Artex removal and other plastering questions

wanting to get a bit of advice from people who may or may not know something about plastering and artex.

we have some artex in our living room that we would like to get rid of. Is there an easy way of getting rid of it? it is quite thick in places (about an inch) as it was put on in a style that looks like butter spread on a slice of toast. what would be the easiest way of getting rid of it or hiding it? could we sand it down it the thickest places and then put up a thick coat of fresh plaster over the top to hide it? or should we sand it right back and then skim the wall? Or is there a product that can be bought to remove it? and how much are we looking at for this work to be done? The atrex area is approx 35m^2.

any help is much appreciated.

skimming it over is probably the easiest/cheapest/most effective way of getting rid of it.

Hi Swoosh, I posted the same question about a week ago and got some helpful replies – you can see the thread by my name.

We have quite a lot to get rid of, and are going with a guy who specialises in artex removal. Plastering over it won’t work for us as we’d lose window / door frames, but that sounds like the easiest solution in general. One thing to bear in mind is that some artex mixtures contained asbestos, so going at it with a sander is not recommended.

THanks garry, some good useful info over there.

anyone know how much it costs to get a plasterer in to do 35m^2?

if the artex pattern is too deep they will need to put a layer of thin plaster board over it, this adds to the price but gives a far better finish.

Best to go nuclear. Won’t be troubled by it again.

Swoosh look here>>>> Plastering costs

I have cropped a pic as the artex was visible in the background through the window so excuse the reflections. but here is the artex in my living room. from whats visible, do you think it can be skimmed over or will chunks need to be removed?

In all seriousness- do you know anyone at the local tech. Ask them to recommend their best student. A mate did that and had his downstairs done for mucho cheapness.

In all seriousness- do you know anyone at the local tech. Ask them to recommend their best student. A mate did that and had his downstairs done for mucho cheapness.

By best student I mean best Plastering student. No good getting your average A level geologist or physicist I would have thought.

We removed artex which was covering the entire inside of house and some of the walls if you were to fall against them would have rendered you disfigured due to large spikes protuding from them.
Anyway the best way we found was to use a shovel 🙂
The rest of the smaller stuff came off with scrapers etc.The ceilings we got a belt sander and removed the high points.
Plasterer finished the job off nicely and what made a better job of it all was removal of skirting and door architrave etc.
In all it was a bit of hard work but worth it in the end.

HTH

Pretty much what WOT said. But I used and SDS drill and 2″ wide chisel to remove my hideous plaster. It was very rough and dangerous, if you fell againsy it would graze your skin. When you have clean walls make up a stiff PVA solution and paint them , makes the plastering job quicker and better.