Stripping artex, asbetos and decent plasterers

Hi,

I'm looking to get rid of artex finished walls in the bedroom and been looking into it. The ceiling is fine.

Replastering is one option - but money's tight at the mo and we've been quoted over £1000 for the 3.5m x 4m bedroom which seems a lot.

Been looking at stripping options - steaming and that x-tex stuff (might buy a small tub and try it). But having second thoughts with the asbestos warnings about old artex.

So would really welcome a few recommendations....

Does anyone know a reasonable plasterer in north London (Barnet way) that's not going to charge a fortune?

Who would be the best person to ask (local council etc) about testing the walls for asbestos?

Any other thoughts welcome.

Cheers,
Steve

Best getting them Plastered in my opinion, due to all your concerns.

From what you've described £1000 for the walls is a bit heavy, even for N London. This sounds like a couple of days to me, London prices £500 ish.

Thanks - decided to have a few more quotes - so far one's come in at £300, and getting a few more tomorrow. Think someone was trying to take us for a ride with the first quote.

Cheers

Hi,

I've just gotten rid of my ugly artexed ceiling in my hall - all by myself!

I didn't check for asbestos but I'm still alive and I don't think it was done too long ago anyway (looked very 80s!).

Basically I just hired an orbital sander (my own B&D one broke down half way through the job!), donned a mask, goggles and a shower cap and got to it. The mess was unbelievable (really - I'm still finding dust all over the house weeks later!) but it's well worth it I think.

Apart from not being able to breathe or see very well, it wasn't such a hard job! The end result is really good and the area (it's about 14 square metres) only took me about 4 hours (and that was only cos of the breaks I took every 15 mins or so to go outside for air).

I noticed in the hire shop that they do a texture remover machine which looks like a sander on a pole (eliminating the need for balancing up a ladder) with an industrial vacuum attached. It says that it's 4 times more powerful than a normal sander so gets the job done quicker.

http://www.hss.com/g/5231/Drywall_Sander_Kit.html

I've also heard of people steaming then scraping off the artex.

There's a link on one of these other posts that gives more info about asbestos in plaster.

Hope this helps!

Claire

Hi,

Went with plastering in the end - got a good job too. Suspected the artex was 70s or early 80s so a good risk of asbestos.

Thanks all