The walls in my bathroom are covered with a rough artex like finish. What's the best, easiest and cheapest way to transform the walls into smooth, flat walls?

Hi Claire, you can scrape the artex off the walls using an angle scraper. it is quick and easy, but quite messy. Good luck :D

It depends whether the stuff is real artex or whether it is that really rough texture 'paint'. In our previous house someone had done this in the bathroom (lost count of the amount of times we got scratched whilst in the shower). Either way you will have to chisel the stuff off. Real artex will probably come off in bigger chunks whereas the paint stuff will come off in really frustrating little bits.

You should bear in mind that there is probably a reason why the stuff was put on in the first place. Probably to hide really bad plasterwork and cracks. In the end, we felt it was worth it to just plaster over the stuff and then painted.

Just a word of warning here...

I wasn't aware of it myself until a couple of weeks ago, but Artex used to contain asbestos (white asbestos import wasn't banned until the late 90's apparently)and needs to be tested before being damaged in any way as it is a potential health risk. If it's just on a ceiling a coat of PVA can be enough to 'seal it in' but it may need professional removal/treatment.

Check with your local council's environmental health officers for safety and disposal advice (asbestos waste is definied as 'special waste' and is regulated by law).

I'm not allowed to put links on here unfortunately, but I think this would be a good thing to warn people about on the main site as a lot of people are trying to remove old Artex. How about it UK Style? Please see government guidelines at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/asbestos/guide/index.htm

You can remove artex with a wallpaper steamer but it is very messy and rather wet. I did it in my loo and wished I had never started it.The alternative is to have it re-artexed but with a smoother finish.We had someone in to do our lounge ceiling and now have a shell pattern which looks very nice.

try taking the real rough edges of then get the walls skimmed with plaster be like new

you think you have problems. i have just bought my house and every room, bar the living room, was covered from top to toe in spiky artex dating back to the 70's.great to have when you have two small children.not!in my case it was cheaper to get an overall quote on a plasterer to do the whole lot.

No-one seems to have read my earlier posting about artex containing asbestos (or did they think it was a wind up!?).

My new house has asbestos in the artex and it was only artexed 5 years ago. It is now being removed by professional contractors because of the health risk! I shudder when I read posts about removing it with a wallpaper stripper just under my warning...

Please be careful folks!!

We have this horrible stuff on our through lounge and dining room. It is loose in parts like it has been put on the walls over wall paper. Admittedly this was originally the houses kitchen before the kitchen extension was added on. We have been told the only way to get rid of it is to get it off the walls and then replaster!!! A job we know that needs doing but not one that we are looking forward to doing. We have put it off this year, but it will HAVE to be done next year.

The previous owners were keen on Artex - so it is in the Kitchen, downstairs loo and in the bathroom. :( but at least it is not on the ceilings...

In the loo it hasnt been done very well in one place and is pelling off... I am going to leave it well alone - considering the messages

Artex has not contained asbestos for 30 years so please ignore the alarms. Pva won't seal it either. If you havne't remedied the problem by now either remove with a wallpaper stripper or 'flush' the surface with Artex Transform which is specially made to transform walls back to a flat surface. Used to be a Southampton man myself so contact Brewers at Woolston, Shirley or Chandlers Ford for advice.

The posting above is completely incorrect. Asbestos was used in Artex until only a few years ago! (1998 I believe)

If you check out any of the Government information available online you will be quite surprised Marc! Why do you think a lot of ex council house owners are now trying to sue their local Councils? None of them have been successful in this so far but it is TRUE.

I'm amazed that UK Style haven't picked up on this one as it's so important. How about a mention of this in an article somewhere???

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/asbestos/guide/index.htm

I've just checked and the government have now removed their asbestos guidelines. Presumably because of the legal situation.

We are talking about white asbestos here, by the way, not the blue or brown type which are much more serious and which were banned about 20 years ago.

Apparently when the World Trade Center was destroyed, it released around 40,000 tonnes of white asbestos into the atmosphere. The US Government do not believe it to be a problem apparently but we shall no doubt see.

Hi all,
We had Donna, our homes expert tackle the Artex question. Read what she had to say on the subject in Ask The Expert...

[link]

Thanks Everyone.

I actually work for Defra BUT I wasn't aware of the Asbestos in Artex!

Thanks Marc B for your local recommendation, i'll give them a bell.

I have tried to remove both artex and sand textured paint in the past. If you have plenty of time and patience, percivere it will come off eventually.

ME, I went for the not so cost effective method and ended up getting the walls plaster skimmed and I must admit it was worth the cash.

Just wanted to say that the asbestos removal in my new house was completed and I love my newly plastered flat ceilings!

My son works in the office of the firm that does asbestos testing and saw the results of my house tests himself. Some of the artex was only 5/6 years old and it contained asbestos. Glad to see the back of it!

Doesn't anyone listen to juliet8! I work in housing in London. Asbestos WAS used in Artex and other types of textured paint/plaster/finish up until the end of the 1980s - and maybe after (see juliet8's last post). The law (check HSE website) requires these coatings (when they contain asbestos) are only maintained/removed by licensed asbestos contractors (Asbestos Licensing Regulations). You can't tell visually if your texture contains asbestos (you need a test, and there are plenty of companies in yellow pages who perform this service). Get some advice from your local council's environmental health officers. They will help. DO NOT scrape off or disturb. 'Encapsulation' (or covering over) is usually the advice you will get - but when you move do remember to tell whoever moves in, so they don't start working on this inadvertently. So what if you've done the work already? The bad news is you likely still have asbestos contamination in your home (a domestic vacuum cleaner would have spread exposed fibre throughout your home and would have contaminated the vacuum cleaner itself!). What can you do? The same companies who test for asbestos can detect for residual asbestos years afterwards. You will then need a professional clean - this isn't expensive, but is a specialist job. I think it is alsowise to talk to your GP about asbestos exposure. All this advice is on the Internet on most local council websites as well as the HSE.

...oh yes. Asbestos fibre in textured coatings is invisble to the naked eye, like asbestos fibre in most products. The fibres are too small!

howdy, i'm an asbestos surveyor, yes its true that
artex can contain chrysotile (white asbestos) but its pretty well encapsulated already in the cement matrix (the fibres dont get released very easily). its not at all dangerous to the average householder, it only becomes an issue if workers are continually drilling, cutting or otherwise disturbing the material. bottom line, you aint gonna get asbestosis from artex.

hence the focus of the Control of Asbestos at Work legislation is to protect workers, not householders. local authorities are only bothering with the artex in houses because they have a duty to inform contractors of the presence of abestos containing materials befor the commence any refurbishment work in a house.

the local authority i work in werent even responsible for the asbestos containing artex in their houses. tenants applied the stuff, so where does the blame really lie?

oh, and a few of the posts above suggest that if your artex is older than the mid 80's then it will contain asbestos. this is nonsense. contractors mixed the stuff onsite by literally throwing in handfuls of white asbestos powder. so it depends on what contractor was used as well as the age of the material

Scott - please...you are an asbestos surveyor. Asbestos is dangerous. That is why nearly all work with asbestos (including asbestos containing Artex and textures) is licensable, i.e. defined by the Health and Safety Executive as requiring the services of a licensed asbestos contractor to remove/maintain. If you leave it alone it won't do you any harm.

Repeated because I didn't tick the box to receive replies. Scott - please...you are an asbestos surveyor. Asbestos is dangerous. That is why most work with asbestos (including asbestos containing Artex and textures) is licensable, i.e. defined by the Health and Safety Executive as requiring the services of a licensed asbestos contractor to remove/maintain. If you leave it alone it won't do you any harm.

I am in the process of buying a house and the walls in the (large) lounge and going up the stairs are covered in artex. I want to remove this urgently and came upon this forum whilst resarching it. Obviously the issue of asbestos concerns me and I am wondering whether my home buyer survey that my bulding society is conducting in a week or so will pick upon this issue? My reasoning is that ignoring the pure health effects, asbestos artex may also decrease the price of the property making it worth less than the sale price. Anyone any ideas/advice/experience of this? May have to neogotiate ( couple of thousand of the) price to remedy this?

Also I found a useful article on the following site based on a sunday telegraph article from a few years ago.

[link]