Artex and Asbestos

[jjkelly79]

Hi

I'm new to this forum and would be extremely grateful for any advice. I've just bought my first home and the entire hall and landings are covered with Artex on the walls and ceilings. Ideally I want to remove all this but have some reservations as it is very old and from what I have read it can contain Asbestos. I asked my local building control about this and they said they had never heard of Artex containing Asbestos.

I want to remove the plaster behind the Artex as well so that I can insulate the walls before drylining and skimming. I am thinking that if I remove the plaster at the same time as the Artex then most of it will stick to the plaster so there will be minimum dust from the Artex. I've tried a small section and the plaster seems to come off in big lumps with the Artex attached which seems ok. Does this sound ok or is it too risky or should I get the Artex tested for Asbestos first?? Any ideas welcomed!

Thanks for your help
John

[Bright_Spark]

GET IT CHECKED! depending on the age of your house it could contain asbestos, i'm not shocked to hear that building control have not heard of this coz most of them are muppets. if you were simply plastering over it, you could have boarded over it first then skimmed it, but if you need to remove the lot get it checked.

[arbucleuk]

I have had the same problem on a couple of houses i have renovated incluuding my latest.

The simplest way to tell is to see if the artex has small silver like flakes in it. Its not full proof but if theses can be seen then normally this would surgest the precence of aspestos.

As for removing it get a decent mask (hire a proper ventalated mask if need be) try to remove in large chunks and dont sand it. Also try not to do too much at once. I work on removing a 2m squared section then clean up and vac to keep the dust down to a min.

There may be other surggestinons but hope this helps.

[jjkelly79]

Hi

Thanks for the replies, I had thought no one was going to respond so I decided to go ahead and start removing it. I've been using a wrecking bar to get behind the inch or so of plaster so that the Artex (which has been painted over) comes off fully attached to the plaster.

We have been wearing FFP3 masks and using a hose pipe with a fine spray to damp down before and constantly during removal.

The majority of it has been coming off in largeish chunks which is always attached to the plaster behind it so hopefully it should be ok.

I spoke to someone at Artex (link removed) who said that it did used to contain around 3.5% White Asbestos up until around 1984, but I explained how I was planning on removing it and he seemed to think that would be ok.

I hope I've done the right thing!

arbucleuk: I'll have a check tonight to see if I can see any silver flakes in the Artex. Thanks

[thedoctor]

See the Diydoctor project on artex removal in the projects section.