How much does it cost to get rid of an Artex ceiling in Teesside?

£300 to £600 per room in 2026 across the three routes, with skimming over at the lower end and over-boarding or full removal towards the top. Booking several rooms in one visit brings the per-room price down.

Does my Artex contain asbestos?

It might if it went up before 2000, and the only way to know is a laboratory test on a small sample. Left undisturbed and skimmed over, a bound coating is not a hazard. Sanding or scraping it without knowing is the thing to avoid.

Can Artex be skimmed over directly?

Usually yes. Light patterns take a sealer and two coats of finish. Deep, sharp patterns are knocked back gently or built out with a bonding coat first so the finish sits flat rather than following the swirls.

Will the ceiling look completely flat afterwards?

Skimming over gives a flat, paintable surface but it still follows the shape of the ceiling underneath. If the ceiling itself dips or has cracked along the joists, over-boarding is the option that resets it.

Artex removal and skim-over in Teesside

Dealing with an Artex ceiling in Teesside costs £300 to £600 per room in 2026, whichever route you take. Skimming over is usually the cheapest and least disruptive, over-boarding is the surest, and scraping off is the one that raises asbestos questions on anything applied before 2000.

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Flat white painted ceiling with plain coving and a pendant light

Why so many Teesside ceilings are swirled

Textured coatings were everywhere in the seventies and eighties, and the estates built or refurbished across Billingham, Thornaby, Redcar and east Middlesbrough in that period are full of them. Swirls, stipples, fans and combed patterns went up in hallways, lounges and bedrooms, and they were sold as a way to cover an uneven ceiling without a plasterer. Two generations later they read as dated, they collect dust, and they make a room feel lower than it is.

The three ways out

Skim over: the pattern is knocked back with a scraper or bonded with a sealer, then two coats of finish plaster go over the top. Cheapest, quickest and it does not disturb the coating, so it is generally the recommended route on pre-2000 ceilings. Heavy, deep patterns may need a bonding coat first.
Over-board: new plasterboard screwed through the coating into the joists, then taped and skimmed. Costs more and drops the ceiling by about half an inch, but it gives a dead flat result and leaves the old surface sealed behind it.
Scrape or steam off: the coating removed back to the original surface. The dirtiest and slowest option, and the one with the asbestos question attached, but the right call where the ceiling is failing anyway or the room needs the height.

The asbestos question, plainly

Textured coatings made before 2000 can contain a small amount of chrysotile asbestos, and Artex reformulated during the eighties and nineties. In a bound coating, left alone, it is not a risk to live with. The risk comes from sanding, scraping or drilling it and putting fibres into the air. That is precisely why skimming over is the usual professional recommendation for older ceilings: nothing is disturbed. If removal is genuinely needed, the honest sequence is to have a sample tested by a laboratory first, then follow the result. HSE guidance treats textured coating removal as non-licensed work with controls, and no quote should breeze past that conversation.

What moves the price

Room area and ceiling height first, then the depth of the pattern, since a heavy fan swirl takes real effort to knock back before anything else happens. The route you choose changes the figure: over-boarding adds board and screws, removal adds time, sheeting and disposal. Doing several rooms together drops the per-room price noticeably. Where the ceiling is also cracked or sagging, over-boarding often works out better value than skimming, and that overlaps with the dry lining page. The Artex options guide compares all three side by side.