Artex removal

[Tommy J]

Hi All,

Anyone know the best way to remove Artex? I think skimming over it would reduce the height of the room by about 2 inches.

The stupid woman before us in here decided she'd artex the ceiling like a Mr Whippy ice cream.

Spoiler:

Attachment 12590

Thanks,

[BFG]

You can get that skim over stuff, but as you say you'll lose the height and end up needing about 5 tubs... Alternative would be to take the lot back to the plasterboard and get it re-skimmed. Wouldn't like to do either job tbh.

[Tommy J]

How easy is it to have the whole ceiling taken down and put back up?

Do bare in mind that we have fitted wardrobes one two of the walls

[destro404]

We just had the hall and kitchen ceilings done in our new place. I was similar horrific artex. The plasterer knocked all the big peaks off and then skimmed it twice. Looks really good now.

[Tommy J]

May I ask how much he cost?

And will he travel to Essex... lol

[stevie2001]

Do be warned that original Artex IIRC had Asbestos or similar in it.

There is Artex stripper available.

As to removing the ceiling, depends on what sort of ceiling, lathe & plaster or Plasterboard, no big deal, but be aware its messy (I mean real messy).

Looking closely at the pics, I`d say its Polytex, a real pain to remove, I`m sure theres stripper available for this, but once you start theres no turning back & you`ll need the ceiling skimmed.

You could try & reduce the levels by digging the high points away & getting it skimmed by a Pro, shouldn`t cost too much £100-200.

Remove the ceiling back to the joists & plasterboard it yourself, then get a Plasterer in to skim it.

Whatever you do it`ll be fucking messy.

Unless you just live with it.

There is another alternative & thats to batten onto the existing ceilng & plasterboard & skim, but be aware of the added weight & height lose.

All of the above would result in complete redecoration of the room & the plasterer might struggle skimming above the wardrobes.

[B B Leo]

if you know what your doing m8. pull down the ceiling and replace with new plaster board and reskim. but if you can get a plaster in to give you a price for complete job. (by the way whoever plasterboards get it screwed in and not nails. stops plaster popping of
hope this helps

[mozzi]

you can scrape off the major peeks then give it two good coats of pva or uni bond mix it 2parts pva to one water let it dry in then coat it again wid 3water 1 pva wait till its tackey then a thin slither of bonding plaster then when thats set the finish coat.
carnt see u loseng 2inches no plaster on the ceiling shud be that thick
in total the bonding and skimming shud only be 5 6 mill thick together remember the bondings just to cover the shitex

[mozzi]

as for screws or nails it dont matter if the nails r in properly but if ur reboarding it remember to stagger the joints of the board

[destro404]

May I ask how much he cost?

And will he travel to Essex... lol

Ours cost 550 for a big kitchen ceiling plus a big winding wall. According to other workies we've had in since that was the going rate price and we were not done. He did do a very good job as well, managing to do a good job taking it in to the cornicing at the edges.

It was messy as fuck though, there was plaster everywhere afterwards. It doesn't matter to us as the carpets are getting chucked and the walls are all stripped back to the bare plaster already but if your decor is in good nick you will want to be well careful with liberal use of big sheets to catch it all.

Any plasterer should be able to give you a quote mate. Get a few though as the prices we got varied a lot.

[Over Carl]

Dunno if it's any good to you, but I was just thinking, an angle grinder if used carefully could probably help with rapidly removing the bulk of the artex.

If you're stuck, pm me as an old mate's a plasterer, dunno if he will go down to essex, but if you do choose to pm me, just let me know where you are and how big the area is and I can give him a bell to see what he says.

[whatnow]

i've got this shit in my bathroom and it`s a job i'm considering too.

although I thought about just getting involved with an electric sander, some coarse paper and a very good dust mask!!!!

I hate artex, it's fucking awful.

[Fett]

Ive got this shit on every ceiling in the house, my hallway/stairway and upstairs. I only rent so I dont fancy paying a fortune to have it done. I painted the lot with white emulsion to make it stand out less. I cringe when new visitors come the house.

[Mobileman]

Replace all the existing plasterboard as mentioned earlier yourself get a couple of mates to help and watch out for wires, plasterboard is only at £4-5 a sheet.

Then get a plaster to do the plastering much better in the long run you wont regret it however the other ways you usually would (speaking from experience) !!

[grahhop]

I would be very careful with some of the above suggestions, if it is Artex by Name (British gypsum subsidiary), it is reversible! meaning if you scratch through the painted layer with a (Bladed ) scrapper and then soak the ceiling using warm water scrapping & re-soaking etc and using an hour or so of your time & getting messy, you with get all of it off, you still may have to do some patching up with cellulose fillers i.e. polyfiller, this is assuming the ceiling is of a flat and sound condition (you can normally tell) however if the textured finish is very sharp to the touch it will be from a tub and has set chemically and the only way is to apply PVA adhesive (thinned down 4/1) brush on later skim, possibly 2 coats of plaster, which is then getting back to taking to ceiling down.

if you need anymore help email me from my website www.ukplaster.com

[flipper321]

Where in Essex are you?

[whatnow]

soaking a ceiling sounds like hard work

while I can see you know what your talking about - would using sometime like an electric sander really be a bad idea? If so, why? or is it just messy?

cheers

[destro404]

Everything I've heard points towards it being a daft idea. It would be messy beyond belief and potentially the dust could be hazardous if there is asbestos or other random shit in there. And you're never going to manage a finished job with the sander so you would end up needing to plaster anyway. I think there's a reason no-one has really suggested it mate

[Tommy J]

I've also heard that a steamer can be used but again, messy.

I think I might get an estimate to have the whole ceiling replaced, that way it's going to be a pretty flat job and I would say quicker than scraping it all off. Although I'm not sure how the ceiling above the wardrobes would be done.


Flipper321: Basildon



Thanks guys.

Regards,

[flipper321]

Flipper321: Basildon

Ok - was going to recommend a plasterer but he only works local to me in Colchester...