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Artex and textured ceiling removal
Overboarding and skimming a textured ceiling costs £380 to £700, which is the usual answer and also the safest. Textured coatings applied before 2000 may contain asbestos, and the one thing not to do is sand it.
What this covers
What it costs. Overboarding and skimming a textured ceiling costs £380 to £700. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Overboarding a textured ceiling and skimming it flat
- Skimming directly over a sound textured coating where it will take it
- Removing a textured coating where testing has cleared it
- Arranging a sample test before anything is disturbed
- Making good the perimeter and the coving line afterwards
What is involved
Artex is a brand name that became the word for any textured coating, and there were several. Up to around 1999 many of them contained a small percentage of chrysotile asbestos as a reinforcing fibre, at two to five per cent. Intact and painted, that is not doing anybody any harm. Sanded, scraped dry or drilled, it releases fibres, and that is the one action to rule out before anything else is decided.
So there are three routes. Skim over it, if the texture is shallow and the surface is sound, which disturbs nothing. Overboard it, screwing new plasterboard through the old ceiling into the joists and skimming that, which also disturbs very little and is what most jobs end up doing. Or remove it, which needs the coating tested first and, if it is positive, a contractor working to the non-licensed asbestos rules rather than a plasterer with a scraper.
This site lists what businesses say they do. It does not and cannot say that any of them is licensed or trained to remove asbestos, because there is no register to check that against.
Overboarding a textured ceiling and skimming it flat, one of the jobs a artex and textured ceilings specialist is hired for.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask whether they intend to skim over it, board over it or take it off, and say up front if the house predates 2000. Ask whether they want a sample tested first. A plasterer who offers to sand a textured ceiling on a pre-2000 house without testing is telling you something useful about how they work.
Common questions
Does Artex contain asbestos?
Textured coatings made before about 1999 often contained two to five per cent chrysotile asbestos. Later ones do not. The only way to know for a given ceiling is a sample test, which costs £30 to £60 and takes a few days.
Is it safe to leave Artex alone?
Yes. Intact, painted and undisturbed, a textured coating containing asbestos is not releasing fibres. The risk comes from sanding, scraping dry, drilling or breaking it, which is why overboarding is so often the answer.