Walk into almost any house in Glenrothes, Dunfermline or Kirkcaldy built or decorated between the 1960s and the 1990s and you will find Artex somewhere, usually swirled or stippled across the ceilings. Most Fife homeowners want it gone, but the real question is whether to strip it off or simply skim over it. For the majority of homes, skimming is the safer, cleaner and cheaper choice, and here is why.
Textured coatings made before around 1985 commonly contained a small percentage of chrysotile (white) asbestos, and stock was still being used up well into the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fife has a lot of housing from exactly that period: the Glenrothes new town expansion, the former council estates in Methil, Buckhaven and Cowdenbeath, and the private estates that grew around Dunfermline. If your ceiling was textured before about 1990, you should assume it may contain asbestos until a test proves otherwise.
Testing is straightforward. A UKAS accredited laboratory will analyse a small sample for roughly 20 to 40 pounds per sample, and a surveyor can take it for you if you would rather not. The important rule is that asbestos in Artex is only a hazard when it is disturbed, so sanding, scraping or steaming it off is precisely the wrong thing to do with an untested ceiling. Left sealed and undamaged it is low risk, which is why skimming over it is generally the recommended route.
Skimming over Artex involves flattening the high points with a scraper (not sanding), applying a bonding agent such as a PVA or SBR primer, and then laying on one or two coats of finishing plaster. Very heavy stipple or deep swirl patterns sometimes need a bonding coat first to fill the texture before the skim goes on. Done properly the result is a flat, smooth ceiling that looks exactly like new plaster and is ready to paint within a week or so.
This approach works well when the Artex is firmly bonded to the ceiling, the plasterboard or lath behind it is sound, and there has been no water damage. Cost wise, a standard lounge ceiling of around 15 to 20 square metres in Fife typically falls somewhere in the range of 300 to 550 pounds for a skim over Artex, depending on how deep the texture is, access, and whether a bonding coat is needed. Hallways and stairwells cost more because of the scaffolding or tower required.
Skimming is not a cure for a bad ceiling. If the Artex is lifting, the ceiling has bowed, or you can see cracks following the board joints, plastering over it just traps the problem under a new skin. In those cases it is usually better to take the whole ceiling down, overboard it, or fit a new ceiling below the old one, then skim fresh plasterboard. Overboarding is a popular compromise in Fife because it avoids disturbing the Artex at all while giving you a brand new flat surface. Expect it to add roughly 150 to 300 pounds to a typical room compared with a straight skim.
If the Artex has tested positive for asbestos and must come off, for instance because you are moving ceiling lights or opening up the loft, the work should be done by a contractor who is trained for it, with proper containment and disposal through a licensed route. Fife Council's recycling centres will accept small quantities of bonded asbestos from householders if it is double bagged, but a textured coating that has been scraped off is not something to take on yourself.
A good tradesperson in Fife will ask about the age of the house and the ceiling before quoting, and will not offer to sand Artex flat. Ask how they intend to prepare the surface, whether they recommend a bonding coat, and how many coats of finishing plaster they will apply. Ask too about drying time, because a skimmed ceiling in a cold Fife house in January can take noticeably longer than one done in summer, and painting too early leads to peeling.
Finally, be realistic about walls. Artex on walls is less common but does appear in older kitchens and bathrooms, and it is treated the same way: test if pre 1990, skim if sound, overboard if not.