Artex and Textured Ceilings: Paint, Skim or Board Over?

Almost every house in Greater Manchester built or decorated between the 1960s and the 1990s has a textured ceiling somewhere in it. Swirls, stipple, fans, combed patterns and the heavy popcorn-style finish that most people simply call Artex. Most owners want them gone, and covering Artex ceilings comes down to three options — but one question has to be answered before any of them, and it is not about paint.

In short

• A textured coating applied before 2000 may contain a small amount of asbestos. Have it tested before anyone disturbs it.
• An intact ceiling in good condition is not the problem. Sanding, scraping and dry removal are what release fibres.
• Over-painting is the simplest option and leaves the coating undisturbed. Skimming over the top gives a flat ceiling without removing anything.
• Over-boarding then skimming is the answer where the ceiling is cracked, sagging or bouncing.
• Removing a textured coating is not a decorating job, and this article does not tell you how to do it.

First question: how old is the coating?

Textured coatings and asbestos, explained plainly

Artex is a brand name, but it is used loosely for any textured ceiling coating, and that is how most people mean it. Some of those coatings contained a small proportion of white asbestos, which was added to strengthen the mix and stop it cracking.

The manufacturer stopped using asbestos in its own products during the mid-1980s. However, older stock stayed in circulation for years afterwards, and asbestos was not banned outright in these coatings in the UK until 1999. In practice that makes the year 2000 the sensible line to work to.

If the coating went on before 2000, treat it as though it may contain asbestos until it has been tested. If the property was built or the ceiling recoated after 2000, it will not. Where nobody knows — which is most of the time in a house that has changed hands twice — assume the older case.

Testing is straightforward. A small sample goes to a UKAS-accredited laboratory and comes back with a clear answer. Taking the sample safely is itself a job for someone who knows how, which is another reason not to start poking at it yourself.

Why an intact ceiling is not the problem

This is the part that gets lost. A textured coating that is sound, sealed under paint and undisturbed is not considered a risk to the people living underneath it. Asbestos is dangerous when fibres are released into the air and breathed in, and a coating sitting quietly on a ceiling is not releasing anything.

So the risk is not the material. The risk is what somebody does to it. That is why over-painting and skimming over are both recognised ways of dealing with these ceilings — neither disturbs the coating, and both leave it sealed under something.

One thing worth knowing if you are a landlord or you own a flat: there is a legal duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises and in the common parts of buildings containing flats. Your own rooms are not covered by that duty, but a shared stairwell is.

Covering an Artex ceiling: your three options

• Over-paint the texture. Choose this if the ceiling is sound, you can live with the texture, and you want the least disruption. Nothing is disturbed and it can be done in a day or two.
• Skim over the top. Choose this if you want a flat, modern ceiling and the ceiling itself is structurally fine. The existing coating stays where it is, sealed under about three millimetres of plaster.
• Over-board, then skim. Choose this if the ceiling is cracked, sagging or bouncy underfoot from the room above, or where the texture is very heavy or poorly stuck down. New plasterboard goes up through into the joists and is then skimmed.

All three leave the original coating in place. None of them involves removing it, and that is deliberate.

Option one — over-paint the texture

The simplest and least disruptive route, and often the right one. A sound textured ceiling takes emulsion perfectly well. What it does not do is take it economically — a heavy stipple has a far greater surface area than a flat ceiling, and it drinks paint accordingly.

Loose flakes at the edges are removed carefully by hand where it is safe to do so. Any staining is sealed first, because it will otherwise come straight back through. Then two coats, and often three on a deep swirl.

What it will not do is fix anything structural. Cracks stay cracked, a sagging ceiling stays sagging, and the texture is still texture. If your objection to the ceiling is the pattern itself, painting it a fresh white makes it cleaner but no less 1978.

Option two — skim over the top

A plasterer applies a thin skim, usually two to three millimetres, straight over the existing texture. The coating underneath is not touched, not sanded and not removed — it is simply sealed under plaster forever. The result is a flat, modern ceiling.

Very heavy or sharply peaked textures need attention first so the skim has something even to sit on. Where the coating may contain asbestos, that has to be handled without abrading it, which is a conversation for the plasterer before work starts rather than an improvisation on the day. On a really aggressive stipple, over-boarding is often the better answer than fighting it.

One thing people forget: a skimmed ceiling is new plaster. It has to dry properly before it is painted, and the first coat on it should be a thinned mist coat rather than a full one. Painting it too soon, or sealing it with PVA, is how a freshly skimmed ceiling ends up flaking within a year.

You lose about three millimetres of room height, which nobody has ever noticed.

Option three — over-board, then skim

New plasterboard is screwed up through the existing ceiling and into the joists, then skimmed. It is the most involved of the three, and sometimes the only sensible one.

It is the right answer where the ceiling is cracked across its face rather than just at the edges, where it moves or bounces when someone walks about upstairs, or where an old lath and plaster ceiling is losing its key. In those cases skimming over the top only puts fresh plaster onto something that is already failing.

It also encapsulates the original coating completely, behind a full board rather than a few millimetres of skim.

Worth doing at the same time: if you have ever thought about downlights, extra insulation between the joists, or moving a light fitting, this is the moment. The ceiling is open and the work is trivial then and awkward later.

You lose roughly twelve millimetres of height, plus the skim. In a room with low ceilings that is worth measuring first.

What never to do

There is one rule and it covers most of the danger.

• Never dry-sand a textured ceiling. This is the single worst thing you can do to one. It generates exactly the fine airborne dust that is the whole problem, and it spreads it through the house.
• Do not scrape it off. Not with a scraper, not with a steamer and a scraper, not with a wallpaper stripper. Removal methods exist, but they belong to trained contractors working with controls, not to a Saturday afternoon.
• Do not drill or cut into it for a new light fitting or a smoke alarm until you know what it is.
• Do not assume a previous owner checked. They almost certainly did not.

If a decorator offers to sand a textured ceiling of unknown age flat for you, that tells you something useful about the decorator.

Painting a textured ceiling properly

Assuming you have chosen to over-paint, the job is straightforward but it is not the same as painting a flat ceiling.

Roller nap, and why it drinks paint

A long nap is essential — around fifteen to twenty millimetres for a heavy stipple, a little less for a light texture. A short nap roller skates across the peaks and leaves every valley untouched, which looks fine while wet and patchy the moment it dries.

Roll in one direction, then cross-roll at right angles. Each peak has a shadow side that only gets covered from the second direction. Expect to use considerably more paint than the tin suggests, and budget for a third coat on anything deeply patterned.

Cutting in and coving junctions

Textured ceilings meet walls and coving untidily, because the texture runs right into the joint. Cut in first with a brush pushed into the texture rather than drawn along it, then roll up to the wet edge. Trying to cut a straight line against a stippled surface with a roller already on the ceiling is a losing game.

Do not overload the roller. A saturated long-nap roller on an overhead surface drips relentlessly, and every drip lands on something.

Stains, cracks and bathroom ceilings

Stains. Nicotine and old water marks bleed straight through emulsion, however many coats go on, because both are soluble and emulsion is water-based. The surface is washed down and then sealed with a solvent or shellac-based stain block. Only after that do the finish coats go on. Fix whatever caused a water stain first, obviously — sealing over an active leak just delays the conversation.

Cracks at the wall junction. Almost always seasonal movement rather than a defect. These want a flexible decorator’s caulk, not a hard filler, because a hard filler simply cracks again in the same line.

Cracks across the ceiling itself. A different matter. That suggests movement in the structure or a ceiling losing its grip, and it points toward over-boarding rather than another coat of paint.

Bathroom ceilings. Texture holds moisture and grows mould in the valleys. Wash down with a fungicidal cleaner, let it work, then use a moisture-resistant bathroom emulsion rather than standard matt. And check the extractor fan actually extracts, because no paint fixes a ventilation problem.

What actually changes the decision

People usually arrive with one of the three options already in mind. These are the things that tend to change it.

• The age of the coating. Pre-2000 pushes you firmly toward over-painting or skimming, both of which leave it alone.
• The condition of the ceiling. Sound and flat means you have all three options. Cracked or moving narrows it to one.
• What is above it. Plasterboard behaves predictably. An older lath and plaster ceiling is a different proposition and worth establishing early.
• Room height. In a cottage with low ceilings, twelve millimetres of board plus skim is worth measuring before committing.
• How the room is used. Bathrooms and kitchens put moisture into texture. Flat ceilings are simply easier to keep clean in both.
• Whether you are selling. A textured ceiling reads as dated to a buyer walking round. A flat one does not read at all, which is the point.

When to call a professional — and which one

Honestly, painting an intact textured ceiling is well within reach as a DIY job. Long nap roller, cross-rolling, an extra coat, patience with the cutting in. It is hard on the neck and it takes longer than you think, but it is not skilled work.

Skimming over and over-boarding are not. Both are plastering trades, and a skim over an existing texture is less forgiving than skimming a fresh board — it is not a job to learn on your own living room ceiling.

Where our own line sits: we paint textured ceilings, we seal and make good, and we arrange skimming or over-boarding with a plasterer where that is the better answer. We do not remove textured coatings, and we do not sand a ceiling whose age nobody can establish. If a ceiling needs testing before anything happens, we will say so and stop there.

Frequently asked questions