Aspetos in artex

[suggett1976]

Hi,

Ive resently been plastering with a mate of mine. He's been teaching me etc.

No when we have been plastering over artex we scrap the high spots first.

Now ive also just done a health a safty course and been told there could be a small trae of aspetos in old artex.

What do you guys do to get over this?

 

[Richard C]

Asbestos was used in Artex up to 2000 I believe; the content is minimal & classed as low risk. The biggest risk is from cutting, drilling or, god forbid, sanding the stuff as this will release loads of dust into the air your breathing. Knocking the peaks off before plastering doesn’t really produce dust as the surface of the Artex tends to be held together by the paint on the surface & a decent cartridge mask with the appropriate filter is all you really need; not those next to useless paper ones. The content is so low it doesn’t require a license to work with but there are guidelines which cover various aspects here;
http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/index.htm
see working with textured coatings.

You should make the customer aware of the low risk &, personally, I prefer to remove it with a steamer & get rid of it but this is time consuming & will make the job more expensive. So I do cover it up sometimes if that’s the decision but I wet it down before scraping & then seal it with a strong coat of PVA the day before skimming. It does make me wonder if, in fact, we should be doing this but at least its then encapsulated until such time the property is either gutted for renovation or demolished; unless someone starts drilling holes in it!