Help! What is this on my ceiling....

[Gmanvilla1982]

Hi,

 

Can anyone shed any light on what this is on my ceiling please?

 

Any views welcome!

 

Thanks

 

Gavin

[Simplysimon]

polyripple, sold with no way to remove easily. replaster would be the easiest method to hide it. used to cover cracks cheaply.

[Jeremy Harris]

As above.  As a word of caution, best not to try and sand it off, as some of the older stuff had nasty fibres in it.  Some types will come off with steam, but generally the easiest way to deal with it is to skim it, as @Simplysimon says.

 

Do you have any idea as to how old it is?  In general, the older stuff was dodgier than the stuff made in the last 20 to 30 years.

[Vijay]

are the artex removers no good?

 

[Thedreamer]

Does artex have low grade asbestos in it? 

[Simplysimon]

i've heard a steamers held on for a few minutes and it comes of like elastic. i sanded mine back and then put a heavy weight paper on to mask the minor imperfections.

[Gmanvilla1982]

I know it’s been here since pre-2004 but that’s all I know. General consensus from those I’ve spoken to is that it’s textured paint and not artex.

[bassanclan]

It looks too deeply textured to just be textured paint.

 

A coat of magic mix (multi finish & 10% bonding) followed by a coat of multifinish and it'll be gone for less than £200.

[Stewpot]

I'd agree that that doesn't look like Artex.

 

It's one of two things - water soluble textured coating, or non-water soluble textured coating. Test an area by keeping it moist for 20 minutes (wall paper paste is surprisingly good at doing this, on larger areas, but for a test area, just keep dabbing it with a wet paintbrush). If it goes soft, and you can now easily scrape it off, you have the former; if it remains firm, it is the latter.

 

Early stuff that is non-water soluble from 40 or more years ago, may have asbestos fibres in it. This poses no risk to health, as long as you do not damage the surface.

 

What to do about it? Well if it's water soluble, you could wet the whole ceiling and get scraping, but you are likely to need to skim the ceiling afterwards. If the stuff is non-water soluble, your only real course of action is to skim it. Sometimes, if the finish is very rough, and the ceiling uneven, it can be easier to plasterboard the ceiling, possibly with taped joints, or a thin skim over.

[Ed Davies]

1 hour ago, Vijay said:

are the artex removers no good?

 

Worked well for me on the bathroom ceiling in my old house though it did need a lot splodging on, leave to soak, splodge a bit more and eventually it came off. I doubted it was old enough to be the asbestos stuff but wasn't completely sure so was pleased that it came off in soggy lumps with very little dust. Goggles and mask, though.

[bassanclan]

Even if you are able to gwt whatever it is off, there's a high probability of you having to skim it anyway, so just do that now to save messing about.