removing artex from walls prior to render?

[Hallsy]

I have a couple of bare brick walls in my house that are going to be rendered. As they had been painted with some type of masonary paint I started to strip the paint off.
Underneath the paint there is a thin layer of artex which I presume they used to smooth out the look of the bricks.
How is the best/quickest method to remove this? Carry on with the steamer and scraper?
Does it even need removing before rendering over?

 

[Hallsy]

Anyone?
I have read that Artex can contain asbestos and I'm a a little concerned that I have now filled my house with it as by steaming & scraping the top layer of paint off I would have been scraping the artex underneath as well. My house was built in 1960's but I can't say for sure when the artexing would have been done, is it likely to have asbestos in it, or was this much earlier than the 60's? Should I be worried or is all the talk of dangers in removing artex just scaremongering?
I'm starting to think I'd rather leave it now and just render over, but will it take very well?

 

[jbonding]

do a search on asbestos, i think around 78 they stopped using it. pva mixed with cement and a handfull of sand mixed to a slurry and applied with a roller will provide a key for your rendering or pva and apply bonding plaster.

 

[Hallsy]

Cheers, unfortunately I don;t know when the artex would have been applied. I don't think I've disturbed it too much as was using a steamer and it seemed to disolve quite easily under the steam. I was just worried that after clearing up the paint flakes, etc I may have chucked asbestos dust everywhere. Suppose I'll never really know!!
Anyway, the wall will be rendered then plastered so I'll go with the slurry method to get a decent key.
Cheers.

 

[ellal]

most local councils do an asbestos analysis, or know a lab that does. You take a sample of the artex, and they'll test it quite quickly. We had a test done a couple of years back, and it cost about £25..