Artex Ceiling You Want Removed Or Skimmed

What's happening?

Textured decorative coatings were applied to millions of UK ceilings and walls, and until the late 1990s many contained a small percentage of asbestos as a fibre reinforcement. Asbestos was widely used until 1999, when it was banned. Bound into a hard coating and left alone, that material is not releasing fibres and is not a hazard; the danger is created by what people do to it. HSE classes textured coatings among the lower-risk asbestos-containing materials, where the work can be non-licensed provided a risk assessment shows the control limit will not be exceeded and exposure will be sporadic and of low intensity. The control limit for that non-licensed work is 0.6 asbestos fibres per cubic centimetre of air, measured over a ten-minute period. Sanding, dry scraping or wire-brushing it is precisely what breaches that.

What usually causes it?

• A textured coating applied in the 1960s to 1990s to hide board joints, cracks or a poor ceiling finish
• Fashion: swirl, stipple and comb patterns were standard finishes on new and refurbished ceilings
• An older lath and plaster or plasterboard ceiling that was cracked and textured over rather than repaired
• Woodchip or textured paper skimmed over with a coating, leaving several layers to identify
• Repeated repainting, which thickens the pattern and makes the original material harder to date
• A previous partial removal or patch repair, leaving both asbestos-containing and later material on one ceiling

Is it dangerous?

Intact and painted, it is left safely alone. Disturbed with power tools or dry scraping, it can release fibres, and asbestos-related disease has a long latency, so there is no immediate signal that anything went wrong. The rules to work to are simple: assume a pre-2000 textured coating contains asbestos until a sample says otherwise, never sand it, never dry-scrape it, and never take a wallpaper steamer or an orbital sander to it as a first move. If you uncover a suspect material unexpectedly during other work, HSE's instruction is to stop work immediately, treat it as asbestos and carry out a risk assessment before going any further. Anyone doing non-licensed asbestos work needs the training that goes with it.

Can I fix it myself?

Testing is the only part to start with. A sample sent to a laboratory settles what you have for a modest cost, and it changes every decision after it. If the result is negative, a plasterer can skim over the texture or remove it as ordinary work. If it is positive, the practical domestic answer is usually to leave it undisturbed and either overboard it or have it skimmed by someone who understands the material, because encapsulation avoids the disturbance altogether. What is never acceptable is sanding, dry scraping, or breaking it up and putting it in the household bin: asbestos waste is disposed of through a licensed route.

When should you call a plasterer?

Call a plasterer once you know what the ceiling is. If it tests negative, skimming or overboarding is straightforward plastering. If it tests positive, ask specifically how they intend to work (overboarding, or removal with the controls and training HSE requires), and get that answered before anyone brings a tool near it. Call an asbestos surveyor or removal contractor for testing and for any removal you are not satisfied is being done to HSE's non-licensed work standard.

What will the plasterer actually do?

• Establish the age of the coating and have it sampled and tested before any preparation begins
• Overboard the ceiling with plasterboard where the coating is best left undisturbed, fixing into the joists
• Skim over a tested, sound textured surface to give a flat finish without breaking the coating up
• Remove a negative-tested coating by wetting and scraping rather than sanding, keeping the dust down
• Make good the ceiling behind it, including cracks and joints the texture was originally hiding
• Hand asbestos-positive removal to a contractor working to HSE's requirements, with correct waste disposal

Who fixes this

• Artex removal and smoothing

Questions people ask

Sources & References

1. HSE: Asbestos FAQs
2. HSE: Asbestos essentials (non-licensed work)
3. HSE: Construction dust