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Artex is a type of interior surface coating, similar to plaster. It’s used to create decorative textured finishes on ceilings and walls, so it takes longer to dry than plaster.

Artex is actually a brand name, but it’s used to refer to similar products made by other manufacturers too. It was particularly popular in the 1970s, but is still used to create attractive wall and ceiling finishes today.

Cutting a plasterboard is a relatively simple process requiring only some basic tools. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge serves as big deterrent for many people who wishes to put it to good use. Plasterboard can actually be sawn using an ordinary timber saw that’s fine-toothed to get a cleaner edge. However, the basic tools you may also need includes a sharp knife (Stanley Knife), pencil, a fine sandpaper, a straight edge and measurement tape as well as a wall board saw. Let’s have a look at the cutting process!

✓ Firstly, you need to put the plasterboard sheet flat on a firm surface.

✓ Use the tape measurement to measure the cut you wish to make.

✓ With the help of a pencil, simply mark out the part you wish to cut on the plasterboard’s front side.

✓ Once marked, place a spirited level over the marked spot on the plasterboard sheet you want to cut.

✓ Cut a shallow mark into the plasterboard sheet using the Stanley Knife to cut along the edge.

✓ The cut should be slow and gradual to ensure you do not wander off the edge of the marked area.

✓ Once the shallow cut has been made, turn the plasterboard sheet on its edge and deliver a quick and sharp push towards the plasterboard’s back and on one side of the cut.

✓ Place the plasterboard sheet backing against a flat surface ensuring the line of the cut is over an edge. Once done, give a quick and sharp push towards the back of the plasterboard sheet and on the part of the board is reaches beyond the edge.

✓ Using a fine sandpaper, remove all forms of paper burrs.

The process of cutting plasterboard requires a lot of practice. If you lack the training and experience, the cutting process is best left to a proficient professional who can guarantee the best results the first time and save you some additional costs due to potential damages.

Installing a plasterboard on your ceiling is a cool way to modernize your property. Over the past couple of decades, there has bee an increasing number of trends associated with plastering of both walls and ceilings such as rounded edges and textured plaster. However, in recent times, home and property owners are now looking to install more of sharp edges. If you’re planning to plaster your ceiling, you’d probably want to know just how much this project is going to cost. If yes, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll give you a rough estimate of ceiling plastering costs.

There are a plethora of factors the can influence the price of plastering your ceiling. These pricing components includes the following:

✓ Size. As you would have expected, the larger the job, the more the overall cost. However, the price per square metre will reduce which means that the cost of plastering a small ceiling space will cost more per square metre than the cost of plastering a larger ceiling space per square metre.

✓ Materials. We have a wide range of plasterboard available in the market. If you need a fire retardant, acoustic or other types of specialist plasterboard, you can expect to pay higher than standard plasterboards.

✓ Location. Just like many other home improvement projects, the cost of plastering ceiling varies greatly throughout the UK. Places such as London and the South East have the highest prices due to the high standard of living as well as greater demands.

In general, to plaster a ceiling (small 2 m x 2 m) - overboard and plaster will cost within the range of £200 to about £300. Also, to plaster a ceiling (large 5 m x 6 m) - overboard and plaster will cost within the range of £400 to about £600. The average plasterer’s daily rate (including material) is about £180 to £300 and ceiling plastering cost per square metre ranges between £20 to £40.

Although they’re pretty much outdated now, artex happens to be a very popular surface coating option just a few decades ago. Several homeowners with artex in recent times would either want to have them removed or cover them up with stuffs such as a wallpaper. So if you’re wondering whether or not it’s possible to wallpaper over artex, then there you have it. It’s possible to wallpaper over artex, however it’s not advisable as wallpaper may eventually crack over time. On the other hand, the artex can also create ridges beneath the wallpaper which allows unpleasant protrusions in the wallpaper. Instead of applying wallpaper over artex, a more permanent solution would be to cover it with drywall or wet plaster or perhaps just have it removed completely.

There are two types of wallpaper, there’s the thin wallpaper application which comes with adhesive on one side as well as a pattern or colour on the other side. With this, all you need do is simply to peel and stick. Then the other type is the sturdier wallpaper that’s more thick and requires a special wallpaper paste. However, it’s important to note that if you choose to wallpaper over your artex, you won’t be able to make use of the thin type of wallpaper, rather you’ll have to incorporate the sturdier  option which makes use of wallpaper paste.

The wallpaper paste is the product you mix with water to produce a paste which you’ll have to apply to your walls before applying the applying the regular wallpaper - one without adhesive on one side. Appling wallpaper to an artex decoration may just give you the updated appearance you so much desire.

Plasterboard or drywall is simply gypsum plaster covered from both sides by thick paper layers. It’s known to be a highly versatile product used on both interior walls and ceiling as a result of its numerous advantages. This popular material in residential buildings can be designed to be fire resistant, humidity resistant and noise resistant. They have a low impact on the environment, while also being quite easy to repair and perfect to hide stuffs from plain sight. Most home and property owners in the UK have this material installed in their space as despite the multiple benefits, they’re also quite affordable. However, if you’re thinking about installing a plasterboard on your ceiling, one challenge you’re likely to face is determining the appropriate plasterboard thickness to incorporate as this make or mar your entire project. In this post, we’re going to take a look at the right plasterboard thickness for ceiling so as to help you make an informed decision moving forward. Let’s take a look!

Firstly, let’s consider the size of the plasterboard sheet. The standard plasterboard sheet size is 120 cm in width and within the range of 180 cm to 360 cm in height. These sizes are designed to provide the much-needed support to the standard stud spacing which is 160 cm. Depending on the manufacturer, plasterboard can be in four different widths. Now talking about the thickness, there are two standard thicknesses of plasterboard - 9.5 mm and 12.5 mm. The sizes of plasterboard for ceilings are 9.5 mm or 10 mm. Most individuals tend to assume that the thicker the plasterboard the better, but this is absolutely false. A thicker plasterboard will only stick harder to the ceiling which will make it hard to seal joints if required.

Can You Plaster Over WallPaper?

If you have wallpaper installed on your wall surface and you’re considering plastering the wall, when you put into consideration the stress involved in removing a wallpaper you may want to consider plastering directly over the wallpaper. This is quite understandable as removing a wallpaper can be quite time consuming and tedious, but plastering directly over wallpaper is a mistake that should never be made. Plastering over wallpaper is in no way a viable option due to the fact that it can only turn out disastrous after a couple of weeks or even days in some cases as the plaster will crack and crumble. As a result, you’ll have to firstly scrape off the wallpaper in order to assist the plaster get to be firmly secured to the wall behind.

When you plaster over a wallpaper, this will make the wallpaper wet and it’ll absorb the moisture. And once the plaster does not have moisture, the only result is for it to crack and start to crumble. Hence, plaster and wallpaper is never a good combination.

Asides from cracking and crumbling, anther issue is that the wallpaper will bubble. You can actually key the wallpaper with the help of a knife and it might look secured for some time, however it’ll eventually crumble and you’d have to scrape off the plaster complete to start all over again. The wallpaper will bubble as the plaster can’t be keyed into a wallpaper and the wallpaper will only work as a barrier between the plaster and the wall.

Overall, plaster always needs to slowly dry off as well as a good and proper surface to grip to. No matter the amount of PVA mix you spread on the wallpaper, it will always remain a barrier. So you’d have to remove the wallpaper completely to get a great result.

Artex simply refers to a surface coating that’s commonly incorporated for interior decorating. Although it’s usually found on ceilings but it can also be used on the walls as well. The surface coating enables the professional plasterer or decorator add both texture as well as patterns to it. Originally, the name “Artex is the trademark of a UK based company known as Artex Ltd. Over time, the Artex name has been used to refer to all textured coatings, although there are other businesses that manufacture and sell identical products.

You can find Artex on ceilings as well as walls of mainly residential properties. In the 70’s and 80’s, it was pretty much a trend to have either your wall or ceiling ( can be both ) covered with Artex. The surface coating can be incorporated to create raised, textured swirls as well as patterns on ceiling and walls. There are a number of different patterns that can be made using Artex and some of these includes the following: Broken leather, swirl, stipple, fan or shell as well as knifed plaster. It can also provide just a bobbly raised uneven patter appearance from top to bottom.

Artex is main put to use by mainly decorators ( mostly plasterers). This is a skilled job as it’s tedious to create uninformed patterns especially if you don’t know how or where to start. Although the skill of Artex is very much a trade that’s dying rapidly now, but it was pretty much in high demand especially in the 70’s and 80’s. Nowadays, homeowners now prefer smooth plastered finishes over Artex, as they can be easily painted or wallpapered.

The short and simple answer to this question is, it depends. Artex surface coating was manufactured with white abestos ( until the mid 1980’s ) in order to strengthen as well as harden it. In other words, this implies that all the ceilings and walls coverings made by Artex Ltd and other manufactures at the time are highly likely to contain asbestos. Although Artex Ltd stopped using asbestos as early as the mid 1980’s, there were still other manufacturers who continued using it until 1999 when the laws and regulations covering the use of asbestos changed in the year 2000.

Asbestos, however, is only harmful when disturbed and releases its deadly fibres. For instance, when it’s being sanded and removed as it usually poses no risks when left undisturbed. Since it’s not possible to identify Artex containing asbestos fibres with the naked eye, it’s strongly recommended that you hire the services of a qualified person or company to help determine if you have asbestos in your ceilings or walls especially if your house was constructed before the year 2000. The professionals will be able to advise you on the best course of action as well as if it’s dangerous.

To be sure if your Artex contains asbestos, you’ll need to have the artex sampled by an asbestos surveyor. If you’re planning to have a construction or maintenance work done on your property, and the artex is likely to be in the way or disturbed, there’s a need for you to have a refurbishment or demolition asbestos survey done. This will ensure that all the areas that’ll be disturbed by the work is properly tested to determine the presence or otherwise of asbestos. If found, the artex will have to be addressed and either removed or protected before any work can take place.