One of the common questions that comes up when you’re selling your house is it worth removing artex ceilings? Here’s the thing; when you want to sell your house, in most cases the aim is to make profit. This often means doing all you can to ensure your home appeals to prospective buyers. As such, you’ll immerse yourself into doing everything that will contribute towards improving the value of your home before listing it on the property market.

The presence or absence of certain features on your property will make a difference to how attractive your property will be. This means by removing, adding or making a change to these features, you directly influence the size of offers you’ll receive and most importantly how fast you’ll sell. Artex ceilings are one such feature that we explore in this article.

In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about artex ceilings and their impact when you want to sell your house. That is, how does the presence or absence of artex ceilings affect how desirable your home will be to buyers? But first, let’s begin by understanding what artex ceilings are.

What are artex ceilings?

Interestingly, Artex is a brand name with a history that goes all the way back to 1935. The company produces building supplies with a specialty in surface coating and plastering materials. Artex is also synonymous with a decorating technique with the name referring to this style.

The most common use of the term ‘artex’ refers to the method of incorporating texture on ceilings with special plastering products. There are varied styles to choose from fan shapes to wavy lines, swirls, swipes, stipples, knifed plaster, roses, scrolls and more.

Artex ceilings rose to prominence because they are easy for DIY-ers hence considered a money saver because you don’t have to pay a professional to do it for you. Artex ceilings were popular through the mid to late twentieth century. Artex ceilings were a common feature in just about every home in the UK between the 1970s and in the early 1980s.

Can you Sell your House with Artex Ceilings?

Before we even talk about selling a house with artex ceilings, perhaps the best place to start is finding out whether artex ceilings are still sought after or they’re simply an old-fashioned trend for UK houses.

The truth is artex ceilings are not a trend anymore – but it doesn’t mean you can’t sell. Today’s home buyers find artex ceilings to be a major turn off. You see, they’re associated with As such, if you opt to sell your house with this ceiling then you will not only find it difficult to sell but also receive disappointing offers. While you may be tempted to think artex ceilings easily pass for charming vintage quirk, it may shock you to know that artex is synonymous with outdated décor. As such, prospective buyers find it to be problematic on a listing or during viewing and will be discouraged from pursuing further details.

The reason is simple; buyers anticipate the amount of work involved, how much it’ll cost and the hassle that will go into it in a bid to remove the feature.

Does Artex Ceilings Devalue a House?

It’s important to know that the aesthetic value of artex isn’t the big issue rather, it’s the fact that the product that is used for texturing contains hazardous material – asbestos. This was used to harden and strengthen it. Although Artex discontinued the use of asbestos in mid-80s, other companies continued using it until when the use of asbestos became illegal in 2000.

When selling your house, you need to remove artex ceilings because asbestos can be quite harmful when disturbed. However, you can use artex removal gel that minimises the chances of exposure to dust particles containing asbestos. With very few buyers showing interest in purchasing a house with artex ceilings, most homeowners who intend to sell would rather remove it. If anything, there’s a high chance this makeover will increase interest in the house from potential buyers. This may also have a positive impact on the value of your house.

Do you Need to Remove Artex Ceilings?

Given the reasons discussed above, it’s important to remove artex ceilings before attempting to sell your house. However, you don’t have to if you have convincing evidence that your artex ceiling is free of asbestos. Should you opt to remove your artex ceilings because of the presence of asbestos then you must make sure you do it in a manner that won’t pose a potential health hazard to you or even the buyer.

If you’re not sure whether you should remove the coating on your own, you should arrange to get an expert to test the artex or conduct a full asbestos survey on your home.

How to Deal with Artex Ceilings

If you’re a DIY-er, you can actually remove the artex coating yourself using a good scraper or wallpaper steamer. Even then, you must not attempt to remove your artex ceiling when you’re unsure about the presence of asbestos.

Here are ways of handling artex ceilings if you want to sell your house fast.

1.     Cover artex ceilings

You don’t have to remove your artex ceilings if they don’t contain asbestos. Instead you can cover them to hide to restore the appeal of your ceilings. If your ceiling is in good condition, you can plaster it instead of removing it. This could cost you about £20 per square metre when you get a specialist to do it making it cost effective. This option comes with less remedial work compared to artex ceiling removal. Alternatively, you can also introduce a plasterboard for an artex ceiling that has asbestos. However, it must be in good condition to avoid getting in contact with asbestos.

2.     Remove artex ceilings

If your artex ceilings contain asbestos, you need to contact a specialist to remove it for you. You must not attempt to remove it yourself. A quick search on the internet will lead you to an artex removal company. These companies use artex removal gel to rid your house of artex asbestos thus paving the way for the sale process. On average professional artex ceiling removal cost UK is £17.50 per square metre.

3.     Make your artex ceiling look good

If your artex ceiling doesn’t have asbestos, you could opt to keep it but improve the appearance rather than spend money on removal. One of the ways of making your ceiling look good is by painting your artex ceiling with a roller because the paint will perfectly adhere to the coating. Even then, this may not hide the texture that is synonymous with artex. You can also use some specialist pre-mixed powdered fillers to smoothen rugged surfaces. This usually works well with subtle textures.

Do you Have to Declare Asbestos When Selling a House?

If you want to sell your house but you suspect the ceiling may contain asbestos, it’s important that you disclose this information to your solicitor. You’ll do this by indicating the information on the TA6 form. The buyer’s legal representative must know this information.

That being said, you don’t have to panic because it is possible to sell a house with artex ceilings. Even then, you must keep in mind that a house with an artex ceiling will attract lower offers compared to those without. As such, houses with an artex ceiling are attractive for house hunters that want to get it for a lower price and fix it because they’ll argue about the cost of removing the ceiling.

Is it Illegal to Sell a House With Artex Ceilings in the UK?

The short answer is no.

It’s not illegal to sell a house with asbestos in the UK. However, as mentioned above if you know your house has asbestos then make sure you disclose it to potential buyers. As long as the materials with asbestos are in good condition all you have to do is comply with the requirements of asbestos disclosure when selling property.

In the case where the material is damaged and is likely to pose a threat to human health, the situation is unclear. You’ll have to engage a specialist removal company to remove all the asbestos containing materials that includes artex ceilings. This means you must be prepared to take care of the bill.

What you Must Know about Asbestos in Artex Ceilings

The Health and Safety Executive offers many resources that help builders and homeowners to deal with any artex surface coverings and any other features with asbestos in the home. So, whether you have artex ceilings in the bathroom, kitchen or living room, the first thing you must do is to determine if the coat if it contains asbestos. This means you must arrange to have it tested. If it is confirmed that your artex ceiling contains asbestos the next thing you need to do is find a professional to come and remove it. If your artex ceiling doesn’t contain asbestos you can remove it yourself. Alternatively, you may want to have your ceiling plastered, painted, overboarded or skimmed using a smoothing filler.

How Do you Sell a House with Artex Ceilings?

The truth is that it can be too difficult to sell a house with artex ceilings particularly if they also possess a potential hazard to health like asbestos. If you’re struggling to find a suitable buyer for your house, you may want to avoid estate agencies and instead consider quick house buying companies. A fast home buying company will buy your house despite the presence of artex ceilings or any décor that is outdated. With a quick house sale company, you can complete the sale of your house in 30 days or as little as one week. The only difference is that you’ll not receive an average of 85% of the value of your property. However, they will take care of agency charges and solicitors’ fees.

If you want to sell your home with artex ceilings you can get in touch with Ready Steady Sell today. We will purchase your home within a short period setting the stage for you to purchase a new home.

Conclusion

If you want to sell your house for a tidy sum, you certainly want to invest in improving it to bump up its value before you can list it on the open market or list it at an auction. This is because you want it to appeal to prospective buyers so you can sell it fast. One of the things you must pay attention to are features that are present yet they can have a significant negative impact on the appeal and value of your property like artex ceilings. Yes, you can sell your home with artex ceilings however, now that you know about the difference artex ceilings can have on your property, you can opt to foot the cost of artex removal UK or sell your house to a home buying company.