Artex hell

Hi all,

Moved into this house recently and the previous owner seems to have had a long and abiding passion for artex.(and the colour brown but that's another story)

So the problem is this (and excuse my use of non-technical descriptions for things as I'm not that DIY minded, sorry)

My living room is divided in half by a nice modern dado rail about mid-height, no problem. It also has a very (VERY) old multi-painted-over picture rail about 2m high running round the entire room. Above that is intricate fan-style artexing on the walls to the ceiling height, which has been glossed over (several times.) The artexing covers the ceiling too but it's the walls we're concerned with.

The picture rail just has to come down, no arguing about it, which means I have to fill the recessed gap which will mean flattening the artexed areas above so it's a flat surface, which I understand might be a tad tricky, so is there another easier option that won't look horrible?

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm currently appealing to the gods of DIY to make it easier, somehow!

Thanks again.

Reply to
Angie Ellis
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Unable to help but - - - is artex that blobby surface that looks like a pressure cooker went feral and sprayed over-cooked rice all over the room? A painted-on surface, as opposed to the equally naff textured wallpaper made for painting over?

Do you hate picture rails? I'm personally fond of them because they break the high walls and I paint the ceiling colour down to them. Also, shifting pictures around is easy. Because if you are mostly against the multi-layered paint on the rails you could just buy new and use them to fill in the gap.

A L P

A L P

Reply to
A _L_ P

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Reply to
reg

It's going to cost you but I think your best bet will be to get a man in with a plasterers float and have him reskim the walls. You can buy a product in B&Cue - can't remember what it's called now, for floating over artex and cracked, uneven walls but whilst it is easy to use and forgiving of amateur plasterers, it will probably work out just as cheap to get a man in it you've a whole room to do.

Of course you could opt for pine cladding :-))

Ron

Reply to
Ron O'Brien

Angie,

Very similar problem here. The walls and ceilings in the dining room and kitchen were totally artexed by previous house owner and a right bad job they made of it too!! We put up with it for years yet always hated the look of it.

The only real solution was to get a professional plasterer in to give it a dose of PVA and then apply a skim coat of plaster. So, had it done a month ago. Each room took a day to plaster.

Now we got a beautiful smooth finish to all walls and ceilings which we can now paint or paper as we see fit.

It was well worth getting it done properly.

Ed

Reply to
Ed

The added advantage is that it also seals in any asbestos (depending on the age of the artex).

Just be careful if you need to drill it at any time in the future.

Reply to
David P

Was just about to mention the possibility of asbestos - but you already dunnit! :-)

JW

Reply to
John Whitworth

I made the mistake of trying an artex removal gel (X-Tex) on the ceiling of our small ensuite loo. It works by softening the stuff but it's a bit messy and time consuming plus I still ended up using lining paper to get a smooth surface. It took two days and I really wish I hadn't bothered.

I suspect the gloss paint in your case will stop this product working anyway asthey tend to be water based.

Since then, I've had some of our ceilings skimmed by a plasterer and I'm just about to have four more done. It's one of those few jobs I'm happy handing over to a pro.

HTH Midge.

Reply to
Midge

Plasterers have to be the BEST value! Gib-stopping (NZ - don't know what you call it, filling joins and smoothing out nail/screw hollows) is the slowest, messiest, most tedious job IMO, but the professionals come in and just get it done! Quickly!! Big hollows they have to come back

2 or 3 times to let it dry enough between coats, then they sand it back, take away the dust sheets and you're ready to paper or paint. I'd NEVER do it myself, nor would the very experienced builders and home handy-bods I know.

A L P

Reply to
A _L_ P

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