicile that you are looking to remove? I don't blame you lot, I'm not a fan of these ceilings and they certainly have fallen out of fashion in recent years.

This page is all about Artex and the options y'all have.

Artex is, in fact, a trading name of a company that sells textured wall coatings in the United Kingdom.

These products became and so popular that the name Artex has go synonymous with all textured coatings, regardless of the type or manufacturer.

Textured coatings were extremely popular in the 1960s and 1970s merely started to fall out of style by the tardily 1980s and early 1990s.

Many homeowners now cull to remove the Artex coatings and replace them with a shine terminate.

A Heads Up… Virtually Asbestos

Does Artex contain asbestos?

Asbestos is an extremely dangerous fibrous and dusty material that tin cause serious wellness conditions if information technology enters the lungs.

Once trapped in the lungs, these fibres go trapped where, over several decades, they cause scar damage which reduces the lung's capacity to function correctly. They tin likewise cause cancers and other life-threatening ailments.

These unsafe fibres were a key ingredient of Artex and other similar textured coatings, their purpose was to stiffen the blanket so it was easier for the installer to class patterns.

Not every textured coating or Artex production contains asbestos. In fact, safe asbestos-gratuitous Artex is still on auction now.

If your home was constructed before the 1980s, there's a skillful take chances that the Artex will contain asbestos. Homes constructed between the mid-1980s and 1999 may contain asbestos while those built afterwards 1999 shouldn't contain any, although a few builders continued to apply asbestos even though information technology was banned in 1999.

While asbestos can be very unsafe, information technology'due south perfectly safe if it's not disturbed, information technology'south the loose fibres that pose the run a risk to health. Asbestos that's contained within Artex coatings only poses a risk if it'south disturbed by:

• Sanding.
• Drilling.
• Cutting.
• Removal.

How Tin can I Be 100% Sure My Artex Coating Doesn't Contain Asbestos?

If you're not sure if your textured coating contains asbestos or not, you tin can buy an asbestos sampling kit online – just post a tiny amount to their specialist lab which volition tell y'all if it contains asbestos.

The kits cost effectually £30 and you lot'll get the results online in a matter of days.

Photos of Artex Textured Coatings

While it'south incommunicable to tell if a textured coating contains asbestos just by looking g at it, here are a few photos of Artex, taken inside a property congenital in the 1980s:

Swirl design

Broken Leather Artex

Popcorn ceiling – popular in the United States and sometimes seen here in the UK

What is the Best Style to Remove Artex?

There's no doubtfulness well-nigh it, removing Artex textured coatings is a challenging task that will produce a lot of dust and mess.

But exercise you lot actually demand to remove it when y'all could plaster over it?

Hither are your iii options:

• Complete removal of the textured coating.
• Plaster skim over the pinnacle of information technology to hide information technology, leaving a smooth cease.
• Plasterboard over the top, with a polish plaster finish.

1 – How To Remove an Artex Ceiling

The virtually popular way to remove Artex is to employ a steamer to loosen information technology and then ease it off with a scraper. This process is irksome just constructive, if you agree the steamer in the same place for besides long, yet, the Artex will liquefy and run everywhere making a mess. At worst, you'll harm the plasterboard behind the textured coating but if you're careful and work slowly, you should be fine.

Some other option is to utilize a production such as Fuze's Artex Remover or Eco Solutions X-Tex. These chemicals work by turning the Artex to gel then information technology tin be scraped off.

Here's a short video explaining how they work:

2 – Plaster Over The Artex

Due to the dangers of asbestos and the price of removing it, many homeowners choose to leave the Artex in place and instead apply two coats of plaster over the top of it. This is normally plenty to create a smooth surface.

Here'south how to exercise it:

• Using a scraper or some other musical instrument, knock off any large pieces or Artex.
• Apply two coats of PVA solution to the existing Artex. As textured coatings are very absorbent, you may fifty-fifty demand a tertiary coat.
• When the concluding glaze of PVA goes "tacky", trowel on the first glaze of plaster, flatten and polish off as it starts to firm up.
• As the beginning glaze of plaster is firming, prepare the 2d batch and showtime applying.
• Firm upward with a trowel as required as the second coat starts to firm.

The secret to achieving a good plaster finish is to avoid the temptation to smooth off the surface while it's all the same very wet and soft. It's better to look a brusque while longer until the plaster is firming before you flatten information technology and smooth information technology over with the trowel.

3 – Plasterboarding

This is also a popular method and is guaranteed to hide and encapsulate whatsoever asbestos.

New plasterboard is secured over the existing ceiling and finished with plaster.

Options 2 and iii are the quickest methods and produce the to the lowest degree amount of mess, unfortunately, they likewise get out the Artex and whatever asbestos in place. Yous'll need to be careful in the time to come as whatever work y'all do to the ceiling, such as drilling a pigsty for a light plumbing equipment, could release the dust.

Don't Want To Do This Work Yourself?

We don't blame you, that'due south why we tin can aid you get a price from a professional person Artex remover.

Just tap the button beneath and fill in the course to become started:

Get a Quote Online

This guide to Artex removal was written by and was final updated in April 2022.

Don't forget; we have price guides for hundreds of habitation improvement projects.

Explore our full listing of detailed price guides hither.

Source: https://job-prices.co.uk/remove-artex/

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